I’m interested in business and Colgate has a economics program that seems to do well when post college careers.
I’m also interested in research so neuroscience/biology would be majors I’d like to take.
Another program I have is attending an LAC vs uni. Universities have more distinguished business schools while most LACs don’t even offer business majors and the best option would be economics. Yet, I love the small LAC feel with smaller classes.
Please help me! I can’t decide on either question.
Your question doesn’t relate necessarily to LACs vs. universities, in that, for example, even some large universities with prominent graduate business schools, such as Harvard, do not offer business as an undergraduate major.
Regarding the study of economics, Colgate places very highly among its peers, ranking 7th out of 196 schools as measured by faculty publishing:
Williams
Wellesley
Middlebury
Wesleyan
Hamilton
Claremont McKenna
Colgate
Students who attend one of a few liberal arts colleges (Amherst, Hamilton, Williams, Wellesley, Grinnell, Carleton) have the option of enrolling in an online certificate program offered by Harvard Business School. For a student who likes the LAC concept, but who still wants some direct business education, this program appears to offer an excellent opportunity.
Regarding Colgate specifically, if you like what you see in their course catalog – and could envision yourself pursuing one or more of their many majors – then you could comfortably choose the school feeling assured that your post-collegiate options would be both excellent and broad.
(Sources: “Economics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges,” IDEAS; “Harvard Business School Expands Online Initiative to Liberal Arts Colleges,” WGBH News.)
With respect to applying “undecided” versus “as something,” the distinction is likely to be irrelevant at many LACs. Other than their academic departments, they do not have the type of internal divisions (such as “schools”) that would make this type of decision necessary. Along these lines, I’d suggest that freedom to explore throughout the entire curriculum is one of the benefits of attending an LAC.
@merc81 Thanks for your help! Would pursing an economics major say at LAC differ from a university? Is one more likely to be a better “feeder” to a B-school?
An LAC with a strong econ program may offer about five dozen courses in the field. This is, of course, more courses than you will take as an undergraduate in any capacity. Class size will often be capped at a desirable 12-20 students. Beyond that, professional schools seem to have an affinity for LACs.
Should you be concerned about the degree of rigor of a particular program – whether at an LAC or a university – make sure at least single-variable calculus is a prerequisite for a range of intermediate economics courses.
A few LACs (Williams, Wellesley, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Hamilton, CMC) are so impressively strong in economics that they appear in this analysis among universities that may be ten or more times larger, even though the data has not been adjusted for the size of the schools: “US Economics Departments,” IDEAS. (Colgate in this case seems to have fallen just beyond the cut-off.)