If you pursue a bachelor's degree in economics, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #15 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2023, College Factual analyzed 482 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 39,397 bachelor's degrees in economics to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Economics School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of economics for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality economics program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to economics students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other economics students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt economics students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized economics related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for economics students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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Featured Economics Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Economics in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in economics. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
University of Chicago is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in economics. UChicago is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from University of Chicago get an earnings boost of around $34,868 over the typical earnings of economics majors.
Duke University is a great decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in economics. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Durham.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from Duke University receive $47,003 more than the average economics grad.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in economics needs to take a look at Northwestern University. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from Northwestern University earn $23,792 more than the average economics grad.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in economics needs to look into University of Pennsylvania. UPenn is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Pennsylvania make $24,502 more than the standard economics graduate.
Located in the city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics degree program at Vanderbilt University get $25,045 above the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Houston, Rice is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics program at Rice University earn $40,293 more than the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Claremont McKenna is a small private not-for-profit college located in the large suburb of Claremont.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics program at Claremont McKenna College make $47,870 above the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the midsize city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics major at University of California - Berkeley earn $23,634 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Columbia is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Columbia University in the City of New York get an earnings boost of about $26,206 above the average income of economics graduates.
Located in the large city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Johns Hopkins University receive an earnings boost of approximately $21,461 over the average income of economics graduates.
Located in the small city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Cornell University receive an earnings boost of about $21,720 above the typical earnings of economics majors.
UCLA is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics degree program at University of California - Los Angeles get $5,045 above the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Carnegie Mellon is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Pittsburgh.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Carnegie Mellon University earn a boost of about $30,492 above the average earnings of economics graduates.
Located in the city of Chestnut Hill, Boston College is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics program at Boston College earn $17,089 above the standard graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the midsize city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor earn a boost of around $14,328 above the typical earnings of economics graduates.
This list shows the rest of the colleges awarded a Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the college was ranked in the top 15% of the 482 different United States economics schools we analyzed.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).