Economics is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #15 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual reviewed 60 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of economics. Combined, these schools handed out 5,259 bachelor's degrees in economics to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Economics School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The economics bachelor'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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 - The number of economics students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
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 easy is it for economics to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
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 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 in the Great Lakes Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
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Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Economics in the Great Lakes Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in economics. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
12 Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Economics
It is difficult to beat University of Chicago if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in economics. Located in the large city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from University of Chicago receive an earnings boost of around $40,530 over the average earnings of economics majors.
Northwestern University is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in economics. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from Northwestern University make $33,387 more than the standard economics graduate.
University of Notre Dame is a wonderful decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in economics. Located in the suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Notre Dame receive $24,754 more than the average economics graduate.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in economics has to look into University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. U-M is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Ann Arbor.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics major at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor earn $16,871 more than the typical college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the small city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Michigan State University get an earnings boost of about $2,468 over the average income of economics majors.
Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign get an earnings boost of approximately $7,376 above the typical earnings of economics majors.
IU Bloomington is a fairly large public university located in the city of Bloomington.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Indiana University - Bloomington earn a boost of approximately $7,597 above the average earnings of economics majors.
Purdue is a very large public university located in the city of West Lafayette.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Purdue University - Main Campus receive an earnings boost of about $7,642 above the typical earnings of economics majors.
Miami University - Oxford is a large public university located in the town of Oxford.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Miami University - Oxford receive an earnings boost of around $5,834 over the typical earnings of economics graduates.
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Additional Noteworthy Schools
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region award.
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).
The economics bachelor'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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
