TestMagic Forums - View Single Post - advice on course selection for graduate work in economics

asquare · 10-07-2006, 11:22 PM

werther,

Is your ultimate goal a PhD in economics? If so, why are you planning to do a master's first? The master's is a useful intermediate step for people who didn't take enough math or who got poor grades as undergrads, but you seem to be doing enough advance planning not to fall into either of those categories. Why not apply directly to PhD programs during your senior year? A master's degree is NOT a prerequesite for a PhD in economics!

That out of the way, your plan for winter 2006 and spring 2007 looks solid. Of the courses you've listed for fall and winter 2007, I'm sure all could be useful, but not all are necessary! Differential equations 2 could be quite helpful, especially if it gets you used to doing lots of work with mathematica, maple, matlab, and other software. Optimization is very useful. The rest is all icing on the cake. Some people think it's important or advantageous to have lots of advanced math, but what you've listed goes way beyond what is necessary. If you want to do theory in a PhD program, these classes may be of some help. If you want to do applied work, they are less important. And they are certainly not necessary to get in to or do well in a MA program.

Also, I'm going to disagree with others about the value of undergrad theory classes. It depends on your school, but a well-taught intermediate micro and macro sequence can give you a very good understanding of the important concepts in these fields. (Micro especially.) While this won't be of huge direct use at the beginning of a PhD program, it is the sort of economic intuituion that is important in field classes and applied work. Some people pick up the intuition easily from the formal, mathematical first year theory courses in graduate programs, but I've found that having the intuition from my solid undergraduate courses has been very helpful. And I know that the intermediate micro course that undergrads here at UMich take is a very good class. In fact, first year PhD students are often told to go through the intermediate micro problem sets to make sure they understand the intuition! So don't dismiss your econ classes entirely.

Finally, if you have the chance to do research or work as an RA for a professor, jump on it. IMO, that would be a lot better use of your time than extraneous math classes, unless you really enjoy the math.

10-07-2006, 11:22 PM	#6 (permalink)
asquare TestMagic Guru Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Ann Arbor Posts: 1,388	werther, Is your ultimate goal a PhD in economics? If so, why are you planning to do a master's first? The master's is a useful intermediate step for people who didn't take enough math or who got poor grades as undergrads, but you seem to be doing enough advance planning not to fall into either of those categories. Why not apply directly to PhD programs during your senior year? A master's degree is NOT a prerequesite for a PhD in economics! That out of the way, your plan for winter 2006 and spring 2007 looks solid. Of the courses you've listed for fall and winter 2007, I'm sure all could be useful, but not all are necessary! Differential equations 2 could be quite helpful, especially if it gets you used to doing lots of work with mathematica, maple, matlab, and other software. Optimization is very useful. The rest is all icing on the cake. Some people think it's important or advantageous to have lots of advanced math, but what you've listed goes way beyond what is necessary. If you want to do theory in a PhD program, these classes may be of some help. If you want to do applied work, they are less important. And they are certainly not necessary to get in to or do well in a MA program. Also, I'm going to disagree with others about the value of undergrad theory classes. It depends on your school, but a well-taught intermediate micro and macro sequence can give you a very good understanding of the important concepts in these fields. (Micro especially.) While this won't be of huge direct use at the beginning of a PhD program, it is the sort of economic intuituion that is important in field classes and applied work. Some people pick up the intuition easily from the formal, mathematical first year theory courses in graduate programs, but I've found that having the intuition from my solid undergraduate courses has been very helpful. And I know that the intermediate micro course that undergrads here at UMich take is a very good class. In fact, first year PhD students are often told to go through the intermediate micro problem sets to make sure they understand the intuition! So don't dismiss your econ classes entirely. Finally, if you have the chance to do research or work as an RA for a professor, jump on it. IMO, that would be a lot better use of your time than extraneous math classes, unless you really enjoy the math.