<p>yeah its true
sorry for my arrogance,</p>
<p>im just surprised since i have to pay 45k this year to attend ucla since I am out of state</p>
<p>UCLAri:</p>
<p>eanicich is interested in UNDERGRAD econ. The subspecialty ranking isn't really that important. When two programs are separated by only few spots in ranking, factors like student-faculty ratio, on-campus recruiting by top firms, grad/professional school placement, flexiblity of adding minor/certificate or double-majoring...etc are more important. </p>
<p>That said, US News does have subspecialty ranking for 8 areas. UCLA is better ranked in 3 out of the 8 (develoment, international, labor)
while NU is ranked higher in 5 (econometrics, industrial organization, micro, macro, public finance). So that again contradicts your claim.</p>
<p>Other than US News, NRC, econphd.net, Dusansky and Vernon, Tom Coupe, American Economist all rank Northwestern's econ higher.</p>
<p>eanicich,</p>
<p>If you happen to be interested in management consulting, Northwestern is one of the most targeted by the top MC firms:</p>
<p>Sam Lee,</p>
<p>The whole "undergrad ranking" for a specific department is silly, in my opinion. Undergrads rarely benefit much from what rankings capture anyway, as the gap between what undergrads and grads do is very large. You will learn the same things at every top 25 program in econ: Keynes, Ricardo, econometrics, etc. etc. You aren't going to get something radically different.</p>
<p>And if you actually look at econphd.net, Northwestern and UCLA are both about the same. Especially at the graduate level (which is the only time these rankings matter), UCLA and Northwestern are equally strong, but in different areas. UCLA is much stronger in macro and labor than Northwestern.</p>
<p>Again, undergrad rankings of a department are just silly. They capture none of the variation in what matters, which is specialties.</p>
<p>UCLAri,</p>
<p>You were the first one that brought up the specialities ranking by saying "UCLA's econ department is probably stronger than Northwestern's in most areas". So I digged out those graduate subspecialty rankings and proved that Northwestern is actually ranked higher by almost all different published rankings, contrary to what you claimed. Then you turned around and lectured me how undergrads benefit little from such rankings? :confused: </p>
<p>I honestly don't want this to turn into comparison of graduate ranking because I don't think they matter as much to undergrads but you keep putting misleading statements about them. So I'd like to post the link of econphd <a href="http://www.econphd.net/rankings.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.econphd.net/rankings.htm</a> to show others what you claimed ("UCLA is much stronger in macro and labor than Northwestern") is very different from what the facts are. If "much stronger" means 2-4 spots higher, then I don't know what adjective I should use to describe NU superiority in econometrics, micro, business, and public econ. Like US News, econphd also ranks NU higher in more areas, contrary to your claim.</p>
<p>Rankings don't capture all of the variation, and "spots" aren't always the best measure. </p>
<p>First off, what I said was that UCLA's department is PROBABLY stronger in most areas. Northwestern has many drop dead good specialties, but my experience with the literature is that UCLA's department is, by nature, a more consistently broad department. </p>
<p>Again, "misleading" depends on what metrics you use. I never claimed that I should be the last stop for econ, but I presented what I've observed. Take it with whatever grain of salt you want. I don't frankly think it's that big of a deal, as undergrads shouldn't be concerned with this much anyway. It is, at best, a marginal concern.</p>
<p>UCLAri,</p>
<p>You are clearly intelligent but no offense, you aren't even a PhD in economics. There's no reason for me or anyone to value what you said more than all the published rankings. In fact, with all these contradictions with the published rankings, it seems like what you said has been pretty baseless.</p>
<p>Sam,</p>
<p>I am not a PhD in econ. That's true. But I spend considerable time working with political economy and in econometrics, so I have a broad overview of the various departments. I also admit (freely) that my biases are mostly West Coast-based.</p>
<p>Besides, all I said was that UCLA PROBABLY (key functional word here) is stronger overall. Again, this is based on my observations from working with a fair amount of economics literature and time spent reading a number of journals for courses here.</p>
<p>I never claimed to be anything other than an observer. I never claimed to be some sort of authority. I merely stated what I've observed from the literature and the rankings. Again, I do not buy into the USNWR rankings. Never have. </p>
<p>And really, who here is a PhD in econ? None of us. We all have to base our opinions on what we observe and filter through others. Still, I don't see what's so bad about being supportive of my alma mater on my alma mater's forum. I'm merely stating my opinion, so as they say, take it or leave it.</p>
<p>Thanks UCLAri and Sam Lee. I appreciate all the information presented and despite the disagreement, I have been able to glean a lot from the discussion. I know you're both big time posters on cc and both come from knowledgeable backgrounds, so I do value all that was said.</p>