Of all the proposed “reiminaging Cornell” initiatives that involved school reorganization, this one always seemed like the most easily implementable and practical one. The family of John Dyson has decided to give Cornell a $25 million dollar gift to establish the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management (HT Jordan Fabian). That’s right, AEM is out of the Ag School. All of the undergraduate and graduate students in the department of applied economics and management will be part of this new school. As Nagowski points out, AEM is so excited that they’ve already changed their name on their website:
By the way, does anyone else think that AEM could do itself a favor by putting slightly more complicated looking diagrams on its website? Maybe ones that are not covered in the first two weeks of Intro Micro? My initial reaction is that this graphic only reinforces the Cornell stereotype that AEM is an easy major for athletes and those who don’t want to deal with multivariable calculus and econometrics in the A&S Economics Department.
But I digress. All the details of this move are still emerging, and we’ll be sure to keep you up to speed as more information becomes available.
[Update]: From the press release on the AEM website: “Accompanied by former New York Power Authority chair John Dyson and top
university officials, Cornell President David Skorton today announced gifts totaling $25 million and the establishment of a new school— the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management—in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).” It’s still not 100% clear to me how this is going to work, but at any rate I might have been incorrect in saying that “AEM is out of the Ag School.”
Perhaps it is time for you to realize that you are nothing but an idiot; why don’t you stop writing this messages about AEM when clearly you know nothing about the history and research produced in that department
Which of “this messages” are you referring to?
AntiElite,
Dennis is not poking fun at AEM himself. He is simply stating that the program’s website reinforces a negative stereotype that the program has around campus. He never said this stereotype is necessarily true.
Hey Dennis — When was the last time you checked the rankings of the A&S Economics Department? Do you really believe they are still top 25? Do you have any idea of how terrible their placements of graduate students have been? — By ‘these messages’ I meant that you speak out of ignorance and arrogance. I know the truth hurts, but do us all a favor and get a reality check! I hope after all the sophisticated micro and econometrics, you will be able to find a job!
@AntiElite
If you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know that I actually did a recent post about AEM rankings. I was quite excited about them moving up to the #5 spot in this particular one!
http://cornellinsider.com/2010/03/06/aem-moves-up-in-undergrad-business-rankings/
In terms of arts and sciences economics, they’re ranked 18th according to US News rankings:
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-economics-schools/rankings
If you know of another ranking system where they are ranked out of the top 25, i would be glad to look at it, but US News is considered to be the most reputable ranking metric.
I’m still not sure why you’ve chosen to react so coarsely to my comments. As Peter pointed out, I was merely pointing out a stereotype that exists on the Cornell campus. I in no way endorse the stereotype, and, if you want to know my honest opinion, I think very highly of both the department and of AEM students in general. I have many great friends who are AEM students and have done research with several AEM professors.
I’m also not sure why you’ve chosen to react to my “message” by making ad hominmen attacks about my intelligence, knowledge about undergraduate rankings, ability to comprehend reality, as well as my job prospects.
Finally, I’m a bit surprised that you’ve also taken this opportunity to disparage the A&S economics department. If you are upset about me taking stabs at AEM–which I clearly wasn’t– why would you react by taking pleasure in what you believe are the shortcomings of another Cornell department? If you think this is an acceptable thing to do, then why would you react negatively to my original post?
But thanks for reading! We always welcome and appreciate reader comments.
i’m with dennis on this one. he clearly didn’t say anything negative about aem in the original post, and while i don’t think we deserve it, the stereotype definitely exists on campus. aem and econ are simply different departments that fill different roles and there’s no need to argue about the respective superiority of either
Dennis
Here is a link of rankings of economics department done based on research productivity (not reputation, as is the case with US news).
http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.econdept.html
I hope you find them useful.
First off, Dennis did not directly insult AEM. For those throwing around statistics about the program’s ranking I would like to point out three things:
1. Most elite schools do not have undergraduate business programs, like six of the other seven ivies.
2. The rating has fluctuated pretty wildly to be honest. Three years ago it was outside the top ten. A year ago is was number four. Now it’s like 8 or 9.
3. Superficial things like these aside, my qualm with AEM is its enormous size, high median grades (noticeably higher than most majors in Arts and Engineering, but still slightly better than COMM), and its incongruency with the mission of CALS. CALS is a school grounded in the life sciences and agriculture. Agricultural economics sounds like a great boutique program to that effect. AEM sounds like an undergraduate tuition revenue stream to me capitalizing on our generation’s desire for career track programs. But whatever …
And I should probably back my grades claim:
http://cornellsun.com/files/images/CMYK—4.jpg
Simmer Down Now…your confusion in 3. is to assume that aem is just the undergraduate business program. do u happen to know that some of the world’s best environmental and development economists are in the aem faculty?