Schools culture? Where do students really care about economics?

[Gecko]

Originally Posted by fthomassen

You fail to undertand my major point: I dont need more people struggling to achieve success. I need more people struggling to deeply understand an obscure and irrelevant formula because they find the formula beautiful and deeply intriguing.

I have lots of respect for people struggling to get a McKinsey-offering, and considering the people who do that as isolated cases, they all seem to be perfectly sound human beings. Its is more the culture that emerges when you have hundreds of them, creating a homogenous, almost religious-like, atmosphere.

that place sounds like chicago to me~

[fthomassen]

Originally Posted by Canuckonomist

I'll make a note here that its not always the students who make the environment. Professors can play a role, too. A university with professors that are quite distant from the whole process can make what you're trying to achieve very difficult.

In a sense, you are searching out the fairy-tale that a large number of prospective Ph.Ds seek. An ivory tower, of sorts. But this isn't always the case, and I'll say that in my program currently, the first year is awful, and the core coursework is uninspiring. Perhaps it's so for anyone who has taken a (good) master's in economics first, but the first year Ph.D is more or less a regurgitation of this material with a little more technical asides. There is very little "economics" to motivate it all. Perhaps things become different as you move on to upper-years.

But for now I'll tell you, that, "If you're expecting first year to be stimulatin', I've got news for you son: You'll have 99 problems, and lack of that will be one."

I could have easily ended up taking a pure math degree and I dont mind spending many hours a day solving problem sets. I kinda like it. Do you think that could make a first year more enjoyable? That being said, I think you have some good points, and I guess it is hard to be superfascinated of an obscure formula if you have three days to exams and feel afraid of flunking out.

But, maybe its better to be in the Ivory Tower? Might be a pretty cool tower.

[postgradecon]

You fail to undertand my major point: I dont need more people struggling to achieve success. I need more people struggling to deeply understand an obscure and irrelevant formula because they find the formula beautiful and deeply intriguing.

I did not meet a lot of people like this in economics. If that's what you want, you should try for a math PhD. At least, math students I know were the kind of people to be fascinated by "beautiful" equations.

If it helps though, from my experience, the student body in graduate economics is diverse and includes people from different backgrounds, so you should not get stuck in an homogeneous environment (but don't expect everyone to be math enthusiast, I think most people are there mostly for the social science part).

[fthomassen]

Originally Posted by postgradecon

I did not meet a lot of people like this in economics. If that's what you want, you should try for a math PhD. At least, math students I know were the kind of people to be fascinated by "beautiful" equations.

If it helps though, from my experience, the student body in graduate economics is diverse and includes people from different backgrounds, so you should not get stuck in an homogeneous environment (but don't expect everyone to be math enthusiast, I think most people are there mostly for the social science part).

Again, you seem to miss out on the major point. Im starting to get a embarassed by the lack of precision I excercise when using enligsh. My major point is that I would like to meet people who really like what they do. They dont have to be math geeks, and my use of "fascinated by beautiful formulas" was intended as some kind of metaphor.

Is there somewhere you believe the student body is less heterogeneous?