ECON - Austin or Toronto

[princetongre]

Originally Posted by floplo

well, the problem is how safe you want to play it. If you are absolutely set on a Top10 school, pick Toronto (there the intention is probably to send you off to another PhD program anyway).
With UT-austin, they probably expect you to finish the degree there, which makes it harder to get LOR's etc to apply to a better ranked school (something like, why are you wasting our time and ressources when you don't want to be here). And regarding admissions, you would need a pretty compelling reason why Austin isn't good enough for you.

So compare the placement outcomes between UT phd's and Toronto phd's. if the difference is small enough, go to Toronto and shoot for a Top school. If you are riskaverse, go to Austin and get your degree there.

Thanks! Academic placement of a Austin vs. a top 10 is so drastically different. I think it is worth taking the risk and going to Toronto in the hopes of making it into a top Phd program thereafter. Particularly becasue I got into a top 10 this year (without aid) so i feel I can get in with aid if I put some effort in my MA year at Toronto. In addition, I thought the greatest weakness of my application this year was that my undergrad education was from a not-so-prestigious liberal arts college. That will hopefully be rectified with an MA from Toronto. What do you all think? You all have provided great help! THanks

[floplo]

Originally Posted by princetongre

Thanks! Academic placement of a Austin vs. a top 10 is so drastically different. I think it is worth taking the risk and going to Toronto in the hopes of making it into a top Phd program thereafter. Particularly becasue I got into a top 10 this year (without aid) so i feel I can get in with aid if I put some effort in my MA year at Toronto. In addition, I thought the greatest weakness of my application this year was that my undergrad education was from a not-so-prestigious liberal arts college. That will hopefully be rectified with an MA from Toronto. What do you all think? You all have provided great help! THanks

Actually I meant to compare Austin with Toronto. The idea behind this is, since you got admission to the doctoral stream, you can finish your Phd in Toronto, if it doesn't work out with a Top10 (or am I wrong here..?). So if there is not much of difference, then going to Austin doesn't provide any benefit at all....

[aclax2k]

Go to Toronto, gives you a chance to go higher, plus if you want to stay in Canada (you might like it) you have been to 'the best school in Canada' even though UBC has a better department. I like the doctoral stream because it gives you a chance to move up with good performance.

Plus as far as cities goes
Toronto >>>>> Austin

no comparison, if you are gonna spend 5+ years, do it somewhere you like.