Program ranking · CIP 45.06 bachelor's · College Scorecard · Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

Best Colleges for Economics

Using U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data retrieved March-July 2026, these colleges rank highest on median earnings for Economics (CIP 45.06) bachelor's completers. Rankings use earnings only - not prestige, selectivity, or editorial judgment - and require at least 25 completers so tiny suppressed cohorts do not dominate the list.

Compiled by PlainCollege , College outcomes data analysis

$166,678
Highest economics earnings: 100
Colleges ranked: $87,193
#100 cutoff

The list in one line

Every college on this list reports at least $87,193 median earnings for Economics bachelor's (CIP 45.06) completers. Williams College leads at $166,678.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard.

$166,678
#1 - Williams College: $87,193
#100 - the cutoff to make this list: 25+
completers required per school: 786
US schools offering this CIP

Earnings are field-of-study medians for federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled; see methodology for horizon and lag details.

Williams College

$166,678
Duke University

$161,149
Princeton University

$160,763
University of Chicago

$159,578
Harvard University

$155,592
Dartmouth College

$152,929
Claremont McKenna College

$146,524
Carnegie Mellon University

$144,886
Yale University

$142,936
Amherst College

$141,730
Vanderbilt University

$140,337
Cornell University

$137,935
Columbia University in t…

$137,710
University of California…

$135,050
Hamilton College

$130,633

What this shows Economics medians concentrate at research universities with consulting and graduate pipelines - compare debt and completer counts before treating pay as program quality.

