<p>The economics major at Grinnell requires 8 economics courses. I’m willing to bet that the economics major at UW-Madison requires between 8 and 11 economics courses, so around the same amount. The reason that there are only 20 courses offered are 1) faculty constraints and 2) what most undergraduates don’t realize, is that most of the courses you will take in college will NOT be in your major. Only about a third of your curriculum is; the rest is spent satisfying general ed requirements (or, in the case of Grinnell, developing breadth and exploring other areas). Even the most motivated student doesn’t take every single course a department offers.</p>
<p>I would say that it’s relatively common for motivated undergraduate students to take one or two graduate courses in their senior or, in certain causes, their junior year. Be mindful, however, that many upper-level economics classes have prerequisites. You’ll certainly have to take calculus I and II and linear algebra, and some of them may have prob & stats requirements as well.</p>
<p>Grinnell has no problem getting its students into graduate school, so I am willing to bet that an offerings they have there are sufficient for your future plans. You’re right that a larger university like UW-Madison will have a larger variety of courses, more research opportunities, and more graduate-level courses; you will also have access to the city of Madison vs. Grinnell. These are trade offs that you have to decide on. Grinnell’s professors will be doing research, too; although the variety and number of opportunities may be smaller, you will likely get more directed contact with the professors doing it and may have greater responsibilities because you are not competing with graduate students. The classes you will have at Grinnell will be smaller and you will get more focused interaction with the professor. Your professors will also be less distracted with their own research, since the point is teaching. I also agree that you have your entire life to live in interesting cities, and in some ways, living in a big city as a mid-20s adult is much more fun than as a college student.</p>
<p>Honestly, either school is a great choice and you really can’t go wrong. But if Swarthmore was your dream school, I don’t see why you wouldn’t choose Grinnell over Madison, as they are similar in mission and atmosphere.</p>
<p>I have to put in a vote for Grinnell over Madison as well. You can’t take all those classes at Madison anyway, as someone pointed out above. I went to a large state university (Michigan), but have mostly steered my kids toward LACs. I think there is tremendous value in a school with a strong intellectual community, adults & professors who know you well enough to act as mentors, no classes taught by TAs, and no 300 person lectures. Grinnell probably has some great off campus study options as well, so you may only be on campus for 6 or 7 semesters. I also don’t think you would get any better career office support at Madison than you will get at Grinnell. I vote Grinnell. :)</p>
<p>Note that Grinnell actually does have breadth requirements. Of the 124 credits needed to graduate, at least 76 must be outside of your major department and at least 32 must be in other divisions besides the one that your major is in (the divisions are humanities, social studies, and science – economics is in social studies and math is in science, so this should not be too hard to satisfy as an economics major taking lots of math courses).</p>
<p>UW does not offer ther same 20 classes each term. Over 4 years there will be far more than that. And if you take International Econ you can take it from one of the top people in the field who has won teaching awards at Stanford and UW, is Editor of the Journal of Int Economics, and much much more.</p>
<p>“I imagine that Ann Arbor has places with prices geared to student budgets, but really, spending money is not too necessary at Grinnell, mainly if you want to go out to eat in town.”</p>
<p>Ann Arbor is pretty expensive, but since the OP won’t be attending school there it really doesn’t matter. ;-)</p>
<p>“Grinnell may not have as many research opportunities; Grinnell does not have a huge variety of classes and definitely doesn’t have graduate level courses; and Grinnell does not have the same exciting city that Madison does.”</p>
<p>I think this is a serious issue. The question is whether it’s a big deal to you or not. At a tiny school, especially one without a consortium, the student needs to be pretty flexible. It’s like going to a restaurant with a set menu. Every course is beautifully prepared and served to you individually, but you need to be willing to eat whatever they make. Chances are, there’s just one person who teaches, say, finance-related courses. Maybe you don’t like that guy, or he’s on sabbatical your senior year, etc. The happy Grinnell student will be somebody who will shrug and say, no big deal, I’ll go with this other option. Is that you?</p>
<p>The obvious answer seems to be to go to Grinnell for undergrad and UW-Madison for graduate school. Those are really their respective specialties.</p>
<p>(FWIW, I grew up in Madison and my father was a professor there for more than 20 years. It’s a great school, but it’s huge, you won’t be able to feel your feet by the time you get across campus in the winter, and your papers will be graded by TAs. The full professors have extremely limited contact with undergraduates.)</p>
<p>Just a quick response on the TA vs. full professor contact issue at UW. There are opportunities for students to interact with full profs – it is just not automatic and it takes some planning. As a first semester freshman, my son was in a 20 person seminar with a fabulous, personable, caring full prof. This semester, he is in an Honors section with another fabulous professor who – when my son emailed him over the weekend about a paper, emailed back from his phone on the same day. His foreign language classes are capped at around 20 students (cannot recall if it is 20 or 24), and he is deciding whether to go on a summer abroad program (already been accepted to it) with one of his current profs and 15 other students. As he thinks about scheduling for fall, he is looking at History seminars capped at 20 students as well. Yes, his TAs grade his exams and decide his participation grade for his non-Honors lecture courses, but they are also Ph.D students at UW – often in top 20 departments. </p>
<p>Is it the same as Grinnell, where no class is larger than, I think 28 students? No, of course not. Would he have far more personal connection, and accountability, at Grinnell? Yes, of course. But there are plenty of opportunities for direct interaction and collaboration at UW. </p>
<p>My son would completely agree that it is cold, for a very long time, in Madison, and he is from the cold snowy part of the Midwest.</p>