<p>I am looking for a school for my son with a top-notch undergraduate economics program (within a College of Arts and Science, not an undergrad B-school). We would like to find an academic challenging program combined with a school that will give him opportunities for internships and on-campus recruiting by Wall Street and consulting firms. Two schools that we are looking at are NU and WUSTL (so I am posting this in both school forums). Can somebody familiar with these schools tell me the following:</p>
<p>1) How good are the Econ programs and how large are typical frosh/sophomore class sizes?</p>
<p>2) What are the opportunities for internships and recruting by banks and consulting firms?</p>
<p>3) I noticed that both schools have only around 5% international students, which I assume are mostly Asian STEM majors. Are there many British and other European students?</p>
<p>At the doctoral level, there are a decent amount of Europeans (mainly Scandinavians and a few Italians) in the Econ and Econ-related PhD programs.</p>
<p>And just wondering: why aren’t you considering economics programs in B-schools? Some of the top undergraduate Economics programs (Wharton* [applied], Stern, etc.) are housed in business schools, are as (or more) rigorous than A&S Economics Departments’ majors, and are a lot more heavily recruited than most departments in A&S.</p>
<p>Viviste - Thanks, I thought as much. I just think that WUSTL is vastly overrated, plus St. Louis is a backwater.</p>
<p>Oyama - In my experience (over 25 years managing people in investment banking/investment management) I will generally prefer someone with a liberal arts background to an undersgrad B-school degree as the former usually have superior skills in analysis, critical thinking and communicating. (Just my two-cents’ worth!).</p>
<p>Arbiter - Yes, that is correct. He will also be applying to Williams and Amherst for those reasons.</p>
<p>Well considered questions. I hope these prove to be useful responses.</p>
<p>1) The economics program, as I’m sure you realize, is extremely well reputed, consistently top 10 ranked, with a 2010 Nobel Prize winner in residence in Dale Mortensen. The mathematical underpinnings of the department I’d qualitate as middle of the road, the courses rigorous but not spirit breaking, class sizes moderate by standards of similar ranked uni’s but with professors, even at introductory levels, generally very supportive and very open to undergrads. Wash U’s program is less well known, but I’ll leave discussion of their department specs to their board and those more in the know.</p>
<p>2) Consulting and IB recruiting is very strong on campus, with MMSS and Kellogg Certificate program grads even more aggressively targeted. This has been discussed on multiple prior threads. Certainly much stronger recruiting than in St. Louis. I’d PM Sam Lee with specific questions you have. Internship opportunities should move from great to stupendous with President Shapiro’s new initiative (I’ve referenced in the past). Students will now be able (and encouraged) to take school year (fall, winter, spring) FOR-CREDIT internships. The pool of consultancies and IBs in Chicago is wonderful, but this would open up an entirely new group of opportunities nationally/internationally. Competition for top tier positions is much less intense during school terms than over the summer and many who would have been edged out for spots June-August will now find doors open during the academic year. This is a game changing initiative by the administration and one I expect to prove a great success.</p>