The full top 100

#	School Name	State	Median Earnings	Median Debt	Completers
1	Williams College	MA	$166,678	$12,925	107
2	Duke University	NC	$161,149	$13,187	209
3	Princeton University	NJ	$160,763	$11,250	122
4	University of Chicago	IL	$159,578	$13,395	634
5	Harvard University	MA	$155,592	$6,617	186
6	Dartmouth College	NH	$152,929	$18,132	170
7	Claremont McKenna College	CA	$146,524	$12,000	129
8	Carnegie Mellon University	PA	$144,886	$22,020	55
9	Yale University	CT	$142,936	$12,562	204
10	Amherst College	MA	$141,730	$16,662	91
11	Vanderbilt University	TN	$140,337	$12,000	251
12	Cornell University	NY	$137,935	$15,000	182
13	Columbia University in the City of New York	NY	$137,710	$25,000	327
14	University of California-Berkeley	CA	$135,050	$12,650	799
15	Hamilton College	NY	$130,633	$17,500	88
16	University of Pennsylvania	PA	$129,985	$14,621	234
17	Rice University	TX	$129,575	$11,644	75
18	Colgate University	NY	$128,887	$17,500	143
19	Johns Hopkins University	MD	$128,882	$12,250	132
20	Swarthmore College	PA	$128,051	$19,500	80
21	Northwestern University	IL	$126,006	$15,250	335
22	Brown University	RI	$124,508	$13,000	215
23	Tufts University	MA	$123,809	$17,850	198
24	Middlebury College	VT	$123,477	$19,500	111
25	Colorado College	CO	$122,998	$18,628	60
26	University of Notre Dame	IN	$122,637	$19,000	245
27	Trinity College	CT	$122,068	$21,500	119
28	Bowdoin College	ME	$121,983	$19,500	78
29	Wellesley College	MA	$121,787	$11,190	92
30	Boston College	MA	$121,337	$18,000	354
31	Santa Clara University	CA	$121,307	$19,500	108
32	Fairfield University	CT	$120,303	$23,250	42
33	Georgetown University	DC	$118,999	$15,500	181
34	College of the Holy Cross	MA	$118,131	$27,000	128
35	New York University	NY	$116,510	$19,767	541
36	Washington and Lee University	VA	$115,837	$23,399	69
37	Case Western Reserve University	OH	$114,601	$23,883	67
38	Lafayette College	PA	$112,864	$19,500	140
39	Stanford University	CA	$112,700	$12,500	108
40	Elon University	NC	$112,303	$19,500	44
41	Barnard College	NY	$111,909	$16,250	92
42	Hobart William Smith Colleges	NY	$111,833	$26,967	70
43	Emory University	GA	$111,631	$20,826	178
44	Bates College	ME	$110,880	$13,000	68
45	University of Virginia-Main Campus	VA	$110,773	$18,423	465
46	Grinnell College	IA	$110,724	$16,500	46
47	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	MI	$110,552	$18,750	618
48	University of Rochester	NY	$109,324	$19,946	103
49	Bucknell University	PA	$108,422	$25,888	133
50	Connecticut College	CT	$107,283	$23,125	72
51	William & Mary	VA	$105,467	$19,500	119
52	Pepperdine University	CA	$104,943	$24,250	51
53	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	NC	$103,846	$14,135	449
54	Kenyon College	OH	$103,791	$18,718	61
55	Colby College	ME	$103,491	$24,250	89
56	Occidental College	CA	$103,164	$23,000	85
57	Vassar College	NY	$102,584	$19,000	56
58	Washington University in St Louis	MO	$102,439	$14,805	105
59	Northeastern University	MA	$101,423	$23,250	160
60	University of Richmond	VA	$100,608	$22,750	46
61	Villanova University	PA	$100,288	$26,497	124
62	Union College	NY	$99,783	$27,000	98
63	Indiana University-Bloomington	IN	$99,653	$19,500	98
64	George Washington University	DC	$99,406	$20,500	145
65	California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo	CA	$98,927	$17,500	53
66	Wake Forest University	NC	$98,209	$20,500	120
67	University of California-Santa Barbara	CA	$98,178	$13,440	656
68	Drexel University	PA	$98,178	$29,130	41
69	Denison University	OH	$97,394	$22,375	77
70	Boston University	MA	$96,723	$24,224	305
71	Pomona College	CA	$96,702	-	47
72	St Lawrence University	NY	$96,345	$26,000	76
73	Brandeis University	MA	$95,872	$25,295	125
74	Providence College	RI	$95,590	$26,000	79
75	University of California-Los Angeles	CA	$95,440	$15,000	861
76	University of Delaware	DE	$95,318	$25,000	121
77	Brigham Young University	UT	$95,227	$11,000	145
78	DePauw University	IN	$94,761	$26,932	61
79	University of Southern California	CA	$94,435	$13,850	210
80	Gettysburg College	PA	$94,295	$26,812	74
81	Fordham University	NY	$94,170	$23,250	147
82	University of San Francisco	CA	$93,712	$21,500	45
83	University of Miami	FL	$92,998	$16,101	119
84	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	VA	$92,653	$22,125	79
85	The Catholic University of America	DC	$91,962	-	29
86	Southern Methodist University	TX	$91,701	$18,625	160
87	Clark University	MA	$91,094	$27,000	37
88	Miami University-Oxford	OH	$90,742	$24,625	111
89	Franklin and Marshall College	PA	$90,368	$23,000	46
90	University of St Thomas	MN	$89,881	$24,250	62
91	Texas Christian University	TX	$89,466	$19,500	111
92	The University of Texas at Austin	TX	$89,354	$19,500	340
93	University of Florida	FL	$89,075	$15,000	277
94	Loyola Marymount University	CA	$88,682	$20,125	79
95	Smith College	MA	$88,067	$19,000	43
96	The University of the South	TN	$87,762	$23,250	49
97	George Mason University	VA	$87,548	$19,000	79
98	University of California-San Diego	CA	$87,307	$14,667	430
99	University of Washington-Seattle Campus	WA	$87,239	$14,488	328
100	Carleton College	MN	$87,193	$19,500	34

About This Ranking

Schools are ranked by College Scorecard field-of-study median earnings for Economics (CIP 45.06) bachelor's completers. Only operating schools with at least 25 completers and a published median are included. Ties break toward larger completer cohorts. For the full program profile - including every reporting school and national distribution - see Economics (bachelor's). Methodology lives on our methodology page.

Caveats and limitations

"Best" here means highest reported median earnings for the stated CIP scope - not teaching quality, licensure pass rates, clinical placement strength, or fit for any one student. This list covers Economics (CIP 45.06) bachelor's programs - business/managerial economics (CIP 52.06) and finance (CIP 52.08) are ranked separately when demand warrants.

Figures cover federally aided completers only, use Treasury-linked earnings, and describe a lagged cohort. Regional pay scales and graduate-school paths both move the median without proving a causal school effect.

This ranking is for informational purposes only and does not constitute academic or career advice. Earnings do not predict any individual graduate's outcome.

Every figure on PlainCollege is rendered directly from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard data, no number is typed in by an editor. Rankings are computed directly from College Scorecard field-of-study data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Review the public data changelog. Data current as of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals.