My wife has an econ degree. She thought it was interesting, but useless for getting a job. People with econ degrees are a dime-a-dozen. She didn’t go to Princeton or Wharton, though.
When I worked on Wall Street, people with economics degrees were often the subject of joking derision. Apparently, the feeling was econ majors didn’t learn anything practical. The recommendation was to do finance, instead.
Not, though, that courses in topics such as corporate finance, financial economics, international finance and financial econometrics will often be available within economics departments.
He has interest in finance and at first wanted to go for a business program but most people advised against it for undergrad. He may go for an MBA instead of PhD but it’s too early to decide.
By the way, I understand splitting hairs between MIT, Princeton and U Chicago but question was to related to an early decision choice.
For a finance professional career, HYP, Wharton, and to some degree Columbia are viewed as core schools. The other top 20-25 schools are traditionally viewed as target schools. Wharton and Columbia are ED schools, whereas HYP are SCEA schools.
With respect to a possible future MBA, College Transitions lists these colleges as producing the greatest percentages of graduates who go on to “top-ranked” graduate business programs:
Amherst
Bates
Claremont McKenna
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Georgetown
Hamilton
Harvard
Middlebury
Northwestern
Pomona
Stanford
UChicago
UMichigan
UPennsylvania
U Southern California
Yale
Yeshiva
As with other information, review the analysis for both methodology (available by search) and relevance to your son’s situation and preferences.
Harvard Business School, btw, offers an undergraduate business certificate through a partnership with several colleges (including Harvard College), which may be of interest as a complement to an economics degree:
With respect to job prospects for Econ majors, my son is a Junior at a Little Ivy majoring in Econ and has had multiple internship offers from A-List companies his first two summers. So far he has three offers for his rising senior internship, two from NY investment banks and one from a massive hedge fund.
Would have the same offers majoring in history and playing lacrosse.
Among schools not mentioned anywhere as of yet on this thread, Brandeis would be worth a look.
@barrons Doubtful because the internships were only open to a group of majors. The only non-business, non-math majors were Econ and CS. However, you are correct that athletes have an edge.
Using data from the National Science Foundation, the following Institutions have the highest percentage of graduates who go on to earn a Ph.D. in economics.
Swarthmore
Williams
Reed
Macalester
Carleton
Amherst
Grinnell
Wellesley
Pomona
Wesleyan
Caltech
Centre
Princeton
Whitman
Davidson
Knox
Haverford
Ohio Wesleyan
MIT
Kalamazoo
Source College Transitions
The College Transitions lists represent a classic case of what logicians/statisticians call “selection bias”. A good quantitative economics program will help teach a person “rational thought” which will allow them to avoid that logical fallacy and become a better critical thinker. This abstract, but valuable skill is what makes an undergrad economics degree a more complementary foundation (than a undergraduate business degree) for the more concrete/applied skills taught in a graduate business program.
@Mastodon : You cannot rule out cause-and-effect relationships, which, if the case in any degree, would obviate most of your reasoning above (as well as call into question your stated view as to what constitutes rational versus irrational thought). With respect to proper interpretation in general, however, I think that some of the principles you have introduced should be considered among other factors.
@merc81 You are the one implying the cause and effect relationship. The burden of proof is on you. - You cannot do because of the possibility of selection effects.
The fact that you seem to believe that there is a cause and effect relationship and are suggesting that people should select their undergraduate college based on that belief is in fact strong evidence of the existence of selection effects.
OP’s need schools. Cited sources can offer ideas for further research. I wish I could write several paragraphs (as opposed to a sentence or two) regarding the limitations of available sources. However, in terms of the standards of an Internet forum – in which both complementary and contradictory posts often coexist – that should not be a role that I am expected to unilaterally engage.
Yes, I came to say both of these things.
Most rankings of economics “departments” (or departments in any field) are really rankings of PhD programs. Therefore, they take into consideration things that matter to doctoral students and not necessarily factors that are most important for undergrad students - and of course they ignore the contribution the rest of the school’s departments and amenities will have.
There are a lot of reasons why the proportion of students who go to Swarthmore, Williams, or Reed for undergrad is higher than the proportion from other schools. Some of this is likely due to the educational quality for sure. But some of it is due to sheer size (note that small liberal arts colleges dominate the list. That’s because of math - smaller numbers lead to greater proportions, and the decisions of just 2-5 students can greatly change the percentages at Swarthmore but not so much at Berkeley.) Socioeconomic status matters in a big way. Stuff like that.
Basically, most really good schools are going to have good to great economics departments. Some may be better than others in some ways, but all (especially in the tier you’re looking at) are going to offer great preparation for doctoral work in economics.
One consideration is that since he is super advanced in math he’s going to make sure that any college he picks has adequate offerings in math for him to keep going, but honestly, he doesn’t HAVE to go a whole lot farther. It would be helpful but not strictly necessary.
https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/undergrad/current/preparing-for-grad-school is a list of suggested course work for students planning to go on to PhD study in economics. Note the emphasis on higher level math and statistics courses. You can look at http://guide.berkeley.edu/courses/ for course descriptions and prerequisites, so that you can find out what courses at other schools would be rough equivalents.
If a researcher has evaluated for statistical significance, then both larger and smaller base numbers can lead, quite properly, to representative proportions.
@knownow re: Penn Wharton BS in Econ vs CAS BA Econ. Do not be fooled by the BS in Econ title of the Wharton degree, this is a business degree not an economics degree. The traditional economics degree is offered through CAS. Wharton has a BEPP concentration that is essentially a watered-down version of the traditional econ offered at CAS and is usually picked as a secondary concentration by Wharton kids.
Now you can still take many classes both at Wharton and CAS regardless of your major, but if your goal is Phd the traditional Econ major through CAS would serve you better because it will be more quant heavy and will give you the skills Phd programs are looking for. Or if you want to do Wharton but are still thinking of PhD make sure to supplement your curriculum with traditional Econ courses as well.
Now back to your original question, the tippy top economics schools have traditionally been Harvard and MIT. Stanford was getting a lot of buzz that it was rapidly catching up to those two, but not sure if it is actually considered exactly on par at this point. Probably not, but it is a close third.
Interesting information about his major, sending this link to my son.
Haverford College Economics. Students get into top firms and the very top investment banks. On par with the Ivy League schools in terms of prestidge but they actually focus on teaching! No TAs and you won’t learn from other students like at Ivy League schools. Haverford College also sends students to the very top MBA programs consistently such as Stanford, Harvard, and Wharton. Worth taking a look.