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I notice that when choosing a business school. The pay after you graduate is significally higher at higher ranked schools in the business department. But when it comes to economics, does rank really matter?

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 12:55 am: Edit

Not really. There are many awesome LACs that are not ranked per se. Obviously, if you can get into Chicago, Harvard, MIT, Princeton or Princeton, go for it, but rankings are not as important as the overall quality of the university when it comes to Economics.

For example, Minnesota is #11 in Economics. Brown and Duke are #21 in Economics. Although Minnesota is a fine university, I would notr recommend picking it over Duke or Brown.

By Yattaspoonpower (Yattaspoonpower) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 03:58 pm: Edit

Alexandre where are you getting these numbers from? I've been searching the interent for rankings but they are evading my searchs. Can you post a link or something?

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 04:38 pm: Edit

Undergraduate rankings according to a 1995 conducted by top Econ faculty from around the country:

#1 University of Chicago
#2 Stanford University
#3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
#4 Princeton University
#5 Harvard University
#6 Yale University
#7 University of California-Berkeley
#8 University of Pennsylvania
#9 Northwestern University
#10 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
#11 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
#12 University of Wisconsin-Madison
#13 Columbia University
#14 University of California-Los Angeles
#15 University of Rochester
#16 Johns Hopkins University
#17 Carnegie MEllon University
#18 Cornell University
#19 Brown University
#20 New York University
#21 Duke University]
#22 University of Virginia
#23 University of California-San Diego
#24 University of Washington
#25 University of Texas-Austin

The USNWR has a graduate programs ranking:

#1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
#2 Harvard University
#2 Princeton University
#2 Stanford University
#2 University of Chicago
#6 University of California-Berkeley
#7 Yale University
#8 Northwestern University
#9 University of Pennsylvania
#10 University of Wisconsin-Madison
#11 University of California-Los Angeles
#11 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
#11 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
#14 California Institute of Technology
#14 Columbia University
#14 University of Rochester
#17 Cornell University
#17 University of California-San Diego
#19 Carnegie Mellon University
#19 New York University
#21 Brown University
#21 Duke University
#21 University of Texas-Austin
#24 Johns Hopkins University
#24 University of Maryland-College Park

They did not rank LACs because they are a little harder to read, but several LACs are just as good as the top schools in the list above. Here are a few great LAC Econ departments:

Amherst College
Carleton College
Claremont McKenna College
Colby College
Dartmouth College (not really a LAC, but close enough)
Denison University
Hamilton College
Haverford College
Macalester College
Middlebury College
Oberlin College
Pomona College
Reed College
Sarah Lawrence College
Swarthmore College
Vassar College
Wesleyan College
Williams College

So there you have it. I realize there is like a gazillion (official Economics number!)universities above, but you have the time to look through them I am sure! hehe