I am beginning to fill out my college applications and wanted to ask, what are the quality of the economics programs at the following schools, particularly in comparison to their business program. My backup major, if I am not accepted for business will be economics. My quality, I am referring to reputation, professors, ranking, etc.
The schools are:
NYU
UNC
IU Bloomington
UW Madison
UIUC
Ohio State
UT Austin
“US Economics Departments | IDEAS.”
@merc81 Is this graduate or undergrad?
Generally, undergraduate.
Though you currently appear to be considering only large universities, this analysis can also be informative: “Economics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges.”
@merc81 Thanks but I’m not interested in LACs. I want an urban environment with a lot of opportunities. LACs just don’t fit for me.
Then the first analysis should be suitable for your purposes.
There are LACs in urban environments, though (e.g. Trinity, known for its Econ).
Assuming that you are looking at economics from a pre-professional standpoint (i.e. as a substitute for majoring in business), you may want to look at the course offerings for those of interest from that standpoint. In addition, check other departments like sociology and psychology for courses that may be of interest (e.g. a “sociology of work” course may be the liberal arts version of an “organizational behavior” course in the business major).
If you are interested in going on the PhD study in economics, look for math intensive intermediate microeconomics and econometrics courses (typical is single variable calculus; the departments with more math intensive ones may require multivariable calculus and/or linear algebra). In addition, more advanced math and statistics courses beyond those usually required for the economics major are expected by PhD programs.
@ucbalumnus Thank you for the info. I’m looking at it as a business substitute.