i’m looking for schools with strong economics programs in the northeast. i’d like a relatively small school with 5,000 enrollment at most. i’d think schools with 20% acceptance rate or higher would be good. thanks!!
You aren’t really gonna get a school with all three criteria of size, acceptance, and northeast. Carnegie Mellon for example is strong and in the northeast but has a lower acceptance and higher enrollment. NYU is similar but has a very high enrollment even though the individual school is going to have a lower one.
You could find top-notch economics programs at schools such as Colgate and Hamilton that would meet all of your criteria:
https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html
Brandeis could be another option.
@Skylerscott
I wouldn’t give too much credibility to the ideas.repec ranking.
[quote]
Most schools have decent economics programs for undergrads, and most have a similar set of core requirements. The requirements for a major may differ though. Some involve more math, some have a thesis and research, some allow practical finance classes to count toward the major while others do not, and some make it easier to study abroad. You may want to look at course catalogs and the requirements for a major at several schools that meet your other criteria to get a feel for the options.
This may be true (or nearly so) if you’re only looking at research universities.
As for liberal arts colleges, the northeast has many of them; virtually all have < 5K students; most have admission rates >= 20%.
All the LACs listed in the ideas.repec ranking’s top 25 also place well in some overall rankings. Some schools in the ideas.repec bottom half are less selective or less prestigious. Has ideas.repec exposed true “hidden gems” among these schools? That would depend on how well its criteria (like author citation counts) really reflect econ department quality. All the ideas.repec top 25, but not all the bottom 25, are rich selective schools that offer good to excellent need-based aid (which for many students is more important than the number of frequently-cited papers its faculty publish). It might be interesting to look at a different metric (like alumni econ PhD production) to see how many of the same schools show up in the top ~50.
How about a business focused approach to economics (integrated in to a business curriculum)? If that appeals to you check out Bentley in the Boston area. 4k students, strong program.
@skylarscott1, regarding posting #2, as the ideas.repec states, “There are 7522 institutions with 51326 registered authors evaluated for all the rankings.”, so while the data is experimental it came from a robust data set.
As @tk21769 stated, the schools in the top half are well documented top rank schools so would be wonderful choices. There are many other ranking systems with fairly similar results; College Niche has one that may be useful for you.
To expand on this, the typical economics major requires:
- Introductory microeconomics.
- Introductory macroeconomics.
- Introductory statistics.
- Intermediate microeconomics.
- Intermediate macroeconomics.
- Econometrics.
- Additional economics electives.
Where they may differ is:
- Math required for the major and as prerequisites for the intermediate economics courses: no calculus versus single variable calculus versus multivariable calculus and/or linear algebra. At some schools, the introductory statistics course must be calculus-based. Pre-PhD students will find more math to be more favorable, and may take additional advanced math and statistics courses, such as real analysis and probability theory.
- Senior thesis may be required at some schools.
- Additional elective options can vary, such as mathematical economics, managerial ("business") economics, financial economics, economic history, behavioral economics, economics of trade, environmental economics, etc. Check catalogs and schedules for more information.
Thanks @ucbalumnus. Exactly what I meant. These kinds of differences can be quite meaningful. Especially to someone who doesn’t excel at math!
:)>-
As @ucbalumnus pointed out many Economic programs strongly recommend/make it clear that additional math, beyond entry level Calc, will be required for those that intend to pursue a PhD - here’s what Hamilton College states -
“Students planning graduate work in economics should consult a member of the department for specific advice. They should take 400, selections from the other 400-level courses, 560 and obtain as strong a background in mathematics as possible. The sequence in calculus and linear algebra is required by virtually all good Ph.D. programs in economics; additional work in mathematics, such as courses in differential equations and real analysis, is strongly recommended. Students who plan to study for an M.B.A. should complete at least one semester of calculus and should consult “Information for Prospective M.B.A. Students,” a document available at the Career Center Web site, for additional recommendations.”
