<p>I've recently began looking into Liberal Arts Colleges and am impressed with the kind of instruction they offer. It just so happens that I'm looking at Economics as one of my prospective majors. After searching this forum quite extensively (and I must say the archives are extremely helpful), I've come across a list of LACs with "good" economics programs, however the definition of good seems to vary. Some "good" LACs (like Swarthmore) seem to have a focus towards academia (sending kids towards PhDs in Economics).</p>
<p>Now I have no interest in pursuing Graduate Study in Economics (It's too early to decide but if I were to attend a Graduate program, it'd probably be for a MBA).</p>
<p>So I was wondering which LACs had strong economics programs with a history of placing students in employment rather than academia. (I'm interested in working in Business)</p>
<p>Williams and Claremont McKenna are pretty preprofessional in that regard. Pomona, Amherst, Middlebury, and even Swat offer strong recruitment, even if there is an academic tilt. Washington and Lee is a LAC with a business degree. Rice is very LAC like, and offers a business minor in addition to their econ degree. Dartmouth is very much in the LAC mold, and is recruited very heavily. Haverford is supposed to be pretty academic, but it seemed to have very solid business options when I looked into it. Colgate is known for being preprofessional.</p>
<p>Thank You. Pre-professional was the word I was looking for.</p>
<p>I'm just a bit concerned about how viable an Undergrad economics degree is going to be for the job market (especially with the financial market taking a hit)</p>
<p>Claremont McKenna has a really strong economics program-- and after a recent $200 million gift, it will probably only get stronger. It's also much more pre-professional than most liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>You don't know which of these tracks will eventually appeal to you, and in fact may find yourself in another major after a year or two of college. So I would not focus too finely on your current question. Most of the top 40 or so LACs have very good econ departments and both academic and pre-professional opportunities are available for their grads. Some with lower rankings have very good local and regional alumni networks that assist in job placement.</p>
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You don't know which of these tracks will eventually appeal to you, and in fact may find yourself in another major after a year or two of college.
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<p>True but I'd like to have a general idea of the kind of tracks available to me :).</p>
<p>So anyone know any other schools that fall under the pre-professional/intellectual category?</p>
<p>And one more question, so Amherst has an intellectual but kids go into the workforce? I don't the vibe, I'm just worried about the recruiting (because I read on this forum somewhere that some companies are hesitant to recruit at Swarthmore because kids generally go into PhD Programs)</p>
<p>I don't mean to discourage your interest in colleges, but...seriously....a 10th grader comparing colleges on how many investment bank firms will recruit on campus six years from now is probably not the recommended way to dive into this college thing.</p>
<p>The way things are looking right now, there may not be any investment banking jobs in six years. In any case, if you are that obsessed with investment bank recruiting, I can pretty much confirm that none of the top LACs is the right school for you and that you probably will have little chance of being accepted to any of them. They are all excellent Wall Street feeders, but they all bristle at being viewed as vocational schools.</p>
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I don't mean to discourage your interest in colleges, but...seriously....a 10th grader comparing colleges on how many investment bank firms will recruit on campus six years from now is probably not the recommended way to dive into this college thing.</p>
<p>The way things are looking right now, there may not be any investment banking jobs in six years. In any case, if you are that obsessed with investment bank recruiting, I can pretty much confirm that none of the top LACs is the right school for you and that you probably will have little chance of being accepted to any of them.
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<p>interesteddad, I don't think I ever mention investment banking in my original post. I just mentioned I would prefer to work in Business (Although Consulting is sort of like a dream job I don't the grades to get into one of the targets). I did talk about the financial sector because it seems like Econ feeds into that primarily. I'm interested in LACs because of the discussion based format and smaller class sizes they seem to offer. But you are right in the sense that I probably won't get into any of the top LACs. I'm not anti-intellectual (quite the contrary) but I come from a very low income family and I don't want my brother to worry about college finances like I do (he's 4 years younger than me) so I prefer being in a job out of college.</p>
<p>MidwestMom, I can assure you I don't have the stats to get into a top LAC by any means but I do plan to apply to a couple of them (as reaches).</p>
<p>I just wanted to know what an Econ degree would fetch.</p>
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Many excellent investment bankers went to top LACs.
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<p>I'm very aware of that. I suspect my daughter had a class today at an LAC in a bulding named after Jerome Kohlberg, the father of the leveraged buy-out.</p>
<p>However, few of the top LACs will respond lovingly to an applicant who has, since the 10th grade, focused on business recruiting at the college. These schools are looking for intellectual curiosity. The business recruiting will take care of itself.</p>
<p>That's the point I was trying to make. I just don't think comparing Economics departments viz-a-viz business versus academic is at all relevant to a 10th graders' beginning college search.</p>
<p>interesteddad, I don't know what you have against Business but what in the world makes you think that intellectual curiosity and working in business are mutually exclusive?</p>
<p>First you generally assume that I would work in Investment Banking, now you state that looking to see if a liberal arts degree is viable especially with the market situation is anti-intellectual. I really like how you've totally switched your rhetoric from Investment Banking to Business.</p>
<p>There's a reason I'm choosing Economics over Business, and am looking at LACs. I really don't think its fair for you to judge me just because of the fact that I prefer to have a stable job out of college (yes without going to grad school).</p>
<p>And if you really question my intellectual curiosity, I strongly suggest you talk politics or philosophy with me some time.</p>
<p>Yes I am a bit harsh in the post (I'm sure all those tests tomorrow are playing a factor) and I apologize if you're offended by this.</p>
<p>I'm just saying that there are "big picture" items in beginning a college search for a rising high school junior than whether or not an economics dept has an "academic" or "business" tilt (whatever that means).</p>