Suggestions (Can't decide)

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<p>Anailways - the link above doesn’t work.
Hyaline - why dont you post in the respective college boards.
Berkeley is known for its Econ department but obviously class sizes and competition is tough, maybe more than Duke.
I don’t know much about Duke but here is a link <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/duke-university/507607-duke-vs-cornell-vs-berkeley-vs-michigan-vs-northwestern.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/duke-university/507607-duke-vs-cornell-vs-berkeley-vs-michigan-vs-northwestern.html&lt;/a&gt;
[Advice</a> needed: Northwestern vs NYU vs Berkeley vs Duke](<a href=“http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/130839-advice-needed-northwestern-vs-nyu-vs-berkeley-vs-duke.html]Advice”>Advice needed: Northwestern vs NYU vs Berkeley vs Duke - PhD in Economics - Urch Forums)
From the latter board - “Assume you have funding everyone (you definitely have in NYU) you can discard Duke. It’s a perfectly good place but a step below the rest in academics and location. Now, in terms of labor/public, Berkeley definitely dominates. NYU is strong in macro and NWU is theory/IO.”
I think Berkeley seems to have the edge since it is just so well known overall.</p>

<p>Pity you can’t fly out here for a week to get a feel of the campuses.</p>

<p>Another link <a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/economics-rankings[/url]”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/economics-rankings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Ahh… thank you for pointing that out fall2016parent, it is because I am registered with USNews and if I upload that link non registered members cannot access it. So I have tried to put it up, typed it myself. Hope it helps… </p>

<p>The following is USNews 2012 List of Top 25 Economics Program UG</p>

<p>Rank School name Score</p>

<h1>1 Harvard University Cambridge, MA 5.0</h1>

<h1>1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 5.0</h1>

<h1>1 Princeton University Princeton, NJ 5.0</h1>

<h1>1 University of Chicago Chicago, IL 5.0</h1>

<h1>5 Stanford University Stanford, CA 4.9</h1>

<h1>6 University of California–Berkeley, CA 4.8</h1>

<h1>6 Yale University New Haven, CT 4.8</h1>

<h1>8 Northwestern University Evanston, IL 4.7</h1>

<h1>9 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 4.4</h1>

<h1>10 Columbia University New York, NY 4.3</h1>

<h1>10 University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 4.3</h1>

<h1>12 New York University New York, NY 4.2</h1>

<h1>12 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, MI 4.2</h1>

<h1>14 California Institute of TechnologyPasadena, CA 4.1</h1>

<h1>14 University of California–Los Angeles, CA 4.1</h1>

<h1>14 University of California–San Diego, CA 4.1</h1>

<h1>14 University of Wisconsin–Madison, WI 4.1</h1>

<h1>18 Cornell University Ithaca, NY 3.9</h1>

<h1>19 Brown University Providence, RI 3.8</h1>

<h1>19 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper), PA 3.8</h1>

<h1>19 Duke University Durham, NC 3.8</h1>

<h1>22 University of Maryland–College Park, MD 3.7</h1>

<h1>22 University of Rochester, NY 3.7</h1>

<h1>24 Boston University Boston, MA 3.6</h1>

<h1>25 Johns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore, MD 3.5</h1>

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<p>Thanks anialways.
Again, I keep telling the folks here that ranking is one side of the equation, you have to also think what may fit you. Look for where you feel you will be comfortable with (big city/small city, international set up, amenities, campus college town). ALL of these schools are good and you are fortunate to have these choices. At the end of the day, you WILL BE FINE wherever you go.</p>

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<p>^</p>

<p>Anialways, that ranking is for grad school, and not for undergrad. Don’t understand why Berkeley is so underrated. Duke, while good, has very less international prestige compared to UC Berkeley so if you want to work overseas, I wouldn’t pick Duke ( not knocking on Duke, but O do not understand why Duke is considered to be a pseudo-Ivy, when it’s academics in most departments aren’t that great)</p>

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<p>Here is the undergrad rating [Best</a> Undergraduate Economics Programs in the Nation](<a href=“http://education-portal.com/best_undergraduate_economics_programs.html]Best”>Best Undergraduate Economics Programs in the Nation)</p>

<p>Berekely is still up there. I tend to agree with Pratyush…dont choose Duke just for the “Ivy” tag. But we don’t know what kind of student you are and I will be honest and say Berkeley is known for its challenges. You will find students strongly for and against any school.</p>

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<p>NYU Economics Specialities are as follows
Rankings #12 in Economics
Specialties - 6</p>

<h1>10 in Development Economics</h1>

<h1>12 in Econometrics</h1>

<h1>12 in Industrial Organization</h1>

<h1>12 in International Economics</h1>

<h1>6 in Macroeconomics</h1>

<h1>10 in Microeconomics</h1>

<p>Duke, following specialities</p>

<p>Economics Ranking #19 in Economics
Specialties 1</p>

<h1>15 in Labor Economics</h1>

<p>CMU
Rankings #19 in Economics,
No specialities mentioned.</p>

<p>The above is all from USNews Ranking - 2012</p>

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<p>Pratyush</p>

<p>You are right it is grad school ranking. My mistake.</p>

<p>But to correlate it, the schools that have a great Grad program would also have a strong undergrad program in that field. Just my opinion.</p>

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<p>CMU vs UCLA vs Michigan for Econ? I’d say go for Michigan. CMU is a waste for anything other than Engineering / CS</p>

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<p>@anriudha - thanks for that input. I myself was wondering about CMU…Hyaline is trying to choose between Duke vs UCB vs NYU</p>

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<p>For an econ major, specially one who plans to work in the US I would go to Duke without hesitation. Speaking as someone who chose Duke over several ivies, I can say without a semblance of doubt that Duke is one of the best undergraduate universities in the world. Duke is the second largest feeder to Chicago Booth and Columbia’s business school, arguably the best business schools in the world after HBS, GSB and Wharton. Duke has an absolutely unbelievable network on wall street, and in consulting. McKinsey conducts special diversity leader programs for sophomores from Duke, Penn, Harvard and Yale. As an undergraduate institution Duke is leagues better than Berkeley and its peers. I am absolutely willing to concede that Berkeley’s grad schools (not professional schools) are substantially better than Duke, however, even Berkeley students (at least the the ones I know) will confess to Duke being the better undergraduate institution. Econ classes at Berkeley can accommodate up to 600 students! Berkeley lacks racial diversity, and the California public education system is up to its neck in debt, so expect cost of attendance to increase dramatically. Furthermore, it is completely conceivable for you to require 5 years to graduate at Berkeley due to unavailability of your preferred classes. Such occurrences are virtually impossible at Duke. I have 3 good friends at Berkeley at this point in time and they were all rejected outright from Duke. Obviously this is an unreliable anecdote, but look at general trends, SAT scores, Rhodes Scholarships, Acceptance Rate, Yield. Duke vanquishes Berkeley in every category. Dont let anyone on an anonymous internet forum dictate your life (this goes for me as well), follow your dreams. From your previous posts it seems like you really want to attend Duke but are conflicted due to the barrage of opinions being thrust at you. Take some time off CC to gain some perspective, and put a deposit down at the place you love the most.</p>

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<p>Thanks you so much for the input everyone :), I think I have more than enough information to make a decision. I’m leaning towards UCB and Duke at the moment. </p>

<p>In the case of NYU, I didn’t apply didn’t apply to Stern econ, which I believe holds the real prestige. I’ve also heard the CAS economics majors are marginalized by recruiters in favor of Stern students. I actually regret not applying to Stern, but I honestly didn’t think I’d get in with a 2120 SAT and no real passion for business- at least this stage in my life.</p>

<p>CMU is on my list firstly, because it does actually rank pretty highly for the social sciences. I also really like what I’ve seen of the university in terms of its location and more importantly it’s relatively small class sizes.</p>

<p>@anirudha now that you mention it, how is UMichigan for econ as compared to Berkeley, NYU and CMU. I’d say Berkeley, would be better but I’m not so sure about UCLA, NYU or CMU.</p>

<p>I’ve had some varied opinions being presented to me :D, some saying CMU beats Michigan in econ “hands down” while you say CMU is useless for non tech. Once again, thank you to everyone for for the amazing advice :).</p>

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<p>Hyaline! we can meet at UCB if you decide on going there :3</p>

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<p>Hmmm yeah I’m firming Duke, I don’t know what I was thinking tbh. I was probably going to choose it anyway- just weighing my options. </p>

<p>Thanks you for everything :D.</p>

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<p>That’s great! :smiley: You know where you are going, that’s amazing! :)</p>

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<p>Wow, I cant believe you were actually considering places other than Duke. Do you know what a Duke acceptance means!</p>

<p>Looking at your stats from previous posts, your acceptance to Duke is quite an achievement. Like happyman2 said; for undergrad, Duke is probably more prestigious than certain Ivy’s. I would go to Duke without any hesitation and perhaps consider Berkeley for grad school. </p>

<p>I know people who were rejected from Duke and accepted to top tiers Ivys, I wouldn’t skip on this opportunity if I was you ^^.</p>

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<p>I’m glad you’ve decided to see some sense ^^.</p>

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<p>I know my change of mind seemed pretty abrupt, but its taken a while for me reach this conclusion. I never thought I’d get into Duke so it took ages for the news to really sink in. </p>

<p>When I got the acceptance I refreshed the page a few times to make it wasn’t some sort of mistake- basically my initial reaction was confusion…</p>

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<p>@Hyaline - A few moments back when I checked this site, there was a message from Framed that sounded like you. then it got deleted. Are you Framed or Hyaline? Anyways…I don’t care. Except I don’t like people double dipping ids and replying as if they are one or other. By the way, all of these are top tier school so a good student will do well anywhere. Good luck. hope it works out.</p>

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<p>Sorry just skimmed through the posts. Duke definitely, then. Unless you’re going for Stern Econ… Then its a tough decision… I’d probably go for Stern Econ just because I LOVE NYC</p>

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<p>Happyman’s knowledge of Berkeley is outright skewed and I would attribute to a lack of information.
Let me give a point by point counter-argument to set the scales straight here:</p>

<p>

Very arguably.
Berkeley’s Haas school of business is considerably more prestigious according to any rankings that you might come across.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Are you serious?
I suggest you please pull up some statistics to back up that claim. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, this seems to suggest that your contacts at Cal aren’t figuring in the upper bracket academically, because believe you me, if they were even in the top 30% of the class here, they would rather choose to be here rather than anywhere else.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I condemn the exaggeration. Class sizes are undoubtedly bigger than a private school, but it’s not like there’s a gigantic overflow as you portray it as being.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I wonder if this is out of arrogance, because I fail to see how this piece of information is helpful. I, myself, chose Berkeley over Penn, Cornell and CMU, all three arguably better schools than Duke. I know not just one or two, but several people who turned down top Ivies and Stanford, again arguably better than Duke and for some majors better than Berkeley too, to come to school here.
Please refrain from misguiding prospective students. I understand everyone loves their schools, which is why they chose them, but to pull things out of the hat when clearly they are not true is just ridiculous.
Agreed Duke is a good school, but to say it’s ‘leagues ahead of Berkeley’ just demonstrates a lack of information or just an overzealous blinding sense of school spirit.</p>