<p>Don’t forget Claremont McKenna. They have a great economics department with sequences in accounting and finance.</p>
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<p>I’d have to agree with Alexandre that “It is hard to say who is #1 in Economics” Next to the attempt to measure the quality of individual schools or programs by “measuring” quality outputs in journals (see <a href=“http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/investigacion/rankings_universidades/Institutions_economics.pdf[/url]”>http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/investigacion/rankings_universidades/Institutions_economics.pdf</a> for a discussion of the methods) most discussions veer into nothing else than idle speculation and individual opinions on the popularity of particular schools. This thread is, of course, no exception. </p>
<p>On the other hand, from a student’s perspective, it should not be incredibly hard to compose a list of schools that offer both excellence and, most importantly, dedication to the teaching in the field of economics. Excellence can be measured by the research and publishing prowess of the faculty; dedication is harder to measure as the availability and interactivity with those academic giants is rather fickle as publishing commitments or political appointments might take precedent to spending time in front of students. </p>
<p>This said, a sure sign of lack of dedication to teaching in the department is the lack of resources and a small-sized faculty. That is why so few LACs can rival with the most research universities powerhouses.</p>
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<p>Many people in the field would rank Minnesota on a par with, or even slightly above, UCLA and Wisconsin, and definitely a cut above Brown, Cornell, and Duke.</p>
<p>I think one needs to be careful at the larger universities, though. Economics tends to be a pretty popular major, which could mean not a lot of personal contact with faculty. And some of the celebrity economists at some of the top-ranked schools don’t spend a lot of time in undergraduate classrooms. Although the top LACs usually have smaller departments with faculty representing a narrower range of specialized expertise, the quality of the undergraduate experience there may in some respects be better. And it’s certainly possible to get a strong foundation in economics at just about any of the top LACs.</p>
<p>As to the OP’s question, I’d say in pure prestige in the field it’s pretty much a 4-way tie between Harvard, MIT, Chicago, and Princeton, with Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Yale just a smidge behind. For the combination of prestige with the quality of the undergrad experience, I’d have to go with Princeton in this field.</p>
<p>I bviously missed a few bclintonk. Carnegie Mellon, Minnesota, NYU and UCSD all come to mind on the research university front and Bowdoin, Carleton, Claremont McKenna, Colgate, Haverford, Pomona, Wesleyan and Williams all come to mind on the LAC front.</p>
<p>Xiggi said that one way to measure the quality of the economics program is to look at the size of the faculty. The Robert Day School Of Economics and Finance at Claremont McKenna has 40 professors in the department. I don’t believe there is another liberal arts school in the USA that has an economics faculty of that size. I also don’t believe there is another liberal arts school that offers the breadth and depth of economics, finance and accounting courses as CMC.</p>
<p>There’s no ranking of economics programs for undergrads…because you’re going to be learning the same basic concepts. </p>
<p>Look into undergrad business rankings</p>
<p>A faculty of 40 is huge, LAC or not. Chicago’s faculty Econ faculty numbers at 40. Michigan has a faculty of 70 and Harvard barely hits 55. When you consider the fact that CMC only has 400 or so students majoring in Economics at any point in time, that 10:1 student to faculty ratio is astounding. </p>
<p>Popular majors like Economics, Political Science and Psychology typically have a student to faculty ratio of 20:1. That is certainly the case at Harvard (17:1), Chicago (20:1) and Michigan (25:1).</p>
<p>Seems that many of the universities named as being good for economics have a math emphasis, as indicated by offering intermediate microeconomics courses using multivariable calculus (though some offer a choice between “more math” and “less math” versions of intermediate microeconomics courses).</p>
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<p>Also, economics courses, at least the introductory and intermediate ones, are popular courses for non-majors, so they can be very large.</p>
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<p>There are 25 faculty members in Economics and 7 in accounting and finance. Still a very large number for the size of the school, considering only 68 seniors graduated with an Economics degree last year.</p>
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<p>Right, but keep in mind that unlike most LACs, CMC now offers a Master’s program in finance, a recent addition which it is still gearing up. And in addition to straight economics, its econ faculty also play a major role in the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) major, which I believe is also very popular at CMC. Not to take anything away from the size of the faculty which is impressive; but you can’t just look at the size of the faculty in relation to undergrad econ majors.</p>
<p>Lets do a comparison to see how it compares to other schools that have a good Economics department. It appears that if visiting faculty is not included, Claremont McKenna, Williams and Princeton have about the same level of Economics department faculty relative to Economics majors…</p>
<p>Economics Faculty
