<p>How strong is it compared to other top LAC's/universities.
How would you rank it compared to other schools?</p>
<p>Swarthmore is the #1 college or university in the country in the percentage of total graduates going on to get a PhD in Economics (and Political Science).</p>
<p>Economics is a very strong department at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>well considering that a PhD isn't where most people want to go with their undergrad education in economics, is there any other statistics that proof it's program compared to other colleges/universities?</p>
<p>I assume most people(not exclusively at swarthmore) would perfer to pursue MBAs or do something with ibanking/business before finding a need for a phd in econ.</p>
<p>There are several recent Swarthmore econ grads at Harvard Business school, 4 members of the class of 06 work at McKinsey (don't know how many of them were econ grads - I think at least 2) and Swarthmore is somewhat of a feeder to the Federal Reserve.</p>
<p>I think you will find that the top Econ PhD producing colleges and universities are among the better undergrad Econ departments. But, feel free to use whatever data you like!</p>
<p>
Academic field: Economics</p>
<p>PhDs and Doctoral Degrees:
ten years (1994 to 2003) from NSF database</p>
<p>Number of Undergraduates:
ten years (1989 to 1998) from IPEDS database</p>
<p>Formula: Total PhDs divided by Total Grads, multiplied by 1000</p>
<p>Note: Does not include colleges with less than 1000 graduates over the ten year period </p>
<p>1 Swarthmore College 16
2 Grinnell College 7
3 Williams College 7
4 Carleton College 7
5 Harvard University 6
6 Agnes Scott College 6
7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5
8 University of Chicago 5
9 Yale University 5
10 California Institute of Technology 5
11 Princeton University 5
12 Macalester College 5
13 Stanford University 4
14 Pomona College 4
15 Oberlin College 4
16 Wellesley College 4
17 Trinity University 4
18 Bowdoin College 3
19 Earlham College 3
20 Berea College 3
21 Amherst College 3
22 Wabash College 3
23 Bard College 3
24 Rocky Mountain College 3
25 Coe College 3
26 Wesleyan University 3
27 College of William and Mary 3
28 Colby College 3
29 Columbia University in the City of New York 3
30 Hillsdale College 3
31 Franklin and Marshall College 3
</p>
<p>And, of course, a Swattie is the current head of the World Bank.</p>
<p>And another, Jerome Kohlberg is founded Kohlberg, Kravitz and is considered the father of the leveraged buyout.</p>
<p>thanks for the information regarding alums. im more impressed with what alums do in the real world beyond education.</p>
<p>btw considering that top schools that offer mba programs usually prefer to see work experience with its applicant, does that mean the same thing with the swarth grads, or are the stats of swarth grads into top mba, recent grads that just went straight into mba programs without experience?</p>
<p>They all have a couple of years of work experience, but I only know about alums from a couple of years.</p>
<p>And I only know about my circle of friends/ acquaintances.</p>
<p>If you do the following, you'll be just fine and will be able to get into virtually any MBA program you want:</p>
<p>Graduate from Swarthmore with a degree in Economics and Math with a high GPA;
Play some competitive sport(s) at Swarthmore;
Get a job at Goldman Sachs and work for a couple of years.</p>
<p>None of the people I were talking about had a major or minor in math, played varsity sports, or worked at GS. Your plan would probably get someone into a good mba program though.</p>
<p>Team/competitive sports are a plus when it comes to getting an ibank type job. Also, math (or maybe computer science) is becoming more important in the world of finance as quantitative analysis continues to grow.</p>
<p>Is that a joke? Goldman Sachs just sold its shares for practically nothing. Were you meaning that someone needs to work in finance at a big firm? </p>
<p>I know lots of people in finance that never played competitive sports. Where is that statistic from?</p>
<p>Most top MBA programs require several years of work experience before considering an application. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a year or so ago about the top "feeder" undergraduate schools to the top MBA programs. Swarthmore ranked pretty well, as I recall.</p>
<p>Do Swarthmore grads get lots of ibanking opportunities? How about internationals getting ibanking jobs straight out of Swarthmore?</p>
<p>I'm not going all out for Ib.. it's just one of the many options I cannot discount.. haha</p>
<p>Yes, internationals get Ibanking jobs straight out of Swarthmore. Presumably if 4 people in one class get jobs at McKinsey after graduation, there are ibanking opportunities.</p>
<p>Considering the academic rigor at Swarthmore, do most MBA programs/Grad Schools consider a lower GPA than say someone who might get a higher gpa at an inferior school say a liberal arts college ranged 11-20?</p>
<p>How feasible is it to get a 3.5 or higher at Swarth in Econ?</p>
<p>
I could have sworn it was Bear Stearns that sold its shares for practically nothing. I thought Goldman Sachs actually made money off of the subprime fiasco. But, yes, I was saying that getting employment at a prestigious finance firm is a great way to get yourself set up to get into a top MBA program, and plenty of people from Swarthmore get into prestigious finance firms every year.</p>
<p> [quote] I know lots of people in finance that never played competitive sports. Where is that statistic from?
I read some article about it a while ago, but I don't remember where. A Google search for "investment banking" and "team sports" reveals the following as the top link: <a href="http://news.efinancialcareers.com/NEWS_ITEM/newsItemId-11064%5B/url%5D">http://news.efinancialcareers.com/NEWS_ITEM/newsItemId-11064</a>. I'm not saying that's some sort of definitive source, but that's the attitude I'm talking about. I'm not saying sports gets you jobs because you can join the company softball team (OK, maybe it would for some people), but, rather, because employers want to see drive and competitive spirit in their potential employees, and playing sports is one way to show that. That's all.</p>
<p>
Yes, I would say they do. This is just based off of personal experience, from knowing so many Swat grads who went into ibanking (though they weren't all economics majors; some were engineering, math or physics). This is one of the areas where Career Services actually seems to excel, as I believe I pointed out before. Apparently, 26% of 2004-2006 Swarthmore graduates who secured employment after graduation went into business, which includes consulting, finance, marketing and management.</p>
<p> [quote=liek0806] Considering the academic rigor at Swarthmore, do most MBA programs/Grad Schools consider a lower GPA than say someone who might get a higher gpa at an inferior school say a liberal arts college ranged 11-20?</p>
<p>How feasible is it to get a 3.5 or higher at Swarth in Econ?
</p>
<p>Of the 374 alums who have their resumes posted via Career Services, 119 have a 3.50 GPA or higher. Of those, 26 are economics majors so, in this sample, 22% of all Swarthmore graduates with a GPA of 3.50 or higher have a degree in economics. From what I know about economics at Swarthmore, it's actually one of the easier majors to get a high GPA in. It's a lot easier than trying to get a high GPA in engineering or one of the hard sciences, which are the other people most likely to end up competing for ibanking jobs. Most of the people I know who double-majored in economics and either math or a science said that economics was a lot easier. So, getting a great GPA as an economics major at Swarthmore isn't out of the question.</p>
<p>To answer your question, I don't know whether or how ibanking firms weight your GPA as a function of your undergraduate institution, but many of their employees -- including those doing the hiring of new employees -- are graduates of elite institutions, so they probably understand what that means.</p>