<p>I'm planning on transferring with Junior Standing in the Fall of 2008. My intended majors are Economics/Mathematics, and I have just about narrowed down the field....</p>
<p>University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (LAS)
Reed College
Oberlin College
University of Chicago
University of Illinois (Urbana)</p>
<p>Which of these schools would provide the best Economics program for undergraduates?</p>
<p>uchicago all the way</p>
<p>uchicago without a doubt, if you get accepted that is.. haha.</p>
<p>if not, umichigan.
i don't really know much about LAC's.</p>
<p>isnt northwestern amazing at econ also?</p>
<p>chicago blows away northwestern - I'll probably hear some crap about "famous researchers don't equal great teachers", but I don't care. Studying econ at 'the chicago school' is about as good as you can get.</p>
<p>i dont know about that..
ive heard many times how miserable it is at uchicago and how happy everyone is at northwestern</p>
<p>U of Chicago is arguably one of the best places in the world to study economics (if not the best). Many of the worlds greatest economist have taught and have come from U of chicago. But if it is the best could depend on what kind of economic school of thought of studying U of chicago is notorious for it's belief in free market thinking as opposed to government controlled markets. So if you fall under a more socialized point of view in economics U of Chicago might not be for you. (If you are a libertarian it would be awesome!!!)</p>
<p>Thedude44:
Undergraduate curricula in economics is more or less the same philosophically speaking no matter where you are. The side commentary you get might be more politically conservative, for example, if you go to Harvard and take Mankiw for ec10. There's far more ideological variation within a specific school's department of social sciences from economics to political science to sociology, than there is across several school's economics department.</p>
<p>dpad0,
They are two different kind of schools for two different kinds of people.</p>
<p>gomestar,
It really depends on what one's intentions are for studying economics. If the goal is simply learning, I'd venture to say that a student at Northwestern can learn just as well as a student at the University of Chicago, because it really depends on the student more than the school.
If one is aiming for the corporate workforce, finance, or consulting, despite Chicago's reputation, Northwestern seems to have a lot more of its students recruited. This isn't to say that going to Chicago will necessarily hurt you, as its more likely that NU attracts more recruiters because more of their students are interested in those fields, but simply to say that going to NU will not hurt you.
If one is aiming for a graduate degree in economics, pedigree is important, in which case Chicago is the clear winner.</p>
<p>To the OP,
You said you want to study Econ and Math. There's a lot of threads in the Chicago forum, the College Search and Selection forum, and the Other Majors forum about Chicago's math, which is supposedly a really great educational community to be a part of.</p>
<p>"Chicago blows away Northwestern."</p>
<p>^I second that. And what an unfair comparison in the first place; this is Chicago econ we're talking about, and to mention Northwestern?? Strange. Comparing Chicago econ to Harvard econ would have been a more interesting topic of conversation.</p>
<p>And yeah you will get still get a good education if you go to Northwestern instead of Chicago, blah blah blah. You will also get a good education if you go to Purdue instead of MIT, or Tufts instead of Princeton. Take your pick.</p>
<p>Why do people actually pick Princeton over Tufts, or MIT over Purdue? Chicago has a far more equitable relationship reputation-wise with Northwestern than the schools in the examples you gave. We're not ranking the school's, we're talking about where the best place for an undergraduate to study economics is, with the "undergraduate to study" being just as important as the "best place for...economics." You can say Chicago blows away Northwestern, but you can also say that UC Berkeley blows away Columbia in terms of the reputation of econ programs, but the distinction gets blurred when you're talking about an undergraduate who is studying, and you consider that Berkeley's undergrad econ program is massive and impersonal.</p>
<p>"It really depends on what one's intentions are for studying economics. If the goal is simply learning, I'd venture to say that a student at Northwestern can learn just as well as a student at the University of Chicago, because it really depends on the student more than the school."</p>
<p>I agree, but my intentious would be to study under some of the greatest economic minds of the 20th century - the profs could beat me with a stick and I'd still be delighted to recieve intruction from them. </p>
<p>"ive heard many times how miserable it is at uchicago and how happy everyone is at northwestern"
Most of that is made up, like alot of things on these boards. People also assume tough academics = miserable lives. You're in chicago for cryin' out loud. </p>
<p>"you can also say that UC Berkeley blows away Columbia in terms of the reputation of econ programs, but the distinction gets blurred when you're talking about an undergraduate who is studying, and you consider that Berkeley's undergrad econ program is massive and impersonal."</p>
<p>I do think that Cal blows away columbia, though by not as much. Massive and impersonal was never taken into consideration, just the pure calibur of people you'd be studying under. It's only impersonal if you really want it to be that way, talk to a prof after class or something.</p>
<p>hahaha UChi is not miserable, not for the students who actually attend. The outside world can't figure out how we function, I guess, or how we might actually love what we do.</p>
<p>Simply by the OP's question of the best place to "study" economics, NOT the best, necessarily, in job placement or research, I think indicates Chicago. The OP's other choices, Reed and Oberlin, share considerable overlap with Chicago, and those schools are most respected for their intellectualism and academically inclined student bodies.</p>
<p>Instead of comparing Chicago and NU econ (NU not being one of the OP's original options), I think it's safe to say that Chicago's econ is stronger and larger than either Oberlin's or Reed's. I do not know how UMich and UIUC's econ departments stand side by side, and even though these schools are lesser in the rankings, they might be worth extra considerations simply by virtue of their being large, high-quality research schools. You might find that one of them has more offerings and more things that you like over the smaller LAC's.</p>
<p>princeton, but you can't transfer there. definitely go with uchicago.</p>
<p>I'm aware of Chicago's incredible reputation ('The Chicago School), and as someone who does subscribe to a more conservative econonmic ideology, I'm sure it would be an incredible experience, but my real concern was economics for undergraduates. How is the teaching? I ask, only because recent conversations with some Chicago students has led me to believe that, despite the repuation, Nortwestern might have the better instructors.</p>
<p>college isn't a whole lot about how well others can teach you. It's about how well you teach yourself and how you extract info from the abundance of materials at your feet. Guess which skills are particuraly prized in the 'real world'??</p>
<p>I don't know if I would agree with that, completely. Certainly, being sel-motivated is important, but the teaching is central to the mission of any University. If that were the case, I could just skip college and lock myself up at a decent University library.</p>
<p>good point</p>
<p>"but the teaching is central to the mission of any University"
and they teach you at Chicago. The best in econ teach you. </p>
<p>"If that were the case, I could just skip college and lock myself up at a decent University library."
Why do you think a bunch of the libraries at top-20 schools are open 24 hours a day? If you're gonna pick a library, Chicago is a solid choice for econ.</p>
<p>definately U Chicago out of the choices you provided</p>
<p>However, saying U Chi econ "blows away" NU econ is a somewhat ridiculous and ignorant claim. When the schools are ranked almost side by side year after year, making an analogy like princeton : tufts and MIT : purdue is simply stupid.</p>
<p>"However, saying U Chi econ "blows away" NU econ is a somewhat ridiculous and ignorant claim."</p>
<p>not really. I've studies alot of econ at Cornell, and the big econ schools that come up have been consistently Cal, Chicago, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, and LSE. There are some exceptions (like MIT's Peter Temin), but the consistency has been surprising. I'm sure Northwestern has a great econ program with many accomplished professors - but I personally would relish the opportunity to study under the great minds that make up a place like the chicago school.</p>