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 384 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 35,886 bachelor's degrees in economics to qualified students.
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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 account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various 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 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 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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ADBLOCK #171
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 20% 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 large city of Chicago.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from University of Chicago earn a boost of about $38,158 above the typical earnings of economics graduates.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in economics has to check out Northwestern University. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics program at Northwestern University make $31,015 above the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in economics has to check out University of Pennsylvania. UPenn is a very 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 receive $35,180 more than the typical economics student.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in economics has to check out Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from Columbia University in the City of New York earn $29,218 more than the average economics grad.
Located in the large city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Vanderbilt University earn a boost of approximately $30,394 above the average income of economics graduates.
Located in the city of Cambridge, Harvard is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics degree program at Harvard University get $50,076 above the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the midsize city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a very large student population.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Berkeley make $26,529 more than the standard economics student.
Georgetown is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Georgetown University earn a boost of approximately $30,543 above the average earnings of economics graduates.
Brown is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Providence.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics program at Brown University earn $18,147 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
UCLA is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Los Angeles make $8,174 more than the typical economics graduate.
University of Virginia is a very large public university located in the suburb of Charlottesville.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Virginia - Main Campus make $21,041 more than the typical economics graduate.
Located in the medium-sized city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a very large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor receive an earnings boost of approximately $14,499 over the typical earnings of economics graduates.
UCSB is a very large public university located in the suburb of Santa Barbara.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics degree program at University of California - Santa Barbara make $12,417 above the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the small city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics program at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill make $11,427 more than the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large suburb of Medford, Tufts is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics major at Tufts University earn $21,208 more than the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
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Additional Award Winners
This section represents the remainder of the colleges awarded a Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the college was ranked in the top 20% of the 384 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).
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:
