Top US Universities for undergraduate Economics

College Search & Selection
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<p>Can anyone list the top 10 universities for economics in the US? I don't really care if they are IVY league or not.</p>

2

<p>The search feature is your friend…</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/business-major/137062-best-undergraduate-economics-program.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/business-major/137062-best-undergraduate-economics-program.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>1) Chicago, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford
6) Columbia, Penn, Yale, Northwestern, UC Berkeley</p>

<p>two official rankings </p>

<p>USNEWS:
[Rankings</a> - Economics - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-economics-schools/rankings]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-economics-schools/rankings)</p>

<p>Academic Ranking of World Universities:
<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/ARWUSubject2009EconomicsBusiness.jsp[/url]”>http://www.arwu.org/ARWUSubject2009EconomicsBusiness.jsp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>in case this link does not work the top schools are:</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>U Penn</li>
<li>NYU</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>CMU</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
</ol>

4

<p>For undergrad prestige in Economics:</p>

<p>Harvard
MIT, Princeton, Stanford
Yale, Chicago, Berkeley
Northwestern, NYU, Columbia, Penn</p>

5

<p>bitt,
Why?</p>

<p>Why do you want an Economics degree? What are you hoping it does for you? If you can answer that, then one can likely give you a far more helpful answer than a listing of colleges based on unspecified factors. </p>

<p>Things like undergrad prestige are useful if you are thinking of a career in academia, but it is mostly meaningless in the real world. Instead, the real world cares about quality of the individual and his/her learning path. The real world can also be very much influenced by things like collegiate links to various industries/companies are very meaningful in the real world. </p>

<p>Which are you looking for? Academia or the real world?</p>

6

<p>

Hawkette, I think all the schools previously listed would provide an education the real world would find meaningful.</p>

7

<p>[Rankings</a> - Economics - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-economics-schools/rankings]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-economics-schools/rankings)</p>

<p>There is a dramatic drop in Peer Assessment scores between Northwestern and UPenn.</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley, Yale, Northwestern</li>
<li>Penn, Columbia, Minnesota, NYU, Michigan … etc.</li>
</ol>

<p>Graduate school rankings are indicators of the strength of the undergraduate program.</p>

<p>btw, RML, if you’re not going to bother including Minnesota and Michigan, then don’t bother including Berkeley. Yes, all three are state schools, and therefore none of their undergraduate colleges are prestigious.</p>

8

<p>kwu, </p>

<p>

I think you addressed your concern as to why Berkeley was included in RML’s list over Michigan and Minnesota.</p>

9

<p>Ucb,
I agree with you and didn’t mean for my comments/questions to come off as demeaning to those listed. Of course, they’re all going to be recognized in the real world, but the differences among graduates with economic degrees are probably tiny for many, many colleges. </p>

<p>Based on what a student is looking for, myopically focusing on a Top 10 list for Economics could be just…well…dumb. Do you really think that a student from a place like Georgetown is going to be seen that dramatically different from a student at Duke or U Virginia or Columbia or Rice or Vandy or UC Berkeley or Northwestern or U Penn or Notre Dame or any number of other schools? I don’t. Those schools may offer different advantages as to how to access certain industries/employers, but the quality of their top graduates do not differ greatly. </p>

<p>My point is that the employers are looking for the good people, many of which might attend colleges that have good Econ programs, but which are aren’t tagged with academia’s silly Good Housekeeping seal of approval. For jobs outside of academia, do yourself a favor and don’t place too much weight on things like PA scores. It’s about you (the student) and not about the school and its program.</p>

10

<p>kwu

huh…</p>

<p>Berkeley and Michigan are certainly prestigious despite being public. Where do you get that logic from?</p>

11

<p>Hawkette, thanks for the clarification. Of course I agree that many other more important factors need to be considered before making a choice.</p>

<p>However, academic’s “good housekeeping seal of approval” can provide an appropriate starting point for a search. </p>

<p>We don’t know if the top ten is too limiting for the OP but that’s what was asked.</p>

12

<p>ucb,
Whenever I see these Top 10 lists, I get a little frustrated because it creates inaccurate, misleading elitism and doesn’t recognize the fact that there are little to no differences in the quality of students/quality of education at far more than 10 schools for a subject like Economics.</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>LoL… Sorry; but I can’t help but laugh at what kwu just said.</p>

<p>Ladies and gentlemen, maybe our friend, kwu, has a different meaning of the word, “prestige”. He equates prestige to private schools. Therefore, according to his logic, Cambridge, Oxford, Sorbonne-Paris, LSE or UC Berkeley aren’t prestigious and would never be because they’re state funded insitutions. But schools like Oral Roberts University, Spalding University or Nova Southeastern University are prestigious because they are private institutions. </p>

<p>lol</p>

14

<p>hawlette, </p>

<p>if we would just disregard the “real top 10” for economics according to PA or prestige, we would end up listing thousands of schools that offer good economics program.</p>

15

<p>Well, I would definitely want to enter a prestigious university. I want to enter Investment Banking…which universities do top notch Investment Banks such as Goldman Sachs recruit individuals from?</p>

16

<p>^ top IBanks do recruit at all the schools I’ve listed, aside from more than 20 or so others. But if getting into IB is your main motivation and you decide to attend Berkeley, I suggest you go for Haas.</p>

17

<p>

</p>

<p>Pot, meet kettle…</p>

18

<p>

Kwu is correct that any “top 10” list excluding Minnesota is suspect.</p>

<p>Universities that are ranked top 10 by both USNWR and the NRC
[ul][<em>]Harvard University
[</em>]Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[<em>]Northwestern University
[</em>]Princeton University
[<em>]Stanford University
[</em>]University of California-Berkeley
[<em>]University of Chicago
[</em>]University of Minnesota
[<em>]University of Pennsylvania
[</em>]Yale University[/ul]</p>

<p>Universities that are ranked top 15 by both USNWR and the NRC
[ul][<em>]Columbia University
[</em>]University of California-Los Angeles
[<em>]University of Michigan
[</em>]University of Wisconsin-Madison[/ul]</p>

<p>Universities that are ranked top 20 by both USNWR and the NRC
[ul][<em>]California Institute of Technology
[</em>]Cornell University
[<em>]New York University
[</em>]University of California-San Diego[/ul]</p>

<p>Universities that are ranked top 25 by both USNWR and the NRC
[ul][<em>]Boston University
[</em>]Brown University
[<em>]Duke University
[</em>]University of Maryland-College Park
[*]University of Rochester[/ul]</p>

19

<p>

Keep in mind that IB recruiting is only loosely connected with the strength of the business or economics program at a given university. </p>

<p>Although one could argue endlessly over the precise groupings, it generally goes something like this…</p>

<p>Tier 1: Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Wharton</p>

<p>Tier 2: Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Penn, Yale</p>

<p>Tier 3: Brown, Chicago, Cornell, Georgetown, Michigan Ross, Northwestern, NYU Stern, UCB Haas, UVA</p>

<p>Tier 4: CMU, Rice, UCLA, others</p>

20

<p>RML, you’re delusional if you’re under the impression that the collective undergraduate student body at Berkeley is comparable to that of Oxford or Cambridge, given the rigorous selectivity of the latter institutions</p>

<p>Faculty strength and achievement is certainly a factor that contributes significantly to the prestige of a school, but one has to take into account that the chief responsibility of state schools at the undergraduate level is to serve the residents of that state. Therefore, there will be a critical mass of extraordinarily talented students, but a vast majority of the students will not be quite so extraordinary, to put it gently. The enormous discrepancy between the majority and minority makes it difficult to collectively deem Berkeley’s undergraduate schools prestigious.</p>

<p>The institution, taken as a whole, is exceedingly venerable and impressive, but I would find it adorable if the typical undergraduate at the College of Letters and Science were to try to ride off the prestige of Berkeley’s tip-top graduate programs, Haas, and the College of Engineering.</p>

<p>There are adherents browsing these fora who would argue passionately that Michigan is a prestigious school, Minnesota not as many. And, if one argues as you do that a state school like Berkeley is as prestigious as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Chicago, etc., I find it hard to believe why one would conveniently omit Michigan, a similarly reputable and outstanding institution.</p>

<p>Sure, you can accuse me of elitism, but I’m just trying to call you out on your own.</p>