I’ve been offered admission to University of Washington and UW-Madison. I intend to major in Economics. I know both universities are great and highly ranked in academics, but I’m wondering which one is better, especially in Economics.
It is so hard for me to make a comparison since both unis are basically on the same level of academics. Maybe one uni is better than the other in terms of organizations, location, environment, etc?
I’ve also been accepted by unis outside of the US: HKUST and University of Sydney. I’ve paid my deposit to HKUST since it’s the first uni which offered me admission (they gave me the letter on Jan 28th). USyd also seems interesting: highly ranked, great environment, and the 3rd best uni in Australia; also, their campus is really beautiful. However, now that I’ve been accepted by UW Madison and University of Washington, I’m reconsidering my choice.
Can anyone give me opinions regarding these universities? Hopefully I won’t make any wrong decision. Thank you!
For economics, Wisconsin currently has a stronger department, with more prominent economics faculty members, than Washington. Overall, they are both excellent schools, and the undergraduate curriculum won’t be that much different. In fact, all four schools you mention are generally considered excellent internationally.
The US News graduate rankings – I’d take these with a grain of salt, but they may provide an overview – has Wisconsin ranked 13th, and Washington ranked 40th in economics.
You should also consider which part of the world you want to work and live in once you graduate. If Hong Kong or Singapore, for example, you may choose HKUST. But all of these schools have the advantage of strong international reputations. Good luck-
@anhydrite thank you for the insight! Yes I’m aware that I should consider where I want to work. However, I would want to take a master degree in the future, most likely in the US. Also, I’m wondering whether or not the education system in the US is better than in other countries.
Just about everyone would consider the US university system to be the best in the world, especially when it comes to graduate-level education and research, but other countries are catching up.
This week’s Economist Magazine has a pretty good, in-depth report on worldwide, university education.
Yes, but those are graduate program rankings.The top professors who distinguish a graduate-level program don’t necessarily teach too many undergraduate courses. There may or may not be significantly better undergraduate econ instructors at one of these schools.
The Wisconsin and Washington overall US News rankings are almost identical. Wisconsin is #47, Washington #48.
If you want to make a careful comparison of the undergraduate econ offerings, you can try browsing through the online course schedules. The starting point for Wisconsin’s online schedule is here: http://registrar.wisc.edu/schedule_of_classes_students.htm
For example, in Fall 2015, Econ 101 (Principles of Microeconomics) will be taught by Professor Elizabeth S. Kelley in a lecture for 2.5 hours/week to 300+ students,. You can view Professor Kelly’s “Rate My Professor” evaluations here: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=76513
Complementing the lectures are discussion sections of ~24 students each for ~50 minutes/week. The discussion section instructors are marked “TBA”, but presumably will be grad students.
It would be very tedious to do a course by course comparison between Wisconsin and Washington, but that may be the level of effort it would take if you really want to compare academic strength of the two undergraduate econ programs. But then, so much will depend on which courses you actually choose and how much effort you put into them.