Best Economics Bachelor’s Programs for 2027

Berkeley gives economics majors a choice between standard and more mathematically intensive versions of its microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics core. The mathematical versions carry additional prerequisites, making course planning especially important for students considering further study. Beyond that core, students complete five upper-division electives, with limits on how many can come from outside the economics department. The structure leaves substantial room for subject choices without treating outside coursework as a replacement for the major’s foundation.

UNC-Chapel Hill offers an economics BA and a more quantitatively demanding BS. Both build on economic theory and data analysis, while the BS adds required mathematics, statistics, and computer science and places greater emphasis on student research. Its core includes Introduction to Data Science and Econometrics followed by Econometrics. If you're weighing the two degrees, compare the supporting courses as carefully as the economics electives, since much of the extra quantitative work sits outside the department.

Florida's Economics BA lets you shape its advanced work around four economics electives after calculus, statistics and intermediate theory. Approved choices can include a course in business finance, economic geography or natural resource economics. If you want to study abroad, UF-sponsored and exchange coursework can count toward the major's upper-level residency requirement. Students seeking magna cum laude or summa cum laude must propose and defend an honors thesis, giving those distinctions a research requirement beyond the regular BA curriculum.

BYU requires both introductory and applied econometrics, alongside Statistics for Economists and a two-part intermediate microeconomics sequence. A separate preparation requirement lets you choose career preparation, job-search strategies, or graduate-school preparation. Upper-level electives include Machine Learning for Economics, Behavioral Economics, and Health Economics. Students considering graduate economics are encouraged to take additional mathematics and advanced economics courses, so you can plan a more mathematical route beyond the standard bachelor's requirements.

Harvard's economics concentration has a basic track of eleven courses, and the piece students talk about most is ECON 970, the Sophomore Tutorial, which comes after statistics and the first intermediate theory course. Intermediate theory is graded strictly: you need a B- or better in both semesters. Honors is optional and comes in two forms. The Thesis Track adds multivariable calculus, two semesters of ECON 985 (Senior Thesis Research Seminar), a senior thesis and the honors exam, and is the only route to summa or magna. The Advanced Course Track needs two more courses and the exam and tops out at cum laude. Both honors tracks total fourteen courses.

Michigan's economics concentration builds statistics into the core: you take a two-course sequence of ECON 451 (or STATS 426) followed by ECON 452 on econometrics, so you leave having worked with real data. Students with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.4 can add an honors thesis, which starts in an ECON 495 research seminar and continues into a second semester of revision with a faculty adviser. Recent highest-honors theses looked at demolished houses in Detroit and PFAS contamination in the Michigan housing market. Honors applications are due in early November, so plan ECON 401, 402 and the econometrics sequence early.

UCLA’s economics BA includes separate laboratory courses alongside both econometrics and Data Science for Economists. Students complete calculus, probability and statistics, and the pre-major economics sequence before formally entering the major. The current checklist also allows a limited number of approved management courses among the upper-division electives. Because statistics, econometrics, and data science follow a required sequence, planning those courses early matters as much as choosing the later subject electives.

Virginia makes you earn your way into the economics major. Before declaring, you need a C+ or better in each of three prerequisites, including Calculus I, a statistics course and intermediate microeconomics, and a 2.3 GPA in UVA economics courses. The major is five required courses (ECON 2010, 2020, 3010 or 3110, 3020 and econometrics) plus four electives, with at least two numbered 4000 or above. The four core courses, including econometrics, have to be finished by the end of the sixth semester or you are dropped from the major. Students heading to graduate work or a financial economics concentration are steered toward the more advanced calculus sequence.

Chicago organizes its economics BA into five parts: fundamentals, a three-course core built around the economic approach, an empirical methods sequence, an economic policy course, and electives. Electives can include up to two preapproved courses from computer science, statistics, mathematics or the Booth School of Business. If you want more focus, there are specializations in business economics, data science and politics and policy. A joint BA/MA lets fourth-years take nine graduate courses toward a Master of Arts in Economics while still finishing the BA. Third-year students who finish the five categories early can write an honors thesis in a senior workshop.

Princeton builds its economics major around two year-long research projects. Juniors write a paper in ECO 396 and ECO 398, and every senior completes a thesis in ECO 498 and ECO 499, defended orally as the senior comprehensive exam. Before that, you take micro, macro and econometrics in a standard or more mathematical version, so the calculus-based track suits students who want a theory-heavy path. Five electives follow, and up to two may be approved cognates from other departments. Planning an empirical thesis points you toward ECO 313, while a theoretical one points toward ECO 317 or ECO 418. The core courses and junior paper must average a C or better to reach senior standing.

