Purdue for a BS in Economics

Hello. I’m a HS student, and I was wondering how the Krannert Econ program is. I know Purdue is good for STEM, but some have said that its weak for Econ/Mgmt, etc. Is it really that bad? I’m willing to go to grad school to get an econ job, and the reason I’m considering Krannert is that it’s public and one of the very few AACSB accredited undergrad econ programs in the country. THX!

Kelley School at IU is typically considered the stronger program in Indiana. I believe their econ program is also AACSB accredited. (As much as it pains me to say that as a Purdue parent ; )).

They don’t have Economics. They have Economic Consulting; nevertheless, which one is better for jobs and salary? I don’t hear that Kelley grads get better jobs than Krannert grads.

Also, Times Higher Education ranks Purdue Economics 50th in the world, while IUB is unranked.

What are your career goals with regard to economics? Looks like at Purdue you can get an BS in Econ from Krannert or a BA in Econ from CLA…not sure if there are differences in outcomes, career services, etc. but there will likely be differences in gen ed requirements, maybe even major requirements.

At IU Kelley, there is no econ major, just economic consulting (which is not econ). There is an economics major in the college of arts and sciences.

Not sure I would worry too much about AACSB accreditation but perhaps I am missing something…why has that surfaced as important to you? I expect not many econ programs are AACSB accredited because most econ departments/majors are not in colleges of business (it tends to be in the liberal arts college as you see at IU).

I thought that an AACSB accredited Econ major would help me get jobs better. Also, is a BS or BA in Econ better for jobs?

I don’t think that getting a econ degree from an AACSB accredited program will result in better outcomes…what type of job do you see yourself in after getting an econ degree?

To decide between a BS and BA you have to look at each school’s requirements…both for gen eds and the major…and see what appeals to you more. I am not sure how many schools even offer both, like Purdue does. Regardless, do your research at schools that may be on your list (what year are you?) and take a look at the econ professors and their research focus, class offerings, requirements for major, and outcomes.

Here is one ranking of undergrad econ programs…you can see that as econ is a social science there are not many econ departments in business schools, if the college even offers business. I am not a fan of rankings, but you can use this site as a jumping off point for your research into econ and various schools’ offerings. https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/social-sciences/economics/rankings/top-ranked/

I though that internships, job placement rates, salaries, etc. were higher for grads from AACSB-accredited Econ programs (with the exception of Ivies and other good unis), but one other Econ program that I looked into was the BS Economics and International Affairs at GA Tech. I love learning about the world, and I thought that a major where I could learn how to manage money and learn about the world would be cool! I also heard that the Econ major at Krannert is very math-heavy.

Haven’t heard that, do you have data to support this?

You can sometimes discern this type of info by looking at the catalog, course offerings, and syllabi. Once you become facile with that info, you could even reach out to a professor and/or meet with them when you visit.

It’s great that you are interested in econ, but remember it’s a social science…there may not be courses focused on managing money…those would generally be found in finance.

This is kind of unrelated, but is Krannert Economics or UCF (School of Business) BS Economics better? Thanks.

The accreditation has nothing to do with employment outcomes.

@CheddarcheeseMN Can you tell us more? Honestly I’m confused when considering accreditation factors across all of my child’s applications. Some are business only. Some are business and accounting. What does it really mean to be or not to be accredited?

I can only comment on accreditation for Econ departments as not being meaningful. Let’s go through a lengthy process to get accredited and this will improve the quality of our Econ major said no econ professor ever. Perhaps it means something more for accounting departments. For business schools overall, one thing accreditation brings is increased attention on who is teaching the courses. A certain percent have to have PhDs and faculties can’t rely too heavily on local business professionals to teach a lot of the courses. This has in the past been a bigger deal for small colleges with business Programs. Presumably there might be more uniformity across accredited accounting programs in required courses for a degree. These things are less relevant for Econ departments.

@CheddarcheeseMN Ahhh… makes sense. It seems that the trend of hiring more adjuncts might bite some of them in the accreditation department? Purdue has business, but not accounting. This really surprises me! I may need to ask more questions of them.