38 - Claremont McKenna (including 7 accounting & finance and 6 visiting faculty)
72 - Princeton (including 23 visiting faculty)
34 - Williams College</p>
<p>2009 or 2010 Graduating Economics Undergraduate Majors
68 - Claremont McKenna
97 - Princeton
63 - Williams</p>
<p>Ratio of Econ graduates to Econ Faculty
1.79x - CM
1.35x - Princeton
1.85x - Williams</p>
<p>Ratio of Econ graduates to Econ Faculty (without visiting faculty)
2.13x - CM
1.98x - Princeton
1.85x - Williams</p>
<p>^ Yes, but what about Finance grad students and undergrad PPE majors at CMC? And Econ grad students at Princeton? You’re not accounting for all the students econ faculty are responsible for if you just compare econ faculty to undergrad econ majors.</p>
<p>^You are correct, there are an additional 19 undergraduate Accounting majors and 20 MS Finance majors at CM graduating. Can’t find the PPE majors, but “Political Science and Government, General” majors graduating equal 32.</p>
<p>Princeton’s Econ department graduate school accounts for about 20% of the total amount of Econ majors in the University. If 400 econ majors are used for undergraduate (4 x Seniors graduating), then there are about 100 in the Masters and PhD programs ((2 x Masters graduating) + (4 x PhD’s graduating)).</p>
<p>Williams College Economics Department</p>
<p>[Economics</a> About](<a href=“http://econ.williams.edu/welcome]Economics”>About the Department – Economics)</p>
<p>About the Department
The economics department currently has 25 regular faculty members. About three-fourths of us are in residence in a typical year, with the others spending time away on research-related leaves. Economics is one of the most popular subjects at Williams, with an average of about 90 majors in each graduating class. Another 10 to 20 students graduate each year with a major in Political Economy, an inter-departmental major combining economics and political science with a strong public policy focus. The economics department also operates and staffs the Center for Development Economics, which offers a one-year Master’s degree in Policy Economics for about 25 to 30 early-career public servants from developing and transitional countries each year.</p>
<p>Research
A 1997 study ranked the Williams economics department first among economics departments at national liberal arts colleges based on research publications. A 2008 study of citations to faculty research at selected economics departments finds that Williams does better than the other top liberal arts colleges included in the study, and compares favorably to well-regarded mid-tier research universities. We have an active seminar series where department members and economists from other institutions present their research. The department maintains three working paper series, including a general departmental series, and specialized series on development economics and topics in the economics of higher education.</p>
<p>==================</p>
<p>links included in the text above:</p>
<p>the 1997 study</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jstor.org/pss/1183418[/url]”>http://www.jstor.org/pss/1183418</a></p>
<p>==========</p>
<p>the 2008 study</p>
<p>Economic Research Citations at Liberal Arts Colleges
<a href=“http://web.williams.edu/Economics/wp/PedroniSheppardcitationstudy-May2008.pdf[/url]”>http://web.williams.edu/Economics/wp/PedroniSheppardcitationstudy-May2008.pdf</a></p>
<p>I just took a look at the Claremont McKenna course schedule for the spring semester and the college was offering 54 courses in economic, finance and accounting. Is there another liberal arts college (not thinking Princeton is LA college) in the USA with that type of course selection. I see that the other poster counted 38 faculty, 2 less than my total. Also, not many liberal arts colleges offer students accounting and finance courses. In addition, CMC has a leadership sequence with many management courses, such as organizational psychology, entrepreneurial ventures, etc. If a student is majoring in economics, I would think he/she would enjoy having the opportunity to take finance, accounting and management courses in addition to the economic courses. I know if you are a college student who wants to pursue a career in investment banking, the accounting and finance courses give these students a leg up.</p>
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<p>**Williams College</p>
<p>82 courses in Economics**</p>
<p>[Economics</a> Courses](<a href=“http://econ.williams.edu/students/courses]Economics”>http://econ.williams.edu/students/courses)
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<p>82 is very impressive, but I did not see any accounting courses and there were only a few finance courses. I would think most students would appreciate having the opportunity to take courses in these areas. Also, I didn’t count Ponoma, Scripps, Harvey Mudd and Pitzer, all of them have their own economic departments available to CMC students. Regardless, Williams has a very good economics program.</p>
<p>Onecircuit, I think we are comparing apples to oranges. The 54 courses I am counting are actually being offered this semester. You are looking at the entire course catalogue for Williams; I believe only 20 to 25 courses (plus or minus) are being offered this academic year, not even this semester.</p>
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<p>Alexandre, where did you find (or how did you derive) those numbers?
What faculty and what students are counted under “popular majors like” those 3?</p>
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Or we could survey university presidents and administrators…
[Best</a> Undergraduate Teaching | Rankings | Top National Universities | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching]Best”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching)</p>
<p>:D</p>