Best for Econ?

<p>best schools for economics (& eventually to get into good grad business)...same schools as top business schools or no?</p>

<p>In my personal opinion (as an MBA at a top 5 school):</p>

<ol>
<li>Any Ivy, top LAC (yup they love AWS), MIT, Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, etc or top 5 Undergrad Business school (Stern, UM, Wharton, MIT, Berkeley)</li>
<li>The second tier of the top 25 Universities, the top 25 LACs, and the rest of the business schools all in decending order.</li>
<li>Everything else</li>
</ol>

<p>If you want to get an MBA go to the top school you like the most. The top firms hire out of all of them and these are MBA feeders. If it sounds prestigious to you, it sounds prestigious to them too. You'd be surprised how many people I run into from LACs at school.</p>

<p>the top MBA schools care more about your work experience after college than your undergrad major. This is even more important than what college you went to. So take a look at who recruits on campus, where students work after college, how much help the career center gives you, internships, etc. when considering colleges if your long-term goal is a top MBA.</p>

<p>Stern is one of the tops for economics/finance</p>

<p>The top schools for Economics are:</p>

<p>Amherst College
Brown University
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon University
Claremont McKenna College
Colby College
Columbia University*
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Harvard University***
Haverford College
Johns Hopkins University
Macalester College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology***
Middlebury College
Northwestern University*
Oberlin Collehe
Pomona College
Princeton University***
Reed College
Stanford University***
Swarthmore College
University of California-Berkeley*
University of California-Los Angeles*
University of Chicago***
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor*
University of Pennsylvania*
University of Wisconsin-Madison*
Vassar College
Wesleyan College
Williams College
Yale University*</p>

<p>*** Denotes top 5 program
* Denotes top 10 program</p>

<p>What's "best" for economics depends on your personal stats. If you have no chance getting into the "top" economics programs, they aren't the best for YOU. There are some excellent schools for economics in all ranges of selectivity. Give us an idea of where you fall and we can tailor some recommendations for you in terms of reach, match and safety.</p>

<p>Alexandre's list of top econ programs MUST refer to grad programs, not undergrad.</p>

<p>Simply read chapter 4 of the UCLA Economics Dept. own review of their program, and its clear that this couldn't possibly be a top-10 program undergrad. See <a href="http://www.econ.ucla.edu/8threview/8yrreview.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.econ.ucla.edu/8threview/8yrreview.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>he conveniently left out NYU economics, which is always top 10-15
<a href="http://edirc.repec.org/usa-top.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://edirc.repec.org/usa-top.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://student.ulb.ac.be/%7Etcoupe/rank200.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://student.ulb.ac.be/~tcoupe/rank200.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.wooster.edu/economics/archive/econrank.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wooster.edu/economics/archive/econrank.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Chicago is the best</p>

<p>When I think of top economics departments, I think of Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Princeton, NYU, MIT, Columbia and Yale. Outside of the US, its LSE and Oxbridge. </p>

<p>I don't know where Alexandre's list comes from, there is no citation, and some of those schools listed are not econ. powerhouses in any way.</p>

<p>There are many legitimate rankings out there (the most recent would likely have to be purchased), here are couple:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.econ.jhu.edu/jep98.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.econ.jhu.edu/jep98.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/ranking.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/ranking.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I pretty sure that Alexandre's list is a list that he created and posts in threads like this one. It is a pretty good list, better than many of the ones people have linked to. Some of the ones linked to are terrible ways of comparing departments. Take the "pages in journals" ranking for example. It favors large department with a focus on research and publishing and has a bias against small one with a teaching focus, which can be better for students.</p>

<p>Also, Colgate's department is as good as several of the ones on his list. It would be a good choice as a larger LAC.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Chicago is the best

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I was at University of Chicago early last year, and a member of the economics faculty flat-out said that Chicago is not the best. He said they were somewhere in the top 5 though (he had also taught at Princeton).</p>

<p>yeah penn is top 5-10 in all the links above. what what</p>

<p>All of my stats are on this link:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=35284%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=35284&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>But if you dont have time, here it is in short:
-Top 5% in class (barely) -- ranked about 35/730...4.25 W / 3.85 UW
-SAT I: should be, hopefully, 2170-2250 (760-790M, 650-690R, 750-800W)
-Sat IIs: predicted 750+ math iic, 700+ us hist, 700+ lit
-started a small business, am writing a book, couple clubs...xc/track 3 years</p>

<p>Hope this helps. I was kinda dreaming for Wharton, but I don't think I can get in. (& if I do im worried I'll be the dumbest kid there and struggle!)</p>

<p>any more input would be awesome...thanks so far</p>

<p>Out of the schools that you have a good chance of getting into, Michigan and Berkeley have the strongest economics programs.</p>

<p>Yeah I am in-state for Berkeley (tuition is 1/2 the cost). i am not sure if it'd be worth it to go just abt anywhere else...but if i get into a very top school i dont know</p>

<p>mikemac,
Your reference on UCLA was dated back in 1999 and it was an 8-year review (1991-1999?). The department might have made significant improvement since... especially in light of UCLA's successful fund raising lately. For example, they do have 50 faculty on board now as they requested in the review. I am not familar with the field so I can't comment on the quality of the faculty.</p>

<p>Do you have more recent articles to support your view?</p>

<p>Actually, Chicago is well within your range as well. It basically depends on which atmosphere you like better. You would also have an excellent shot at Cornell ED.</p>

<p>edit: and if you got in to Wharton, you probably wouldn't struggle at all. Even though it's the best UG business school along with Sloan, business school and even economics are still not at the difficulty of the harder majors (hard sciences, and of course engineering).</p>

<p>Mikemac, it is not possible to separate undergraduate from graduate when it comes to Economics. Undergrads and grads have access to the same facilities, resources and faculty. If the 17 courses I took in Economics, 6 were graduate level courses. So the graduate Economics rankings are pretty valid for undergraduate level programs. The only difference is when compiling a list of top econ programs for undergraduates, one must add the schools that have great programs but do not offer graduate level degrees...programs such as Dartmouth and the LACs.</p>

<p>How is Tufts for economics?</p>