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 2025, College Factual analyzed 23 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools in Massachusetts ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 2,686 bachelor's degrees in economics to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Economics (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Economics (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Economics (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Economics (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "MS in Applied Economics" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "MS in Applied Economics" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 3
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 2 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 2
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 2 offers with relevance >= 1.0
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. 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 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 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
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 full 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 picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools in Massachusetts ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "social-sciences//economics"
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in economics needs to take a look at Harvard University. Harvard is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Harvard University earn a boost of approximately $41,736 above the typical income of economics majors.
Boston College is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in economics. Boston College is a large private not-for-profit college located in the city of Chestnut Hill.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Boston College receive an earnings boost of approximately $9,842 over the average earnings of economics majors.
Tufts University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in economics. Tufts is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Medford.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Tufts University receive an earnings boost of approximately $12,868 above the typical income of economics majors.
Boston University is a wonderful choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in economics. Boston U is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Boston.
Soon after graduating, economics bachelor's recipients typically earn an average of $55,733 at the beginning of their careers.
Northeastern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Boston.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Northeastern University receive an earnings boost of about $8,274 over the average income of economics graduates.
Holy Cross is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Worcester.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from College of the Holy Cross earn a boost of approximately $7,031 above the average earnings of economics majors.
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).