Ucsc

[sir_ceterus]

For clarification:

The City is San Francisco.

The dept. said they like to fund all admitted students after their first year, but international students will have to work harder for funding since they cannot become residents of California.

TA/RA positions are ridiculously plentiful, as the cohorts are small and economics is one of the school's most popular majors.

Housing is definitely an issue, but if you are willing to accept graduate student housing, the apartments are literally 150 meters from the dept. where your offices and classes are. And yes, all PhD students get group office space and a computer. A lot of older PhD students commute from nearby communities. I would recommend the graduate student housing option for first-year students on location alone. Especially if you don't want to share a room! Try Craigslist if you want to see other options (you will begin to see what I mean about expensive).

I received full funding (with a two-qtr TAship), so my enthusiasm should be put into context.

[Terra Firma]

Originally Posted by sir_ceterus

Carl Walsh is both humble and encouraging.

I'm really excited. The fit is exceptional, especially since I'm more interested in international policy work than academia.

I am wondering if Prof. Walsh is still active advising students. It seems that none of those on this year job market has him as an advisor. I am interested in international monetary stuffs so it would be great if have the opportunity to work with him.

You said Prof. does not really stress class performance but I guess TA/RA assignments are based on first year grade, at least my perspective after reading the dept website.

Did you arrange the visit with the dept? From what you said, it seems that there is high probability that non-funded first year students could get funding in the second year. Do you know the statistics on this? I think this is important given the high living cost in the area. It will be very hard to pay for the first 2 years from out of pocket money.

[veroniquaz]

Originally Posted by Terra Firma

You said Prof. does not really stress class performance but I guess TA/RA assignments are based on first year grade, at least my perspective after reading the dept website.

it is pretty much certain you will get a TA-ship. Your relative performance in class determines whether they give you a fellowship to cover the non-resident tuition (if you are not a California resident). At least this is what they told me two years ago. Try to look up old posts by TheBrothersKaramazov and jhai. TBK is a current student and some time ago she described her (very positive) impressions. Jhai was admitted but went to Georgetown eventually. She visited the department and posted some helpful stuff afterwards.

[TheBrothersKaramazov]

Hi all,
Glad to see that some interest in UCSC! If anyone has questions, feel free to ask.
Gogol asked about rankings: according to the IDEAS website, they rank 6th in international finance: Field Rankings at IDEAS: International Finance

I would agree with everything Sir Ceterus is saying.

Carl Walsh is definitely still advising students. In fact, the external reviewers insisted that the department make a larger effort to emphasize monetary economics (given our strengths and the fact that there are many people enrolled who are concurrently working at central banks). Along that vein, the department is likely to offer an additional 2-quarter monetary sequence in 2nd year for those interested.

If you don't get funding in first year, I am almost certain you'd get it in second year providing you had decent grades. I was offered 2 quarters of TA support in first year (+ necessary int'l student support to pay fees), but was not initially offered a TAship. I was later offered one once the fall quarter started.

[Terra Firma]

Thanks to veroniquaz and TheBrothersKaramazov for the response.

The information is very helpful. If I go there then the monetary sequence would be awesome if offered. Anyway, encouraging news related to macro.

As a side note, on the department website, it mentioned recruiting seminars. Do you know what areas are those in TheBrothersKaramazov? It is impossible to know from outside since there is no further information.

UCSC's strength in international finance is quite well known and well discussed in this forum but I think that their Macro esp Monetary side also has the potential to be good so it would be great if they are recruiting for that area too but that may be just wishful thinking since I am interested in Macro too .

[TheBrothersKaramazov]

Yes, we interviewed about 5 candidates for a macro position. The international economics position was canceled due to funding (and possibly because a faculty member is returning from a year long hiatus in Brazil).
Aspen Gorry (Chicago) accepted our offer. There were no interviews of monetary people this year. Surprisingly, alot of the "macro" people interviewed seemed more political economy or international econ focused.

Yes, the possible monetary sequence seemed to excite alot of the grad students. Right now, there is a macro (ie. mostly monetary) workshop run by Walsh and Ravenna. That will likely be replaced with the course sequence. The department had also planned to have someone from the San Fran fed come in to teach a mini course in monetary-appropriate econometrics for this spring quarter, but that has been cancelled.

[TheBrothersKaramazov]

Also, just wanted to point out that the recent summer internships (usually after 2nd year and up) have been pretty sweet: IMF, World Bank, European Central Bank, various Feds, IBM research division, etc.

[jlee7979]

Thanks for the information, TheBrothersKaramazov.

I am accepted in UCSC without funding and I am still waiting for other schools' decesion yet.

The fact that you got TAship for the first year even though you had been accepted without TAship is a really great news for me.

Could you please let us know how many UCSC Ph.Ds out of total were started their first career at WB, IMF or Fed for previsous 3 years? I am intereted in policy agency career rather than academic position (I worked as full time RA in a IMF regional office for two years) and UCSC placement information will greatly help me to decide which shool I will go.

[TheBrothersKaramazov]

I don't know anything beyond this year and last year's job market placements. I do know that many people come from central banks and are obliged to return to them.

Last year, there were 4 people on the job market. One took a job at a SUNY school, one had worked at the bookings institute but decided to take a job with the US naval studies doing economic research (and received an extremely nice pay package), another went to the WB.

This year, the job market has been terrible. 4 people on the job market. No one has gotten offers at policy places, though 3/4 had flyouts to Fed and WB positions. (there were some good academic flyouts too: University of Aarhus, Dartmouth, Oregon, etc). One person who was interviewed by the WB was assumed to be a shoe-in, but didn't end up getting the job. She is taking a post-doc at the HK institute of monetary research.

All the int'l finance profs (Aizenman, Hutchison, Dooley) are well connected in these organizations. In general, I think the odds of getting a policy job are much greater than getting a good academic position. (Though, it isn't impossible. We've had grad student receive tenure track offers at schools like Indiana, Purdue, and U San Francisco. One guy on the job market this year is taking a tenure track position in New Zealand over a job at Indiana.

[TheBrothersKaramazov]

Originally Posted by jlee7979

The fact that you got TAship for the first year even though you had been accepted without TAship is a really great news for me.

Sorry, i meant to say that I didn't receive a TAship in the fall quarter (i had been offered a TAship for the Winter and Spring). Then they offered me a TAship in the fall.

That said, there is always a demand for TAs... though, if alot of people without funding do accept offers from UCSC, the odds of getting funding are less.