<p>I'm going to study economics and I wonder if all top departments are neoclassical? This is a crucial fact for me nad I don't know where could I find such informations on facultys' philosophy. I know I should apply to Chicago, Northwestern, Penn, Stanford. But what about MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley? Are their economic departments neoclassical, or better, are they for free market?</p>
<p>Whatever you do, don't go to a school where your views could be challenged.</p>
<p>"Whatever you do, don't go to a school where your views could be challenged."</p>
<p>I do hope that was sarcasm... </p>
<p>College is a place for you to be exposed to a number of views and then eventually, you'll pick a set to believe in or maybe even decide none of them suit you and form your own. To go a step further, this is the sole purpose of an education. Sure, you may not agree with what is thought but if you plan to be an economist, or go into any other field for that matter, if you are not sufficiently knowledgable about competing viewpoints, you will never be successful. On that note, Harvard, Princeton, MIT and Berkeley are among the foremost institutions for studying economics in the world. In fact, for the most part, they are better than the schools that you're planning to apply to (save for Stanford, Chicago on the other hand has been rapidly declining and is far from its glory days). It is naive to believe that everyone in Harvard or Princeton's economic department follows one set of views. Even Chicago is sure to have many professors that oppose the Chicago School. Fact is, institutions hire the best, not those holding a certain view. An example from my own personal knowledge is at Princeton, hiring Peter Singer into a faculty where many of whom vehemently fought against his appointment. All I can say is, don't pick a school based on what you view to be their underlying belief cause most of the time, that doesn't exist. You have a seemingly hodge-podge list of colleges, Penn and Princeton, MIT and Northwestern, these schools are all quite different from each other. Maybe you should decide where to go based on their campus, social life and overall academics.</p>
<p>And if you're still curious, from my experiences with a number of economic professors at Princeton, only one taught something pertinant to trade and in my opinion, he was pretty much in support of a free market.</p>
<p>pimpdaddy, thank you very much. It was really an interesting reading that made me think.</p>
<p>Maybe just one sentence more... You said that my schools are very different. I believe you. You know, I'm an international student and it's somewhat harder for me to find out such facts. I just looked at some rankings...some research orientations and that's it. Does anyone know any site on the net about such differences in campus, etc.?</p>
<p>Yea, I completely understand that its difficult to get a real feel for these colleges as an international. All i can offer is my knowledge of the colleges that i am pretty familiar with. Personally, I think academics and social life are more or less similar at all these schools so I'll just try to give you and idea of their surroundings. </p>
<p>Princeton- Located in the suburbs with a good number of restaurants and shops near campus. Really safe and beautiful campus. In the mood for something more? New York and Philadephia are pretty close.</p>
<p>Harvard- Near Boston so should be plenty to do. Its huge and doesn't seem to care about undergrads as much as Princeton. However, its still an excellent institution and has a wonderful campus and plenty of research opportunities.</p>
<p>MIT- To be honest, I'm pretty biased against MIT. If you plan on majoring in economics, as I assume you will be, I think you should pick Princeton or Harvard over MIT just because the former two will have better options in the humanities. The campus reminds me of an office park and is quite different from the campuses of Harvard, Princeton or Penn. However, just like Harvard, being near Boston has its share of benefits.</p>
<p>Stanford- Warm weather, nice campus (albeit with architecture very different from Harvard/Princeton/Penn) and a fairly large student body. </p>
<p>IMO, i think Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Chicago offer the best economic programs with Princeton, Harvard and Stanford having the nicest campuses and undergraduate experience of those five. </p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>In Princeton Review the University of Chicago was ranked #1 for "Best Overall Academic Experience For Undergraduates." From what I've heard Chicago and Harvard are most prestigious when it comes to Economics. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>economicus </p>
<p>check out <a href="http://www.campusdirt.com%5B/url%5D">www.campusdirt.com</a>
has information about schools from the students there.</p>
<p>Ou, thank you very much for these useful informations.</p>
<p>Chicago.</p>
<p>So much history in economics.</p>
<p>I had a long thing written before but the post messed up and i don't feel like typing it up again. Long story short, (<a href="http://www.econ.jhu.edu/jep98.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.econ.jhu.edu/jep98.html</a>)</p>
<p>Dusansky- Vernon Overall Rankings
1 Princeton 482.8 2 11.78 16.1 1 1.5
2 Harvard 518.3 1 10.8 14.6 4 2.5
3 MIT 396.4 4 11.66 20 2 3
3 Pennsylvania 397.1 3 11.03 13.1 3 3
5 Northwestern 352.5 6 10.37 13.6 5 5.5</p>
<p>Once again, Harvard, Princeton and MIT would be my suggestions. Yes, Chicago is great and I could see you picking them over Penn or Northwestern (which were much lower on the NRC faculty rankings, where Chicago was at the top with Harvard, Princeton and MIT). However, I wouldn't suggest picking Chicago over Princeton, MIT or Harvard.</p>
<p>I'd definitely agree that Chicago will be a more rewarding undergraduate experience. The (admittedly few) people I've known from Harvard have hated its advising system and criticized faculty for paying no attention to students. Harvard is really a research university. It's amazing for graduate school, but not somewhere that I'd choose to go for undergrad.</p>
<p>Also, this may just be an aside, but Stanford's architecture rocks. I'm always amazed when people talk about how ugly architecture is out west. Even dumps out there are palm-lined and made of stucco. I love Brown, but if I had to choose a school based on its campus alone, it would have been Stanford, no question.</p>
<p>Princeton and Yale quite easy on the eyes as well.</p>
<p>Conventionally speaking:</p>
<p>Tier I Economics Departments:
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of Chicago</p>
<p>Tier II Economics Departments:
Northwestern University
University of California-Berkeley
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University</p>
<p>Tier III Economics Departments:
Columbia University
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Wisconsin-Madison</p>
<p>Tier IV Economics Departments:
Boston University
Brown University
Cornell University
Duke University
Johns Hopkins University
New York University
University of California-San Diego
University of Maryland-College Park
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Rochester
University of Texas-Austin
University of Virginia</p>
<p>LACs with strong Economics Departments:
Amherst College
Bowdoin College
Carleton College
Dartmouth College
Grinnell College
Haverford College
Middlebury College
Pomona College
Swarthmore College
Wesleyan University
Williams College</p>
<p>I am sure I forgot a couple, but any of the schools above will give an undergraduate all the tools necessary for graduate school.</p>
<p>The link provided by pimpdaddy discusses information from 1990-1994. It is over 10 years old! Does anyone have any current information or links for current economic program rankings?</p>
<p>Alexandre, could you please provide a source (other than "conventional" opinion) for your rankings?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Thank you once again. I found out one such ranking on. <a href="http://www.econphd.net%5B/url%5D">www.econphd.net</a>. But these rankings are just numbers...</p>
<p>Sokkermom, I also do not agree with the site provided by Pimpdaddy. NYU and BU never belonged in the top 10 in Economics...not when I was in college (1992-1996) and not today. They are both good in Econ, but not top 10. And Chicago ranked out of the top 5 (let alone all the way down at #17) is preposterous!</p>
<p>My groupings are based primarily on the 2001 Econ rankings by the USNWR. Those are graduate school rankings, but they are pretty indicative of undergraduate departments. I also added some of what I had heard from professors I know at Columbia, Harvard, Michigan and Chicago.</p>
<p>Word on the street is that at the moment, Cal-Berkeley's Econ Department is about to go through a rennaissance, very much like Chicago did in the 40s and 50s.</p>