In addition like many similar highly selective LAC’s, Hamilton College require a Senior project or thesis. Attached is the link to the Senior Program at Hamilton College https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/departments/Senior-Program?dept=Economics
@tk21769, not certain that alumni econ PhD production is that meaningful as I think most would take an LAC Economics undergraduate degree directly into their first career given its viewed no differently than a business degree. In the case of investment banking and consulting firms, an LAC economics degree with a math minor that includes upper level math, including courses in differential equations and real analysis, could be considered a preferred path.
Relying on data supplied by the National Science Foundation, the following schools produced the highest percentage of students who went on to earn a PhD in economics.
Swarthmore
Williams
Reed
Macalester
Carleton
Amherst
Grinnell
Wellesley
Pomona
Wesleyan
Caltech
Centre
Princeton
Whitman
Davidson
Knox
Haverford
Ohio Wesleyan
MIT
Kalamazoo
Source: * College Transitions*
In addition, College Transitions, using student-level data provided by Linkedin, was able to identify the colleges and universities sending the highest percentage of graduates to a top-ranked business school. The results are in alphabetical order:
Amherst
Bates
Claremont-McKenna
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Georgetown
Hamilton
Harvard
Middlebury
Northwestern
Pomona
Stanford
Chicago
Michigan
Penn
USC
Yale
Yeshiva
Does Selectivity Matter? According to College Transitions, nearly 70% of MBA students in their sample received a degree from a college defined as Most Selective or Extremely Selective. However, a significant percentage (23%) also graduated from Moderately or Minimally Selective institutions where admission rates are 60% or higher.
Source: College Transitions
Here’s College Transition list of EXTREMELY SELECTIVE colleges - those that accept fewer than 40% of all applicants AND possess an average composite ACT (25%tile) score of at least 28 OR an average combined SAT (25%tile) score (CR + M) of at least 1260. While many only accept 25% of all applicants AND possess an avg. composite ACT (25%tile) of 30 or higher, there are others that may be a good fit - all great schools.
Barnard College
Bates College
Boston College
Brandeis University
Bucknell University
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon University
Colby College
Colgate University
College of William and Mary
College of the Holy Cross
Connecticut College
Cooper Union
Davidson College
Emory University
Franklin and Marshall College
Georgia Institute of Technology
Grinnell College
Hamilton College
Haverford College
Kenyon College
Lehigh University
Macalester College
New York University
Northeastern University
Oberlin College
Scripps College
Tulane University
United States Military Academy
United States Naval Academy
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
University of Southern California
University of Virginia
Vassar College
Wake Forest University
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Source: College Transitions
@CrewDad, a below 20% acceptance wasn’t the OP’s focus, so I saved the effort.
:-c
Using student-level data provided by LinkedIn, the following colleges and universities send the highest percentage of graduates to “Wall Street.”
Amherst
Baruch
Boston College
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Georgetown
Harvard
Middlebury
NYU
Princeton
Rutgers
University of Michigan
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
Wake Forest
Wellesley
Villanova
Yale
Source * College Transitions*
I think you should look at Haverford. They have top notch economics and all Haverford Econ students can also take classes at Wharton Business school. Also, when I visited Haverford it seemed like all the students go to top business schools such as Columbia, Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, and Haas to name a few. It’s also a college that has an extrememy high reputation especially in Wall Street if that’s an interest and keeps becoming better and more popular. I would take a look.
@rman0070, agree on Haverford as a great feeder as we were blown away by the graduate placements when we attended tour/information session with DD’s. That said they felt the 1,100 student population and very compact campus was an insurmountable concern for both. Our xc/track had a positive athletic pre-read, but never took it beyond that.
I think it is up to 1300 students and is slowly growing. You can check me on that. Either way you are correct. It is a very small school. I think their cross country team was second in the country or at least at one point they were. Your daughter must have been a tremendous student and athlete to get a positive pre read at such a top school with such an amazing x country program.