<p>I'm a rising high school senior that will be applying for colleges relatively soon, and I'm having trouble narrowing down my list of potential colleges. I'd like to major in economics, and maybe even double major with something else. But when you search for good economics programs, it's always, MIT, Harvard, Columbia, etc. I will without a doubt apply to some of these schools, but these are all reaches. What are some of the better second or third tier colleges for economics?</p>
<p>My stats:
ACT: 32, 33 super scored (hope to improve)
SAT II: 790, 730, 730
Unweighted GPA: 3.97
AP: 5's (European History, US History, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Environmental Science) 4 in Biology
Decent Extracurriculars: (varsity tennis all 4 years, leadership positions in clubs, job experience, volunteer program at a hospital, etc.)
No major hooks unfortunately</p>
<p>If your eventual goal is PhD study in economics, a “good school for economics” has:</p>
<ul>
<li>An economics department with a math emphasis in economics courses (look for intermediate microeconomics and econometric courses with math prerequisite higher than frosh calculus and/or advanced mathematical economics courses in the course catalog).</li>
<li>Strong math and statistics course offerings.</li>
</ul>
<p>Note that schools like Stanford, Chicago, MIT, etc. all have the above. Berkeley offers a choice of more or less math intensive intermediate microeconomics and econometrics courses (although even the less math intensive version requires a year of frosh calculus, compared to a semester at many other schools).</p>
<p>Minnesota is not super-selective, and not super-expensive for out-of-state. While its normal intermediate microeconomics and econometrics courses are not as math intensive, it does offer advanced mathematical economics courses.</p>
<p>Grinnell and Swarthmore have higher per capita PhD production rates in economics than Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Yale, or Columbia. This is true whether we normalize by institution size or by the number of undergraduate economics degrees awarded. Oberlin and Macalester also have high per capita PhD production rates in economics. Even in absolute numbers, Swarthmore generates almost as many economics PhDs as the University of Michigan does (even though Michigan has more than 18X as many undergraduates.)</p>
<p>Grinnell and Swarthmore are need-blind, full-need schools. Oberlin and Macalester also claim to cover 100% of demonstrated financial need (although they are not 100% need blind).</p>
<p>50 students is the enrollment limit for the largest economics classes at Oberlin. At Williams, the largest economics classes have averaged no more than 40 students over the past 4 years ([Class</a> Size Information](<a href=“Williams College”>Williams College)). In contrast, economics classes at Princeton last year enrolled as many as 421 students. At Berkeley, the Introduction to Economics lecture in Spring 2013 enrolled 644 students. These large lecture classes generally have much smaller discussion sections, but they are likely to be taught by graduate students, not by faculty members.</p>
<p>LACs aren’t for everyone (they do have drawbacks), but I would not conclude that only a few super selective research universities have good undergraduate economics programs.</p>
<p>If you are looking for some good merit aid, consider Dickinson. My D’s boyfriend was an econ & public policy there, is working for a large consulting firm now after graduating Phi Beta Kappa.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the suggestions guys! I’ll be looking into some LACs. I just have way to many reaches on my college list, and was looking to thin it out with some matches and a couple safetys.</p>
<p>“Ummm based on your stats it sounds like you should be applying to first-tier colleges…”</p>
<p>Nobody should apply to only first-tier colleges.</p>
<p>Okrayob, what career goals do you have out of economics? Do you plan on pursuing a PhD and becoming a professor? Do you want to go into banking or work at a F500 company? I think our advice would be a bit more helpful with this knowledge.</p>
<p>Here is what a PhD program in economics wants to see from applicants:
<a href=“https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/grad/admissions/preparation[/url]”>Preparation | Department of Economics;
Note the heavy emphasis on math and statistics courses, which go far beyond the typical one semester of frosh calculus and one semester of introductory statistics (AP level) that most economics major programs require.</p>
<p>For my career, I would be most interested in banking, or working at a F500 company. But to be honest, I have no idea what sort of degree path i should take. Masters? Double Major? I was thinking finance, or statistics but I could be totally off.</p>
<p>Investment banking recruiting tends to be heavily influenced by the prestige of your school (unfortunately, this means that the best recruited schools are reaches, and you may find recruiting less if you attend a safety).</p>
<p>However, most other Fortune 500 companies are big, and likely recruit widely.</p>
<p>Look at UVA’s Economics program. Sounds like a good match. </p>
<p>If you want to study Economics at a higher level definitely consider double majoring in Mathematics. Lot of Mathematics in Economics after the undergrad level.</p>
<p>What do you consider a second tier and third tier school OP? Give some examples of colleges and universities. That will help others to give you advice.</p>
<p>Have you looked at Naviance. I think you have a decent shot at some schools with admit rates in the teens and 20s. If you are female, Wellesley is a no brainer to be on your list. </p>
<p>Haverford, Wesleyan, Bates, Oberlin, Lehigh, and Tufts are all matches (40% or greater)
Brandeis, Rochester, Kenyon and Reed are likely
Boston College has early action and is also a match.</p>
<p>Who cares about class sizes, tk?<br>
In economics, ever hear of a concept called economies of scale? Intro econ is a popular course and the subject matter doesn’t necessitate a chat with a professor. And last a looked Berkeley was a top economics program…with top Grad Students who happen to sometimes be GSIs. These are the econ profs of the future…they need to start somewhere. Leading a discussion section ain’t a bad place to begin.</p>
<p>The OP probably intends to mean a second or third tier school for admissions selectivity (to be a non-reach school) while still having a quality economics program for his/her purposes.</p>
<p>If the goal is investment banking, then the best schools for that are reach-for-everyone schools. For other goals, there exist schools that are less selective but still have quality economics programs suitable for those goals.</p>
<p>I do. Evidently, so do many students and other parents involved in choosing colleges. So do the people at US News who rank colleges. Presumably, so do many college professors (who disproportionately send their kids to LACs.)</p>
<p>“Economies of Scale” is a useful concept for understanding ROI in the production of widgets on an assembly line. I’m not sure it’s such a useful concept for optimizing college class sizes. Of course it is true that some subjects call for more student-faculty engagement and interaction than others. Keep in mind, though, that courses in the major may comprise less than one fourth of a student’s total program.</p>
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<p>Berkeley’s graduate economics program is very highly regarded. Its quality presumably has positive trickle-down effects for undergraduates, especially if the professors whose research tends to bump up their graduate program ranking also teach undergraduates, and if they are effective college teachers. In the study by 2 economists I cited above, Berkeley does not show up in the list of top 26 institution-size normalized sources of eventual economics Ph.D.s. Nor does it show up among the top 27 program-size normalized sources. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not an excellent program (because factors unrelated to undergraduate program quality may be confounding the PhD production statistics). </p>
<p>Anyway … what I’d like to stress, again, is that one shouldn’t assume only a few super selective research universities have good undergraduate economics programs. If the goal is a career in banking/finance (not academia), then you might want to check out Colgate, Holy Cross, or Bucknell. These small colleges have average mid-career alumni salaries equal to or greater than those of Penn, Duke, Cornell, and Georgetown ([Full</a> List of Schools - PayScale College Salary Report 2012-13](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2013/full-list-of-schools]Full”>http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2013/full-list-of-schools)). Self-reported salary data is an imperfect indicator (as are many of these metrics), so of course you’d want to consider other factors as well.</p>