This is my first discussion, but I had to create it out of frustration.
I’m a junior, and a lot of the people at my school already know what school they want to go to- Mostly Harvard and other Ivies.
Since I’m a pretty good student I thought I would want to go to those kinds of places too, but they just seem too big for me!
A little bit of info about me:
-I transferred from a private high school of about 400 to a public high school with a student population around 2500. This wasn’t by choice, since the private high school was very strong academically and had a very academic vibe (Many kids went to Ivies), as well as feeling open and friendly. At the new school everyone seems disinterested in talking with those outside those groups, and I’m a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of people here.
-I’m struggling a bit academically. My weighted GPA is over a 4 but unweighted is another story (not terrible, but I expect 4.0), and I’m taking 4 AP’s this year. My SAT score is usually around 1460. I’m looking to improve to at least 1500
-I think I want to major in Economics. I took at summer course at Brown University which studied macroeconomics, and I enjoyed it very much. The problem is that I can’t seem to find a small college that has a good economics program
TL;DR: Motivated student looking for economics focused selective small schools, can’t seem to find any with a good vibe.
Are you looking at LACs? They seem like a good fit from what you are saying. Do you have a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges? It is a good starting point.
Amherst College
Carleton College
Colby College
Colgate University
College of William and Mary
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Denison University
Haverford College
Macalester College
Middlebury College
Oberlin College
Reed College
University of Richmond
Swarthmore College
Wesleyan University
Define “good economics program”. Do you mean one with a strong pre-professional emphasis and good recruiting by Wall Street, consulting, and similar “elite” employers? Or a more traditional liberal arts emphasis with high math content for preparation for PhD study in economics?
Among the elite LACs, Claremont McKenna is the one in which economics comes closest to assuming center stage in the curriculum. (Fans of the school maintain that it has excellent faculty in fields other than econ and polisci, and they also note that CMC students can also enroll in courses at Pomona in the other members of the 5Cs consortium.) Williams is noted for its econ program, and its rich history and strong alumni base are said to provide a proverbial pipeline to Wall Street.
Colgate and Hamilton are not quite so difficult to gain admittance to, and both are known as launching pads for careers in finance.
Of course, economics is bound to be a fairly strong department at any highly ranked LAC–though in today’s political environment, not every campus will have an overall vibe or culture that is friendly towards the career tracks that econ majors typically pursue. Hence if you are considering a range of well regarded LACs, you should probably worry more about your overall “fit” at a school than about the relative strength of that school’s econ department.
I just want to say hang in there with the new school. My junior ds did the same this year - left private school of 400 and now at public school with 1400 students. My heart broke because I think for the first three days nobody spoke to him and he didn’t even have a locker assignment. Sat at lunch alone too. Slowly it is getting better and he is meeting a few kids in a couple of classes. I now appreciate teachers who do group work because it allows and forces interaction. Without it, when it is just lecture, the kids are not able to talk to one another. He says the same thing…the kids are set in their groups and don’t extend themselves. I just wanted to share this so you know you are not the only junior in this situation. My son has a great personality, is mature and independent so I know he will be ok and you will too. As far as colleges people here have given you some great lists. Just go on visits and see what you think. I think a good place to start is geographic preference (urban, isolated, woven within town or “stand alone”) and size (huge university or smaller). But it will probably take visits to help figure that out. Economics is pretty innocuous and its just undergrad so you have a lot of options with that major. I don’t mean to diminish undergrad but really it is just the beginning of higher education.
So: Fall Semester of Junior year, you expect to have an UW GPA of 4.0 and an SAT of 1500, and this is struggling? It’s not. Those two components (GPA/SAT), if attained, are not what will keep you out of Brown, Williams, Claremont-McKenna, etc. It will probably be your essay and recommendations, and possibly ECs. And probably just plain luck. Make sure you spend time on your essay next semester, and in the meantime try to be a good,well-rounded person and make yourself known (for good reasons) to your teachers.
All of the suggestions on this thread so far (esp. including getting the Fiske Guide) are good ones. If you have looked at these schools and determined that they are not suitable for some reason, let us know.
Also, do not look at the “top x schools for econ” lists out there. Most of them rank graduate programs, which smaller schools generally don’t have. That’s why they may not be “known” for having strong econ programs.
To be clear for the OP, not all lists are for graduate econ programs. Merc81’s referenced “Economics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges,” IDEAS, includes only undergraduate programs.
Note, however, that even when this list is cross-referenced with schools with graduate departments (“US Economics Departments,” IDEAS) in a non-normalized ranking, some of the LACs still perform commendably well.
OP, having been in a smaller school and a larger one, you already have some valuable insights into what kind of environment you might like. Think about what you liked about your last school. Was it the sense of community? Small classes? That could help you figure out where you’d like to go for college – even among the LACs – and you have a valuable reference point many of your peers do not. So while you’re feeling a little like a fish out of water in your new school, it may be helpful to you moving forward.
As for economics departments, you may want to look at what classes the schools you’re thinking about offer, how frequently, and how easily you can couple economics with other things that interest you. It can have value for someone interested in everything from health care to public policy to hedge funds. Unless you get a graduate degree, economics is more of a framework for looking at issues than an end-point, so IMO, a great discipline to couple with something else.
You should also look at the requirements for a major. At many schools, the major is very math-heavy, and this can dissuade some students. Faculty publications are a great way to see what profs are interested in, but their interests may not mean a whole lot for your education (although it could mean that you may be able to do research with them later in your college career.) At many LACs, economics is one of the most popular majors, so when you get to the point of visiting schools next spring, you’ll usually be able to find a class to sit in on. Definitely do that!
Profs with PhD’s are quite capable of instructing undergrads at virtually any school. The limiting factor really are your fellow students; they can’t gear the level of the class higher than the average kid is capable of. Any “match” or “reach” school you get into is going to be just fine.
Also you should know that in the social sciences the degree that matters is a PhD. There are not really entry level jobs in the working world that look for someone with an Econ degree the way there is for a degree in something like Accounting, Engineering, Nursing, etc. Some seem to think of Econ as akin to a degree in business, but these are 2 separate curriculum so it is not equivalent.
My son majored in Econ at Dartmouth and got a great education. Dartmouth does have a graduate business school, and it is possible to take a class or two there while an undergrad. I know my son took an accounting course, for example. He and some of his fellow majors were hired by banks right out of college.