for those of you deciding between Northwestern and some business programs

<p><a href="http://www.northwestern.edu/careers/...omparison.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.northwestern.edu/careers/...omparison.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That shows the starting average salary for an econ major to be 51,461 (this was in 2005) based on over 50 respondents (seems pretty accurate to me). The average bonus was 5,561. That makes the average starting salary to be over 57,000 (pretty impressive).</p>

<p>As for the companies, Northwestern doesn't publish the exact # of students accepting a position at each company. It, however, lists all of the companies in which 3 or more students accepted positions.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.northwestern.edu/careers/...-function.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.northwestern.edu/careers/...-function.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Pretty impressive again. 3 or more students accepted positions here. Some of the most selective consulting firms are listed.
ABN AMRO
Accenture
Allstate Insurance Company*
American Airlines, Inc.
Argonne National Laboratory
Bain & Company
Beghou Consulting
Booz Allen & Hamilton
Boston Consulting Group
Deloitte Consulting*
DiamondCluster International
Epic Systems Corporation
General Electric
General Mills
Goldman Sachs
Harris Nesbitt
Hewitt Associates
Huron Consulting Group
IBM
JP Morgan Chase*
Kraft Foods
Lehman Brothers
L.E.K. Consulting
Marakon Associates
McKinsey & Company
McMaster-Carr Supply Company
Medtronic
Mercer Management Consulting
Merrill Lynch
Microsoft
Morgan Stanley
Morningstar, Inc.
Northern Trust Corporation*
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Philips (Royal Philips Electronics)
PRTM (Pittiglio, Rabin, Todd, and McGrath)
Robert W. Baird & Company
SIG (Susquehanna International Group)
Starcom Worldwide
Stockamp & Associates
Target Corporation
William Blair & Company</p>