LAC's Outcomes - Grad School Admissions

College Search & Lists
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Any ideas on how to compare colleges in terms of graduate school admissions ? For example, my daughter is planning to major in Economics/ Math Econ in undergrad and then explore a Masters In Public Policy or a Econ PhD.
How do different LAC’s (eg Colgate, Hamilton, University of Richmond, William & Mary, Lafayette) compare in terms of preparing students for grad school admissions ?
Which ones have the best outcomes in terms of admits to top ranked/ Ivy League grad programs ?
How would they compare to research based undergrad like UMichigan or Wisconsin-Madison

Any ideas on how to find this data ? Would college admissions offices have this info ? There’s a lot of information on career outcomes - employers, salary etc, but haven’t found any good sources for grad school admission outcomes

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The only accurate way of measuring this is to calculate how many people in a particular department applied to graduate programs and were successful. Unfortunately, very few (if any!) colleges make this sort of information publicly available.

It is particularly difficult to compare LACs in this regard. Many of their departments are relatively small to begin with, and only a small number of students in each major apply to PhD programs. Is a LAC that produces 4 PhD students over the last couple of years noticeably better than one that produced 3? It’s hard to say.

All of the schools you listed are rigorous and reputable, and a student who does well at any of those should have an excellent shot at good graduate programs.

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Here is some phd data showing undergrad institution, sortable in a number of different ways.

The National Science Foundation is the source data, so if you look there you might find masters level data too.

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Schools with active faculty scholarship in economics should be of interest to students who would like to pursue graduate school in this field. Colleges ranked in the top ~20 in this analysis should be considered strongly:

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html

Schools from this group with especially rigorous math programs should receive additional consideration.

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For economics + math, with the possibility of PhD study in economics later, consider the following (LAC or otherwise):

  • How math intensive are the intermediate micro and macro economics and econometrics courses? The most math intensive list multivariable calculus and/or linear algebra as prerequisites. Moderately math intensive list single variable calculus as prerequisites. The least math intensive do not have a calculus prerequisite.
  • What elective upper level economics courses are offered, particularly mathematical economics courses?
  • Are upper level math and statistics courses like real analysis, linear algebra, and calculus-based probability theory readily available?
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Admissions to T10 econ Phd programs largely hinge on:

  1. Extremely strong, highly laudatory recommendation letters from Econ Profs whose research is known and respected by the institutions receiving the recommendations. The more well known the recommender, and the more positive the recommendation the better.

  2. Two Year Pre-doc RA position, preferably at a central Bank (in US: The Federal Reserve) with a laudatory recommendation from a known economist doing respected research.

  3. Superb GRE scores and undergrad GPA are necessary but not at all sufficient without 1) and 2) at the T10 econ Phd programs, that is particularly so at the T3 (MIT, Harvard, Stanford) where superb stats are a given. Also expected are solid math chops with classes at least through Real Analysis

Undergrad institution matters to the extent that the econ/math departments are staffed by Profs who are doing top level research which will make their recommendations of value to the profs on the admissions committees.

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In their paper, “Economics Research at National Liberal Arts Colleges,” Hartley and Robinson commented on the importance of faculty to the undergraduate student experience:

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Thanks, this is great data. Large differences (at least in PhD outcomes), adjusting for #of Econ undergrads at each school. William & Mary looks really good, even compared to research powerhouses like UMich. This obviously isn’t the only factor as others have called out, but very useful to have specific data to compare

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Note that there is some student self selection. At some colleges, economics is a substitute for a business major for many students, while this is less common at other colleges.

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OP: You noted 5 schools as LACs (liberal arts colleges) in the thread starter. Among the 5 listed schools is the College of William & Mary (about 6,300 undergraduate students) which is a National University–not an LAC.

P.S. Your daughter should consider Williams College based on her academic interests.

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Has your daughter considered majoring in public policy (which blends economics with political science and philosophy) as an undergraduate?

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OP: With respect to LACs and grad school admissions, there are several academic powerhouses that will prepare one for advanced study:

Williams College, Amherst College, Bates College, Swarthmore, Haverford, Wellesley (all female), Carleton College, and many others.

Five LACs which your daughter should consider are: Carleton College in Minnesota, Williams College in Massachusetts, Hamilton College in New York, & Claremont McKenna College in California & Pomona College in California which is close to CMC (Claremont McKenna College).

P.S. I do not consider the University of Richmond to be in the same “academic powerhouse” category as are the 5 schools which I have suggested. Nevertheless, U of Richmond offers a major–Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and the Law–which may be of interest to your daughter.