<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I currently graduated from college with degrees in math and quant.econ and recently took up an offer for a job at a Bank in NYC. My job requires that you have a very strong quant. economics background which coming from an excellent math/economics department helps significantly. I noticed at my job that many of my colleagues come from either top notch ivy league schools or liberal arts schools like (e.g. williams, amherest, swarthermore) and thats because my bank only recruits at Harvard, MIT, Yale, Columbia and a bunch of these liberal arts schools. </p>
<p>Now, many of the schools (that come from this list Liberal</a> Arts Rankings - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report ) have the best economics programs in the country in (PHD and undergrads). However, what I don't understand is why does my bank care about students coming from liberal arts schools that have economics departments that are no where near traditional schools?</p>
<p>Why are these liberal arts schools so special? Why are they never included in the national ranking for schools but instead have their own ranking that my bank specifically has for them when its time to recruit? I am so confused......... I am so perplexed and please for goodness sakes don't make the argument that they have good math/science programs. Please don't compare the math or physics department at MIT with .. ?? Vassar...??? </p>
<p>Please someone help.</p>
<p>Because so many liberal arts, Ivy schools, banks… are owned by Jewish people … Networking at work … . :)</p>
<p>Compaq10, I hope to god you are joking.</p>
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<p>those schools all have great placement into econ programs too, must be doing something right</p>
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<p>Why? Would you have had the same reaction had he said “white people”?</p>
<p>Liberal arts college and liberal arts major are two entirely different things.</p>
<p>If anything, an econ/finance major at a liberal arts college would be even more qualified than a liberal arts major from a traditional school.</p>
<p>They’re not the same, but I’d guess the reasoning for why to hire them are similar.</p>
<p>Edit: On second thought, this probably isn’t true. But if it’s a liberal arts major at a liberal arts college than the same reasoning applies. </p>
<p>I get the OP’s point that an econ/finance major at high ranking traditional schools should be more qualified. Maybe they only hire liberal arts majors from liberal arts colleges?</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, considering that I’m going to a small school next year, what advantages would there be to majoring in econ at a large school rather than a small school?</p>
<p>From what I understand, liberal arts schools don’t give out graduate degrees, and this is why they are in a separate ranking. At the undergraduate level, this does not mean that they are any worse than more traditional schools like the Ivies, in fact in many cases they may be better. They are given a different ranking because they are a different type of school.</p>
<p>I think that is what you were asking, but I could be completely wrong. If so, I apologize :P</p>
<p>It’s not about the size of your school. It’s about your program. </p>
<p>It’s like going to Carnegie Mellon and majoring in history. That’s fine, but Carnegie is not renown in your field. You should be viewed differently than a CM who majored in comp sci–in your respective fields.</p>
<p>hmmm…
So liberal art <strong>colleges</strong>. They are not universities they are colleges. They do not have graduate phd programs?</p>
<p>Well if thats case that sucks and I would not recruit from there. In my undergrad I sat in on a few graduate classes at my unis that really beefed up my understanding of math & finance and thats because they let me sit down in these classes to learn from top researchers. </p>
<p>I am really sorry but I am not sold on recruiting from liberal art colleges. You can tell off the bat at my work how depressed the liberal art graduates from the non in amount of knowledge they should have down by now.</p>
<p>Justtalk… “If anything, an econ/finance major at a liberal arts college would be even more qualified than a liberal arts major from a traditional school.”</p>
<p>This is a silly comparison if it is really a comparison to begin with. We trying to compare people in the same cohort.</p>
<p>Probably because the banks know that liberal arts graduates know how to critically think and analyze. The banks know that the graduates of such programs are able to learn. Companies in many cases would prefer to have people who can analyze and learn rapidly to people who have a strong skill set, but may have difficulty learning new things as their field evolves.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen, even tier 2 liberal arts colleges (my younger S goes to one) require far more analytical thinking and writing than even some Ivies do. S is going to a tier 2 LAC and wrote a 61-page analytical paper for a 200 level course required for his theater major. The professor had wanted an 80-100 page paper! My undergrad degree is from Harvard, and I never wrote anything that long until I wrote my dissertation.</p>
<p>"Justtalk… “If anything, an econ/finance major at a liberal arts college would be even more qualified than a liberal arts major from a traditional school.”</p>
<p>This is a silly comparison if it is really a comparison to begin with. We trying to compare people in the same cohort. "</p>
<p>I gave you an article verifying everything northstarmom mentioned about liberal arts MAJORS. LogicWarrior responded that liberal arts majors and colleges are two different things. I think that’s idiotic, because many LAC’s have plenty of liberal arts majors. But I was just adding that, even putting that aside, many econ majors at LAC’s still get a solid liberal arts background and should have the same skills that Citi/Goldman Sachs were highlighting in liberal arts majors.</p>
<p>Basically the idea is
Potential. A liberal arts college isn’t about
Learning a
craft, it’s about getting you ready to learn any craft. Even at the best liberal arts colleges there are only about 30 or so majors. It’s really not enough to cover all the bases in terms of knowlege. However the amount of analytical thinking done at a top tier liberal arts college is very likely gona be more than a university. Basically a grad from a university has more knowledge in hand…but employers are banking on the fact that liberal arts college grads can be trained on the job and learn faster and apply the skills they learn better than a university grad.</p>
<p>Boy I sure feel sorry for those people who went to prestigious research universities and never learned how to think.</p>