The National Research Council (the research arm of the National Academies of Science) has released its assessment of research-doctorate programs in the United States. OSU, being one of the smallest in the country is not among the top programs by a long shot. Its ranking range is 70-104. But when you control for size, funding and the like and just look at the metric that matters, research productivity, OSU's economics department ranks in the 21-31 range. In other words, in terms of the quantity and quality of our research we rank similarly to some heavy hitters like Cornell, Minnesota and Michigan.
Unfortunately, in the judgement of the OSU administration we weren't worth supporting and our graduate programs have been shut down. This, in spite of the fact that our graduate programs were essentially self-funding and thus revenue neutral to the university. [How? Simple: Graduate Teaching Assistants are a good deal for the university - they do a lot of teaching for a bargain price. And this is not exploitative, by the way, because they get more than just a wage but also a very valuable degree in the end.] In fact, spite is just about the right word to use. Sadly, one of the professors who contributed a lot to departmental research left when the grad programs were shut down, but most of us are still here.
The good news is that OSU undergrads (and e-campus students!) have access to a world class collection of research economists. Come and check us out.
Oh and by the way, where does U of O economics rank in this metric? In the 39-66 range. ;-)
3 comments:
And yet, UO's grad program survives, and OSU's with an ECON President, was closed - I made a comment to him about it, and he encouraged me to look into the current AG grad options and public policy. I gave it a pass.
Seems pretty silly. Oh well... I am surprised, given the changes, you are staying.
You definitely do not want to study ag econ at OSU. That department has so much dead wood, you aren't allowed to light a match within 150 of the building.
Yup... I work with a bunch of them.
I am doing Patrick's new eCampus Econ degree - after a year or two of him putting up the stats on Economics major's benefits it seems silly not to when I have nothing else to study for a year while my wife is in a new grad program and I can't head to grad school.
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