Columbia's department runs a general economics major alongside five interdisciplinary ones, among them financial economics, economics-mathematics and economics-political science, so the first decision is which structure fits your goals. Every version moves from Principles through intermediate micro, intermediate macro and econometrics, then finishes with a senior seminar capped at sixteen students or a full-year honors thesis workshop. The general major needs at least 35 points of economics plus calculus and statistics, and at least five lecture courses must be taken in Columbia's department. Students considering a PhD are told early to plan extra math with the advisors.

Yale's economics major is twelve credits: eleven economics courses and one math course, with only one outside course allowed as an elective. The senior essay is optional, which sets Yale apart, but it is required for Distinction, which also needs A- grades in three quarters of major courses. Essays run about 30 pages, can be theoretical, empirical or computational, and most students choose the two-term version. To write one you need two econometrics courses, and up to $500 in research expenses can be reimbursed. Interdepartmental routes include Computer Science and Economics, Economics and Mathematics, and Ethics, Politics and Economics.

Penn offers two economics majors in the School of Arts and Sciences. The Economics Major is 12 course units: two calculus courses, two introductory courses, four intermediate courses and four advanced electives, and it has an honors program. The Mathematical Economics Major is at least 16 courses, about half economics and half mathematics, and is built for students who plan to pursue a graduate degree in economics, with more formal models and preparation for academic-style research. If calculus is not your strength, there is also an Economic Policy Minor that does not require it.

Duke offers economics as an AB or a BS, and the two are deliberately different. The AB asks for Econ 101, 104, 201, 204, 210 and five electives with a lighter math prerequisite, while the BS keeps the heavier mathematics and an extra intermediate micro course. Both now carry a STEM designation, and the BS can be taken with a Financial Economics concentration made of finance-focused electives. Students with at least a 3.3 GPA can write an honors thesis through two semesters of Econ 495 and 496 for Graduation with Distinction. A 4+1 program lets undergraduates add a Master of Arts in Economics with a fifth year at Duke.

Dartmouth's economics major is nine courses after the prerequisites (ECON 1, ECON 10 and MATH 3). Everyone takes ECON 20, 21 and 22, then chooses a three-course culminating sequence: a seminar numbered 62 to 69 with its two prerequisites, or the honors 80-81-82 sequence. Honors can also come through a thesis, usually written alongside ECON 87.01 in spring and extending a paper from an upper-level class. A modified major lets you combine economics with a topic such as mathematics or computer science.

Cornell treats the economics major as something you apply to. Before admission you need introductory micro and macro with a B- or better and a C or better in Calculus I. The major itself is twelve economics courses, including intermediate micro and macro, a probability and statistics course, an econometrics course, and at least three at the 4000 level, and the four core courses must be taken at Cornell itself. The department's selective honors program, Econ 4990 and 4991, runs the whole senior year under a faculty advisor, and most honors projects are empirical.

Northwestern's economics major is 12 units: three introductory courses including applied econometrics, three intermediate theory courses, and six field courses at the 300 level, plus calculus and a probability and statistics course. Because core classes run every quarter, many of the department's roughly 1,000 majors add a second major or minor. Honors is by invitation and ends in a thesis of original research. A selective BA/MA lets top majors earn a master's in their fourth year, and it expects a 3.8 GPA, a two-quarter econometrics sequence, real analysis and an early start on a thesis idea.

Vanderbilt's economics major is a 33-hour Bachelor of Science anchored by a statistics requirement and a three-course theory core: intermediate microeconomics, intermediate macroeconomics and econometrics. Nine hours of upper-level electives sit on top of that, so you can steer toward the fields that interest you most. A 45-hour joint major with History adds an economic history concentration, and a political economy minor is shared with Political Science. Students with a thesis idea can apply for honors during junior year, which leads to a senior-year seminar, a written thesis and an oral defense.

Wisconsin’s economics BA offers a mathematical emphasis for students who want more preparation for graduate study. That route adds multivariable calculus and linear algebra to the economics curriculum and requires Introductory Econometrics. Advanced economics choices include analytical public finance and the financial system. Students considering departmental honors should plan around the mathematical emphasis, since completing that curriculum is part of the honors requirements rather than a separate optional recommendation.

UT Austin’s economics curriculum moves from calculus and introductory economics into microeconomic theory, macroeconomic theory, economic statistics, and econometrics. Electives extend into banking, global development, and public policy. Transfer students should examine the residency rules early: the department requires its central theory, statistics, and econometrics courses to be completed at UT, along with at least 18 economics credits overall. The BA and BS both require calculus, so neither route avoids quantitative preparation.