We think of economics as one of NYU’s great success stories. Part of this is that we’re a positive upbeat group and we enjoy being here. But there’s also some evidence. One is what we think of as the market test: we’ve hired faculty colleagues who had competing offers from Penn, Princeton, Yale, and other good places. And we’ve trained students who took jobs at Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, etc.
There are also lots of polls that attempt (with mixed success, I would say) to rank departments and schools along a number of dimensions. Pretty much all of them show that economics at NYU has improved substantially over the last 20 years or so. This one ranks NYU 6th over the period 2001-09, up from 18th in 1974-83, which I believe is the biggest improvement anywhere. As Billboard might say: ”Number 6 with a bullet!”
Harder to measure is the enormous investment we’ve made in our educational programs, whether it be undergrad, MBA, or PhD. If you’re an NYU student, I hope you enjoy your experience here as much as we do.
