2024 Best Colleges for Economics

SUMMARY

Going to school for Economics is not only a valuable choice, but generally a necessary first step for pupils planning to begin a career as a government finance analyst, an economist, or an assets trader. Interestingly, economics is a very popular degree choice, coming in at the 15th most popular area of study. In the last year, there were 40,355 economics degrees conferred. In-state tuition for economics at private schools is, on average, 4.4 times more pricey than their public fellows.

There are 788 schools that offer economics. 788 colleges is on par with other majors offered in the United States. If you're hoping to surround yourself with other economics students, consider looking at universities in California which have the most undergrads admitted to economics annually. Zooming out, the top region to study economics is in the Mid East region with University of Maryland-College Park, New York University, and Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the best conference to study economics is the Big Ten Conference with University of Maryland-College Park, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus, and University of Wisconsin-Madison representing the conference. Based on our extensive list on the best colleges, our selection for the best school for economics is Stanford University.

The objectively best school does not have to be the best school for you. There are lots of factors to weigh when choosing school. Features such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food might definitely impact one's choice on which school to attend. Here at authority.org, we weighed the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you want to know which economics university has the top campus, the answer is Harvard University. If you are primarily interested in which university has the best campus, then we have a whole list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through government databases, student reviews, professor reviews, and more to compare every U.S. major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can find our comprehensive list for the universities with the best student life&nbspand from that list, our pick of the college with the best student life for economics is Georgetown University. Are you curious why? Continue scrolling to discover more about our top recommendations. Some of our picks just might surprise you.

If cost is a major influence in your decisions, you might be cautious about Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia University in the City of New York&nbspis the most expensive college for economics, at least regarding out of state enrollment. We do have an entire list of the most expensive&nbspschools that might put the cost at Columbia University in the City of New York&nbspinto perspective. You could also be interested to know that economics is the 15th most expensive major in America, with an average cost of $54,300. On a broader scale, the most costly state for economics in the country is Vermont with costs at the primary three universities of $55,790 at Middlebury College, totalling $45,050 at Saint Michael's College, and expenses of $45,050 at University of Vermont. To zoom out even further, the most costly region of the U.S. for economics is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Amherst College with a cost of $57,640, Tufts University with a cost of $57,324, and Brown University with a cost of $57,112.

Our cheapest region for economics is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Brigham Young University-Idaho with a cost of $4,208, Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790, and Weber State University with a cost of $14,973. On the bright side, the most affordable school for economics is University of Wisconsin-Madison. Our full list of the most affordable colleges can be explored here.

In-state learners can expect to pay in the neighborhood of $10,400 for a degree in economics. That price inflates substantially to an average of $24,200 for an out-of-state public-school student. On that note, our pick for the university with the best value for economics: Stanford University. Here you will find our comprehensive list on the colleges we see as being the best value&nbspin general. With that said, this idea is predicated on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. A discussion of value changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, as such, we are using out-of-state tuition as the baseline.

Earnings for economics majors vary a lot, but within two-years of graduation students will often earn around $55,000. While there can be a lot of variation in earnings potential; highest paid earners can make up to $123,400. Even straight out of college, the lowest earning positions within the economics space make $24,000, which could be worse. The top earning graduates from economics come from Stanford University&nbspand if you want to find the universities with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.

The prevailing diversity of economics ranks very high, being within the 95th percentile of all programs. The university with the most composite diversity for economics is New York University&nbspand here you can find our general list for the colleges with the most diversity. The financial diversity of Economics is only within the 19th percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually greater, in the 91st percentile. White collegians make up the largest share, 41%, of students studying economics. Additionally, 64% of students pursuing an economics major are men.

The median rating for economics professors is 3.8 stars, a score that is 5% worse than the average score across all majors; this is a subpar score. If you are interested in the most popular economics instructor in the country, look no further than Samuel Sarri from College of Southern Nevada. It might be shocking, but the best ranked instructors of economics according to students are found at Palomar College. As we consider data other than simply rankings it becomes clear that the university with the overall best professors for economics is Stanford University. You can find more detail on our evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, along with some of the finest professors in the U.S.

Finally, the most difficult university to get into for economics is Stanford University. While we do not necessarily see the value in it, we have an extensive page of the hardest colleges to get into. But, here at Authority we do hope you believe that considering the higher education world from examples mainly informed by superlatives might create issues. We at Authority hope you look at some of our more nuanced pages on different universities and read a few of Authority's informative background 'blog posts' on essential things to look out for as you continue your university search.