What's more important, individual program or overall reputation?

Pancaked
Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:33:39 +0000

Individual program’s reputation will probably go further as far as job prospects and grad school, assuming its fairly well known. BU happens to have a great econ program and Brandeis is fairly unknown as far as I can tell. Brandeis is a great school though-- if you prefer it for other reasons, I wouldn’t let the econ ranking hold you back. Not to mention, should you choose to change majors, Brandeis might be a slightly more advantageous place to be.

The name/reputation really isn’t all that important. But if you’re just thinking about your future in econ, BU is probably a better choice-- not for the name on your resume though. I think what’s really advantageous at BU is just the quality of the econ department. There’s better connections to be better made and probably a better quality of education. You’ll likely have more access to internships and such as well. That will be more helpful in your grad school pursuit than the name of your school.