Top US Universities for undergraduate Economics

bitturiju · 11-03-2009, 01:22 AM

Can anyone list the top 10 universities for economics in the US? I don't really care if they are IVY league or not.

bluedog · 11-03-2009, 10:28 AM

The search feature is your friend...

Best undergraduate economics program

confidentialcoll · 11-03-2009, 12:59 PM

1) Chicago, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford
6) Columbia, Penn, Yale, Northwestern, UC Berkeley

two official rankings

USNEWS:
Rankings - Economics - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report

Academic Ranking of World Universities:
http://www.arwu.org/ARWUSubject2009E...csBusiness.jsp

in case this link does not work the top schools are:

1. Harvard
2. Chicago
3. MIT
4. Columbia
5. Stanford
6. Berkeley
7. Princeton
8. U Penn
9. NYU
10. Yale
11. CMU
12. Northwestern

RML · 11-03-2009, 01:06 PM

For undergrad prestige in Economics:

Harvard
MIT, Princeton, Stanford
Yale, Chicago, Berkeley
Northwestern, NYU, Columbia, Penn

hawkette · 11-03-2009, 02:44 PM

bitt,
Why?

Why do you want an Economics degree? What are you hoping it does for you? If you can answer that, then one can likely give you a far more helpful answer than a listing of colleges based on unspecified factors.

Things like undergrad prestige are useful if you are thinking of a career in academia, but it is mostly meaningless in the real world. Instead, the real world cares about quality of the individual and his/her learning path. The real world can also be very much influenced by things like collegiate links to various industries/companies are very meaningful in the real world.

Which are you looking for? Academia or the real world?

UCBChemEGrad · 11-03-2009, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Instead, the real world cares about quality of the individual and his/her learning path. The real world can also be very much influenced by things like collegiate links to various industries/companies are very meaningful in the real world.

Which are you looking for? Academia or the real world?

Hawkette, I think all the schools previously listed would provide an education the real world would find meaningful.

kwu · 11-03-2009, 03:49 PM

Rankings - Economics - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report

There is a dramatic drop in Peer Assessment scores between Northwestern and UPenn.

1. Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley, Yale, Northwestern
2. Penn, Columbia, Minnesota, NYU, Michigan ... etc.

Graduate school rankings are indicators of the strength of the undergraduate program.

btw, RML, if you're not going to bother including Minnesota and Michigan, then don't bother including Berkeley. Yes, all three are state schools, and therefore none of their undergraduate colleges are prestigious.

UCBChemEGrad · 11-03-2009, 04:03 PM

kwu,

Quote:

There is a dramatic drop in Peer Assessment scores between Northwestern and UPenn.

Graduate school rankings are indicators of the strength of the undergraduate program.

I think you addressed your concern as to why Berkeley was included in RML's list over Michigan and Minnesota.

hawkette · 11-03-2009, 05:12 PM

Ucb,
I agree with you and didn't mean for my comments/questions to come off as demeaning to those listed. Of course, they're all going to be recognized in the real world, but the differences among graduates with economic degrees are probably tiny for many, many colleges.

Based on what a student is looking for, myopically focusing on a Top 10 list for Economics could be just....well...dumb. Do you really think that a student from a place like Georgetown is going to be seen that dramatically different from a student at Duke or U Virginia or Columbia or Rice or Vandy or UC Berkeley or Northwestern or U Penn or Notre Dame or any number of other schools? I don't. Those schools may offer different advantages as to how to access certain industries/employers, but the quality of their top graduates do not differ greatly.

My point is that the employers are looking for the good people, many of which might attend colleges that have good Econ programs, but which are aren't tagged with academia's silly Good Housekeeping seal of approval. For jobs outside of academia, do yourself a favor and don't place too much weight on things like PA scores. It's about you (the student) and not about the school and its program.

College Yahoo · 11-03-2009, 05:17 PM

kwu

Quote:

Yes, all three are state schools, and therefore none of their undergraduate colleges are prestigious.

huh....

Berkeley and Michigan are certainly prestigious despite being public. Where do you get that logic from?

UCBChemEGrad · 11-03-2009, 05:36 PM

Hawkette, thanks for the clarification. Of course I agree that many other more important factors need to be considered before making a choice.

However, academic's "good housekeeping seal of approval" can provide an appropriate starting point for a search.

We don't know if the top ten is too limiting for the OP but that's what was asked.

hawkette · 11-03-2009, 05:43 PM

ucb,
Whenever I see these Top 10 lists, I get a little frustrated because it creates inaccurate, misleading elitism and doesn't recognize the fact that there are little to no differences in the quality of students/quality of education at far more than 10 schools for a subject like Economics.

RML · 11-03-2009, 11:44 PM

Quote:

RML, if you're not going to bother including Minnesota and Michigan, then don't bother including Berkeley. Yes, all three are state schools, and therefore none of their undergraduate colleges are prestigious.

LoL... Sorry; but I can't help but laugh at what kwu just said.

Ladies and gentlemen, maybe our friend, kwu, has a different meaning of the word, "prestige". He equates prestige to private schools. Therefore, according to his logic, Cambridge, Oxford, Sorbonne-Paris, LSE or UC Berkeley aren't prestigious and would never be because they're state funded insitutions. But schools like Oral Roberts University, Spalding University or Nova Southeastern University are prestigious because they are private institutions.

lol

RML · 11-03-2009, 11:47 PM

hawlette,

if we would just disregard the "real top 10" for economics according to PA or prestige, we would end up listing thousands of schools that offer good economics program.

bitturiju · 11-04-2009, 03:54 AM

Well, I would definitely want to enter a prestigious university. I want to enter Investment Banking...which universities do top notch Investment Banks such as Goldman Sachs recruit individuals from?