Please help me do a reality check

**rvalchev** · 04-02-2009, 03:15 AM

So I am already leaning in a particular way, but I was wondering if I have totally lost my mind or only partially :P... so I thought there's nothing better to do but get one more of those poll threads rolling!

Please vote on the school you would choose to go to (assume funding is equal/doesn't matter) given that you feel like you want to do either econometric theory, empirical IO (estimation of games etc.) or empirical macro (estimation of DSGE models , computational macro of all kinds etc.) and you are also open to pretty much everything else (except for possibly development ... that just doesn't excite me.) Career goal is highest possible academic placement.

Thanks all, I am really curious about the results.

**Dr. Who** · 04-02-2009, 03:33 AM

You know this is going to come out to vote in favor of your only unfunded offer right? And no your not crazy, its a good school. You'd be crazy if you didn't stop to ponder the long-term effects on you career...

**jeeves0923** · 04-02-2009, 03:48 AM

Can I vote for Princeton when you get off the wait list?

**Bayern** · 04-02-2009, 04:02 AM

It's 8:1 for Michigan now, so you can see where this is heading. I guess one of the main reasons is that most people believe that Michigan is most likely to place you with the best academic placement.

**Econtastic** · 04-02-2009, 04:04 AM

Originally Posted by Bayern

It's 8:1 for Michigan now, so you can see where this is heading. I guess one of the main reasons is that most people believe that Michigan is most likely to place you with the best academic placement.

Well and let's be honest, Michigan clearly has the best football program and coolest uniforms

**KGkhan23** · 04-02-2009, 04:23 AM

Gotta be UMich dude.

Also, I know this isn't the thread for it, but how can you like everything but development? I would have thought people who don't like development would also be bored with things like labor, education, etc... maybe this is my lack of knowledge showing though.

But yeah, out of that list, go to Michigan! Tough to beat a top 15 on an upward trend.

**breakz** · 04-02-2009, 04:24 AM

No love for the strength of Duke's macro squad? How good is macro at UMich?

**Golden Rule** · 04-02-2009, 05:00 AM

Duke is so much better than Michigan for Empirical IO right now. Look at their spring courses. That's a crazy number of courses for IO / structural estimation, maybe the best menu I've ever seen. Michigan didn't even have any IO courses a year or two ago. I know someone who took Duke over Michigan and Wisconsin last year whose main interest was empirical IO. I don't see this huge difference between the schools in placements/rankings.

**SeabrookSpecial** · 04-02-2009, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by breakz

No love for the strength of Duke's macro squad? How good is macro at UMich?

Direct quote from a Duke grad student, "I don't know why anyone would come here for macro." I think the loss of Uribe and Schmitt really depleted their macro group. Granted they just hired two junior macro professors and are looking to hire another senior macro professor, but I wouldn't consider macro one of their strengths at the moment.

Originally Posted by Golden Rule

Duke is so much better than Michigan for Empirical IO right now. Look at their spring courses. That's a crazy number of courses for IO / structural estimation, maybe the best menu I've ever seen. Michigan didn't even have any IO courses a year or two ago. I know someone who took Duke over Michigan and Wisconsin last year whose main interest was empirical IO. I don't see this huge difference between the schools in placements/rankings.

I must say I was very impressed with Duke's applied micro group, but I have no idea how they compare with Michigan (They didn't offer me funding so I don't want to think about what I'm missing. Ignorance is bliss right?). WRT the crazy number of courses, I think that counting them up is somewhat misleading since they use a "module" system, where each module is a half semester course.

**rvalchev** · 04-02-2009, 02:13 PM

I never expected so much activity in this thread so early ... nice

haha I tried to not disclose my preferences early on, but I guess it wasn't too hard for people to figure them out. So not many people worried that Michigan being a public school can't sustain it's upward trend in the current financial situation?

jeeves this is not a legal voting option