<p>Which LACs have good economics programs?</p>
<p>(And please don't provide evidence of superiority with athletics, but through PhD #'s, academic rankings, etc.)</p>
<p>If you plan to major in Economics I highly recomend you get a double major in Statistics too.</p>
<p>Hmm...Harvard or Colgate??? That is a tough decision, please someone help me out! </p>
<p>Anyways...Williams has the best economics program in the LAC's.</p>
<p>Know of two current freshmen at Harvard who were rejected by Colgate. Also know of a current Colgate freshman who rejected Harvard. To each his own, UCBenz.</p>
<p>Have to ditto Colgate13's remarks about Colgate's economics department. Very tough and very respected. Top Wall Street & I-banks recruit there heavily. </p>
<p>Along with Colgate and Williams, top economics departments include Hamilton, Duke, Stanford, Chicago, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Holy Cross and Trinity. Also respected are Lehigh, Lafayette, Pomona, Haverford, Northwestern and Bowdoin.</p>
<p>Perhaps things have changed, but as of ten years ago the very well-known Investment bank I am intimately familiar with did not recruit at Colgate. Probably due to its isolated location, if nothing else.</p>
<p>Monydad, I think that I-bank you're referring to recruited almost exclusively at Lehigh -- it still does, to the best of my knowledge. As for Colgate, econ students are choosing among 5-6 offers for full-time jobs. Pretty remarkable.</p>
<p>"Hmm...Harvard or Colgate??? That is a tough decision, please someone help me out! "</p>
<p>cant tell if youre being sarcastic, but if you are, then youre obviously uninformed</p>
<p>different people look at Colgate and Harvard. im sure many people turn down Colgate for Harvard, and some turn down ivies for Colgate. Colgate has a great economics program, and if i get in, that will most likely be my major. colgate presents a completely different teaching method than harvard, it is a much more extroverted student body, and thats usually an important quality when working in a business. they have no TAs, and the professors seem wonderful. i dont know if i can say the same for harvard, as it is a very big school</p>
<p>Northwestern's program is great, but only come if you want to WORK!</p>
<p>The I-bank I'm referring to did not recruit at Lehigh either.</p>
<p>With a few exceptions, it recruited almost exclusively at schools that are quite widely considered to be among the very top schools in the country. I'm not justifying it, but that's what they did. At that time.</p>
<p>The only Colgate undergrad I ever saw there interviewing for an analyst position was the son of a big client of the firm. I don't recall a single employee of the firm who did undergrad at Colgate, although I'm sure there were some that I didn't know about. Lehigh did have some representation, that is a fact. But the people I know from there came laterally in late career, not from undergrad recruitment</p>
<p>My best friend's dad is an I-bank recruiting VP (technically VP of HR-On Campus recruiting). He said some of the oft-overlooked schools that they have begun looking at and have got great hires from include:
Babson, Claremont McKenna, U of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, Morehouse, Davidson, and Toronto, U of Washington, and U of Texas-Austin
He also said a less prestigious degree is not an automatic demerit in the hiring process.</p>
<p>NYU shouldn't be on any list for economics--Stern has a great undergrad business (specifically finance) program though.</p>
<p>You're totally out of touch with what NYU has done in this field in the last few years.</p>
<p>Claremont McKenna, Barnard, Williams, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Middlebury, Colgate, Macalester, Amherst, Pomona, Haverford, Lafayette, Denison, Washington & Lee, Smith, Union, Vassar</p>
<p>I have a child who is an economics major at Bates. They have a very well regarded undergrad department, with a strong quantitative focus. Along with rankings, it is worth looking at the faculty, interdepartmental relations (e.g. how do econ & math get along), and the research interests and experience of the faculty. For example, a few weeks ago Bates students had some speakers who were economists from Rand and the IMF. One of the speakers had been a student of a Bates faculty member when that faculty person was teaching at Harvard.</p>
<p>Here is something from the Bates website:</p>
<p>The Bates College Department of Economics ranks number one in terms of total citations per capita and third overall among 50 top liberal arts colleges studied.</p>
<p>Written by economist Howard Bodenhorn of Lafayette College, the annual study, "Economic Scholarship at Elite Liberal Arts Colleges Are Other Economists Paying Attention?" measures the influence of 439 economists at the 50 top liberal arts colleges, as identified in U.S. News & World Report. Bodenhorn concluded "Although prominent economists at elite research universities produce the most influential scholarship, economists at the nation's leading liberal arts colleges make significant contributions to the literature." Ranking the publication record not by the number or books and articles, but by the frequency with which others cite their work, the study seeks to measure the quality and influence of the department's scholarly output, rather than its quantity.</p>
<p>David A. Aschauer, the Elmer W. Campbell Professor of Economics at Bates, was the top-ranked full professor among liberal arts colleges. A former Federal Reserve senior economist, Aschauer has taught at Bates since 1989. His teaching and research interests center on macroeconomics, financial markets and public finance.</p>
<p>Associate Professor James W. Hughes, chair of the Bates economics department, ranked ninth in quality-adjusted citations and 11th overall among associate professors. Hughes has taught at Bates since 1992. His research centers on the economic analysis law, labor economics and health economics.</p>
<p>According to Bodenhorn's findings, the 10 most productive liberal arts economics departments in the 1990s were Wellesley, Bates, Wesleyan, Colby, Williams, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Smith, Lafayette and Swarthmore.</p>
<p>It depends on what type of econ you want and what schools of thought. Among the most notable include University of Chicago and Harvard.</p>
<p>you know, undergrad econ taught at chicago will probably be the same material taugt at schools like uc irvine. i dont see any difference in material, undergrad econ is very generic everywhere. except for brand name and being taught by nobel prize winners, theres probably little difference between programs.</p>
<p>and you should go to the best school that accepts you, if you want to study econ</p>
<p>MrTrojanMan-- all econ classes are NOT created equal. For one, economics is an evolving field with many questions that have multiple answers. Each department will tackle these questions and answers differently. Teaching styles differ widely from department to department and you will have a drastically different econ experience at UChicago than you will at UC-Irvine.</p>
<p>Now, I would like to thank mikemack for making his above points about large Universities. Obviously not all large universities will be like the one he has described, but I think for the most part that is a typical example. For a student who wishes to be anonymous in class (and many do), this is an ideal environment. For the student who wishes close student-faculty interraction, I think the right route to go would be a liberal arts college (although several small universities like UChicago and some honors programs of state schools are decent too).</p>
<p>LAC-wise, Williams, Wesleyan, Wellesley, Claremont McKenna, and Washington and Lee probably have the best departments. If you're interested in going into investment banking, Williams should be your clear first choice among LACs and Universities--the alumni networking is amazing...many have described it as the "williams mafia" for wall-street and i-banking. Due to my personal preference about an education (I think close interraction with professors is what makes an education), I would choose any of these top LACs over any University in the country for econ without hesitation. Williams and Wesleyan are Ivy League-level selectivity-wise and the other schools are slightly easier to get into.</p>
<p>Wellesley has a good rep in this area. Consider it if you are female.</p>
<p>perhaps, haon. my econ prof from yale told me this, he went to yale and studied with robert schiller.</p>