Recommendations for affordable undergraduate economics schools?

Hey all, I’ve been looking at some out of state schools that were rated highly for economics and the total cost is often over 50k a year. I’m not going to get much, if any, need-based financial aid as my parents make over $150k a year. In addition, my parents don’t want to pay that much for education (understandably), so to minimize my potential loans, I’m looking for some recommendations for schools strong in econ.

I live in California, so I’ve applied to all of the UCs and some CSUs already. U of A is my backup and I’ve applied for the honors college as well. My grades aren’t stellar as I have a 3.1 UW and a 3.7 W, but I do have a 34 on the ACT. I feel as though my ECs are solid (couple internships, founded 501©3 with programs for URMs interested in CS, started a profitable business, Eagle Scout + Quartermaster, etc.) and my essays are fairly solid content-wise.

What are your thoughts on some schools that’d suit me?

What is your primary reason for Econ? in particular, are you interested in econ research / theory? if not, it is harder to find a school with a weak Econ department than it is to find a strong one.

Yes, whether your interest in economics is mainly “business” or “research / theory / pre-PhD / mathematical” can matter in terms of how good the program is. For the former, many colleges will be fine for that.

For the latter, the choices are more limited, but several UCs are strong in that area (particularly UCB, UCI, UCSC, UCSD which offer more math-intensive intermediate economics courses than usual). However, a 3.1 HS GPA may be a difficult admit to them, so if that is your goal, consider starting at a community college and doing better there than in high school, including taking math through multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations before transfer.

What is your actual price limit?

I’ll second the idea that here’s many good economics programs, especially at the undergrad level. I was an Econ major at UCSD. My daughter is an Econ major at a small liberal arts college, not well known. She’s gotten a great education, did an REU at a major university, is doing research and has a great job lined up in her field for after graduation. She got a lot of interest from employers in the application process. She’s eyeing grad school as well. It’s been much more about what she’s done than where she went to school.
Look at Western Undergraduate Exchange schools for low cost options.
University of Wyoming offers Econ, and is very affordable on WUE. They also have great, well funded study abroad programs.
To do well as an economics major, wherever you end up, consider a math minor or double major, and learn to work with large data sets. Some coding is helpful. Get to know your professors, get involved in research.

You’d get aid at Alabama, Florida State, Oklahoma, & Kansas.

I’m primarily interested in economics to eventually become a management consultant. I don’t belive I’m as interested in research as compared to internships and work experience.

Management consulting preferentially recruits at elite admission colleges which are unrealistic to get into with a 3.1 HS GPA.

Research experience while an undergrad can help you get the internships and work experience.

Did you say you were a URM?

A lot of these merit scholarships have a minimum gpa to qualify (often 3.5). U of Alabama’s website explicitly says if the weighted & unweighted are both on your transcript, they will use whichever is higher. Not every college’s site makes it clear that they will do that. Perhaps somebody with recent experience could comment on whether weighted gpas are often used. If so, your 3.7 gpa combined with your 34 ACT should get you some serious merit scholarship $$.

Be careful, as some scholarship deadlines have already passed.

I think my price limit is around $40k a year for the total cost of attendance, not just tuition. Also, I’m not a URM, I’m half white half Asian.

Management consulting is still my objective, so it seems I should look at bigger, more prestigious schools. Although, I doubt my grades would get me in anywhere like that.

Realistically, your best chance to get into consulting is to do really outstanding in your undergraduate program so that you have a chance at an upper level masters program.

Here’s a different ranking for Econ. UCSD ranks in the top 20.

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.usecondept.html

Take a look at Howard. As a person of mixed-race heritage you might find others of similar background; it’s located in Washington DC, so lots of companies recruit there AND its COA matches your budget.

UCSD is a very unlikely admit for a frosh applicant with a 3.1 HS GPA (probably around 3.4 with UC recalculation if the high and low grades were evenly distributed over each year).

Which U of A is this?

@ucbalumnus I didn’t catch that. And I was making an observation and should have made that clear to the OP. But good point. The top UCs are so popular right now and great schools to boot.

@Eeyore123 Does undergraduate matter a great deal for getting into management consulting? I was under the impression that the name brand of more elite schools was more relevant for MBAs.

@mom2collegekids University of Arizona, I should have clarified that earlier.

@circuitrider Howard is interesting, but it doesn’t seem to have recruiting at all from MBB and I haven’t heard much about it from smaller firms. I also don’t think I’d fit in very well as I’m not African American.