<p>Hey everybody, I'm a rising senior in a DC-area public school looking into (and pretty excited about) Swarthmore. I just wanted to know: does anyone on this board have experience with the economics and public policy program, and if so, would you reccommend them? I'd love to hear any and all input on the matter. Even if you haven't taken classes in those departments, anything else you'd like to share on academics and student life at Swarthmore would be greatly appreciated. </p>
<p>My son's planning to major in Econ. He's a rising junior. He likes most of his professors except he has some reservations about Prof. Westphal. He likes Baier who is his advisor. I don't know too much about Public Policy.</p>
<p>Don't know what specifically you want to know, though...the reputation is pretty good. You can go to the Swarthmore college website and the Economics department has webpages for it's staff.</p>
<p>Public policy is a concentration rather than a major at Swarthmore. This means that it is not a separate department - you must have a major in something else and can add the concentration in public policy. The most common majors to combine with a concentration in public policy would probably be economics, political science and perhaps engineering.</p>
<p>Swarthmore has a very strong reputation as an economics undergraduate institution, especially for those who pursue the honors program in economics.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is VERY strong in both Economics and Political Science (which would cover a good chunk of the Public Policy courses). Swat produces more Econ PhDs and more Poli Sci PhDs per graduate than any other college or university in the United States. I would say that this area of interest is a particular strength at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Many Swarthmore students and graduates are involved in public policy. A large number are in Washington, both for summer internships and post-graduate jobs -- enough so that Swat students visiting Washington over the 4th of July last month had three or four different Swat alum parties to attend.</p>
<p>Many Swat students are also involved in public policies internships/jobs internationally.</p>
<p>Downside? Like at virtually all schools, the Econ and Poli Sci departments tend to be two of the largest. For this reason, there is some benefit in doing the Honors program in these departments. Or, doing the Public Policy concentration would also give you an edge in course selection, prof. mentoring, etc.</p>
<p>yeah, econ is the most popular major and polisci is the 2nd most popular. (biology used to be #1 but apparently it dropped a few ranks last year)</p>
<p>we had an econ professor talk to us during the faculty panel at the admitted students program - he seemed like a really great guy. I'm only a rising freshman so that's essentially all I know, sorry :P</p>