How do students at median graduate economic programs differ from students at top-ranked programs?

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a survey of students at median economics graduate programs and compares it with the results of a survey of students at top economics graduate programs done by Colander. Overall, a study of the data shows that while there are some differences in the student views, there are large areas of similarity. Some of the particular findings are that there are more US respondents in median programs than in top programs, median students have more interest in econometrics, history of thought and economic literature than do students at top programs, although after the fifth year, their interest in any field drops significantly. Results also indicate that students at top schools are much more likely to be involved in writing scholarly papers, and that students at top schools give far less emphasis to excellence in mathematics as a path to the fast track than do students at median schools.