<p>Should one weigh how good a university is overall and how good its reputation is, more than one would their individual program that he/she wants to major in? To place this in context, Brandeis has a better reputation and is a better university overall, however BU has a better economics program that is more highly ranked. I was considering doing ED2 to Brandeis, but I'm not sure which is better. What do you think? Would this make a difference for Grad School? I really want to go to a top tier grad school.</p>
<p>I didn’t know Brandeis has got more prestige overall than BU. They’re about as prestigious as each other.</p>
<p>I’d choose Brandeis over BU as well. It’s smaller and more focused on undergraduates, and students are a bit more intellectual than at the unabashedly pre-professional BU. Brandeis has always seemed a happier place to me - YMMV.</p>
<p>I doubt program strength is a problem. Even if Brandeis can’t meet all of your needs, which I’m pretty sure it can, it offers cross-registration with Babson, Tufts, BU, BC, etc. Best of both worlds.</p>
<p>Brandeis over BU in a heart beat. Also look into BC and Northeastern, which have slightly better reputations in Boston than either.</p>
<p>Informative: The typical Brandeis applicant would NOT be happy at BC.</p>
<p>The Brandies econ program is very strong, and much of the peer assessment rankings have to do with grad school. At Brandeis there will be smaller classes, and a totally different environment than BU. If you’d be happier in a more suburban, intellectual, and smaller school, go with Brandeis. The departmental rankings aren’t high enough to warrant tossing Brandeis out.</p>
<p>For economics graduate school, you do want the economics undergraduate major to include math-intensive intermediate economics and econometrics courses, and for there to be decent math and statistics departments in which you can take advanced math courses like real analysis and more in-depth statistics courses.</p>
<p>bump bump bump bump</p>