Economics

[juillet]

Note that the strength at the PhD level does not automatically translated into the undergraduate level. At the PhD level, it is all about research. At the undergraduate level, research is a substantially smaller component. Prestige, school culture, school tie, the quality of general education, professional development resources…are far more important.

The College Transitions lists represent a classic case of what logicians/statisticians call “selection bias”.

Yes, I came to say both of these things.

1. Most rankings of economics “departments” (or departments in any field) are really rankings of PhD programs. Therefore, they take into consideration things that matter to doctoral students and not necessarily factors that are most important for undergrad students - and of course they ignore the contribution the rest of the school’s departments and amenities will have.

2. There are a lot of reasons why the proportion of students who go to Swarthmore, Williams, or Reed for undergrad is higher than the proportion from other schools. Some of this is likely due to the educational quality for sure. But some of it is due to sheer size (note that small liberal arts colleges dominate the list. That’s because of math - smaller numbers lead to greater proportions, and the decisions of just 2-5 students can greatly change the percentages at Swarthmore but not so much at Berkeley.) Socioeconomic status matters in a big way. Stuff like that.

Basically, most really good schools are going to have good to great economics departments. Some may be better than others in some ways, but all (especially in the tier you’re looking at) are going to offer great preparation for doctoral work in economics.

One consideration is that since he is super advanced in math he’s going to make sure that any college he picks has adequate offerings in math for him to keep going, but honestly, he doesn’t HAVE to go a whole lot farther. It would be helpful but not strictly necessary.