<p>Going along with US News's A+ Schools for B students, what are some A+ undergraduate programs for B students? Of course you have the ivies and Chicago at the top of a normal list, but what are the top economic programs for the rest of us?</p>
<p>Economics and Business are related but different disciplines of study. Business is a study of organizational behavior, structure, and technique, as well as financial applications and practices. It's not a liberal arts discipline so the definition of what a business major is varies from college to college dramatically. I suggest looking through major requirements very carefully and investigating course by course. I have not seen the list, but off the top of my head: NYU Stern is very good for finance (hard to get into), but Babson would have to be my overall top pick for Entrepreneurship although it is not a top school. Also, if you have a very specific interest, I would look into NYU Gallatin which is less competitive than Stern and allows for a custom-fitted major for a student who wants to make their own interdisciplinary path. Really, I feel that's what business is all about, weaving things together. </p>
<p>As for Economics, this is more challenging. Economics is divided into two rather seperate disciplines: Macro and Micro. Macro focuses on the behavior of whole markets and tackles issues such as inflation, unemployment, GDP growth, etc. It may not be much help in running a company but it's a fantastic education if you want to go into public policy and much more useful that Business for academia. Microeconomics is better intergrated into general business careers because it tackles issues such as pricing, managing supply&demand, employment on a firm level, etc.</p>
<p>So, I'd say step 1 is to understand whether you want to study Business, Economics, or very much both (some schools of Business with Econ concentrations, actually!). Then, look at syllabi, since you want a program catered to -your- needs, you don't want to cater to a college's ideals. The easy way to do this (relatively easy) is to think about where you want to go with your education, what direction you want to pursue. If you manage to answer the "Why do I need this?" question, you'll be able to evaluate programs without relying on rankings, which often compare apples to oranges.</p>
<p>You are going to need to take intro econ for a business degree, so you should try those first. As for programs, I would go to the biggest name school you can. Especially if that school has a good business school. Chances are if their business school is really good their on campus recruiting will be good, and in most places i've heard of econ majors can use business school career centers.</p>