Minnesota Econ - recruitment weekend

[xenoone]

Thanks, Econ !!! All I've heard about Minnesota so far has been nothing but great - it seems to be not just a top notch department, but also a very friendly and cosy one!

But I also like the following:

...based on NRC, using a single criterion – “Educational Effectiveness”, i.e. how effective a program is in educating researchers:

Program Ed Eff (5)
1.Massachusetts Inst of Technology 4.71
2.PrincetonUniversity 4.69
3.University of Chicago 4.63
4.StanfordUniversity 4.58
5.HarvardUniversity 4.33
6.University of Minnesota 4.08
7.University of California-Berkeley 4.05
8.Northwestern University 4.04
9.YaleUniversity 4.01
10.University of Rochester 3.96


ALL HAIL MINNESOTA ECONOMICS !




But anyway, is there anyone planning on visiting Minnesota during their recruitment weekend besides me?

[Klimano]

Hey xenoone,

Tell us your impressions about the recruitment weekend at Minneapolis.

[xenoone]

Originally Posted by Klimano

Hey xenoone,

Tell us your impressions about the recruitment weekend at Minneapolis.

hey klimano (and also everybody out there still trying to choose between [your other top 5 choice here] and Minnesota )

It was absolutely great Minnesota is definitely the place to get Econ PhD, especially if you are interested in macro, money, growth, international, especially if you love research. I have no doubts the program is rigorous and training is the best in the world, but let me give a couple of other highlights:

It is the place where things are happening: NSF's Summer Macro Workshop is now at Minnesota every year; Prescott is still very much there; Lucas and Stokey are there every fall (at the Fed actually, but it's like one department, which unfortunately never worked in Chicago); N. Kocherlakota, who went to Stanford a couple years ago is coming back this fall - that should tell you something; several faculty are not just well known and very active, but also very friendly and accessible (e.g. Chari, Kehoe)

The interaction between faculty and grad students is like nowhere else: unlike at the ivies, faculty don't teach undergrad classes (and don't have to waste time keeping 30K-paying-undergrads happy)- all they do at Minnesota is frontier research and work with grad students; grad students seem to be treated as colleagues, hence very encouraging atmosphere, many joint papers, happy hours together every Friday, etc.; the inner culture of the department is almost too good to be true (at least what you can grasp in three days), the idea is to only make offers to people who have a good chance of finishing the program and then fully commit to those people (drop-outs are very rare and usually for non-academic reasons).

Plus, Minneapolis seems like a nice and safe city; the campus is rather big and lively; the Fed is close to campus; grad students have offices at the department (when they teach) and at the Fed (when they RA and keep them even if they stop RAing); most grad students live close to campus and study together around the department.

The only minus I can come up with is a bit chilly winters (although this year wasn't bad at all I've heard ). But they have something to say about that too: once you get to campus, you don't have to go outside unless you want to - all the buildings are connected by tunnels or skyways; same goes for most of the downtown - skyways connect everything ! In any event, it depends on your utility function - some people actually enjoy the winters because of the perpetually blue skies and sunshine


Anyway, these are the most vivid impressions after the visit - I'll be happy to give more details..

PS: btw, there were a bunch of people who had also visited Chicago and some also Rochester and MIT; they seemed even more impressed then the ones who only visited Minnesota, since most other schools have just one "campus day" or even just lunch - Minnesota is honestly open and you can see almost everyone/everything that matters in three days

[jugowar]

Hi,

I also received an admission offer from Minnesota but I am waiting for financial aid. Since it is impossible for me to study without aid, the decision of Minnesota will be very very important at this point. They said that they will announce their decision this monday or tuesday, after the campus visits. They told me that they are waiting to see how many applicants will accept their offer and how many will decline.
I hope some of them will decline their offer so that I can get financial aid. What dou you think?Do I still have a chance?

[Klimano]

You seem to be very impressed. Thats good

How was the group?

[jugowar]

anybody here?

[xenoone]

Originally Posted by jugowar

Hi,

I also received an admission offer from Minnesota but I am waiting for financial aid. Since it is impossible for me to study without aid, the decision of Minnesota will be very very important at this point. They said that they will announce their decision this monday or tuesday, after the campus visits. They told me that they are waiting to see how many applicants will accept their offer and how many will decline.
I hope some of them will decline their offer so that I can get financial aid. What dou you think?Do I still have a chance?

hey jugowar,

I think you still have a chance: I know at least one person who was there during the weekend without the funding offer and they were told there's a good chance they'd get some kind of offer this week.

On the other hand, DGS (Michele Boldrin) mentioned that they are shooting for a class of 22 and made 14 offers with funding and I forgot how many without - they expect quite high percentage of offers to be accepted.

Good luck, I hope you hear some good news this week!

[xenoone]

Originally Posted by Klimano

You seem to be very impressed. Thats good

How was the group?

yes, you're right - I am impressed

The group seemed like a nice bunch of people - I wouldn't mind having them all as classmates. There was one person from Australia, one from Japan, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic, and the rest from US (there is a selection bias in these events of course due to traveling cost).

I think I already mentioned, but it's worth repeating: several people met before at Chicago (they had their campus day on previous Friday) and were leaning toward Minnesota . Same goes for a couple who previously visited Rochester.

The friendly and collaborative atmosphere at Minnesota seems to be some sort of equilibrium - it's very distinct and easy to detect; people who don't like it just don't go there.