2025 Best Economics Master's Degree Schools in the New England Region

If you plan on getting your master's degree in economics, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #41 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 14 schools in the New England Region to determine which ones were the best for economics students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 881 master's degrees in economics to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Economics School for Your Master's Degree

The economics master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on economics students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other economics students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How much debt economics students go into to obtain their master'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 schools for economics students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Economics Master's Degree Schools in the New England Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Economics in the New England Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in economics.

10 Top New England Region Schools for a Master's in Economics

1

Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

111 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in economics needs to look into Harvard University. Harvard is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge.More information about a master’s in economics from Harvard University

2

Brown University
Providence, RI

17 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in economics has to take a look at Brown University. Located in the medium-sized city of Providence, Brown is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in economics from Brown University

3

Yale University
New Haven, CT

72 Annual Graduates

Every student who is interested in a master's degree in economics has to take a look at Yale University. Located in the medium-sized city of New Haven, Yale is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a master’s in economics from Yale University

4

Boston University
Boston, MA

155 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat Boston University if you want to pursue a master's degree in economics. Boston U is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Boston.More information about a master’s in economics from Boston University

5

Williams College
Williamstown, MA

26 Annual Graduates

Located in the fringe town of Williamstown, Williams is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.More information about a master’s in economics from Williams College

6

Tufts University
Medford, MA

39 Annual Graduates

Tufts is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Medford.More information about a master’s in economics from Tufts University

7

Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA

89 Annual Graduates

$74,067 Median Starting Salary

Boston College is a fairly large private not-for-profit college located in the city of Chestnut Hill.

Economics master's degree recipients from Boston College receive an earnings boost of about $7,452 above the typical income of economics majors.

More information about a master’s in economics from Boston College

8

Northeastern University
Boston, MA

51 Annual Graduates

Northeastern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Boston.More information about a master’s in economics from Northeastern University

9

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA

12 Annual Graduates

Located in the small city of Amherst, UMass Amherst is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in economics from University of Massachusetts Amherst

10

University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT

14 Annual Graduates

Located in the town of Storrs, UCONN is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in economics from University of Connecticut

Best Economics Colleges by State

Explore the best economics schools for a specific state in the New England Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Massachusetts	222	584
Connecticut	153	61
Rhode Island	127	19
New Hampshire	108	23
Vermont	91	6
Maine	90	9

View All Rankings >

Economics Related Rankings by Major

One of 13 majors within the Social Sciences area of study, Economics has other similar majors worth exploring.

Economics Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Econometrics & Quantitative Economics	747
Development Economics & International Development	75
General Economics	54
Applied Economics	5

Majors Similar to Economics

Related Major	Annual Graduates
International Relations & National Security	605
Political Science & Government	151
General Social Sciences	120
Geography & Cartography	74
Anthropology	62
Sociology	60
Urban Studies	56
Other Social Sciences	21
Archeology	19

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to pixabay. More about our data sources and methodologies.