dcasarinc Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 I got admitted to Rochester with tuition scholarship and 20000 USD stipend. I also got admitted to UT with tuition scholarship and 15000 USD TA/Stippend package. Background: I do not hold a masters degree, I have 2 years of research experience and was top 5% of my class. My research interests are macroeconomics, monetary policy and labor. My spouse is going to come with me to the PhD and I hate cold, although I could live with that. I have several questions and any help would be greatly appreciated: 1.- Which University has a better macro department? From what I heard, Rochester is better and in the past, Texas macro department has been weak although its micro department is very good. I want to know if this is still the case or I am completely wrong. 2.- Which university is likely to have a higher atrittion rate? 3.- Which university has better job placement? 4.- Which university supports better its students and is aligned more to my research interests? 5.- And finally, which university is going to be better for my significant one? (She studied animation and digital arts). Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chateauheart Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Given your academic considerations, I'd recommend Rochester over UT Austin. That plus 1/3 more stipend should be a no-brainer. It's also not that cold, indoors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
behavingmyself Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Rochester specializes in macro and Texas is almost nonexistent in macro. The opposite is true in applied micro/labor. Both schools once had very high attrition but (to my knowledge) not recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenhorse Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Rochester sounds more attractive to me... but I have to agree on that Winter in upper state NY is unbearable... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcsokrates Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Cold is lame, but there's heat in your office and you won't have enough free time to really take advantage of the weather even if it were warm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yankeefan Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 It's also not that cold, indoors. Cold is lame, but there's heat in your office and you won't have enough free time to really take advantage of the weather even if it were warm. So deplessed... so clitting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillymaya Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 My research interests are macroeconomics, monetary policy and labor. My spouse is going to come with me to the PhD and I hate cold, although I could live with that. I have several questions and any help would be greatly appreciated: 1.- Which University has a better macro department? From what I heard, Rochester is better and in the past, Texas macro department has been weak although its micro department is very good. I want to know if this is still the case or I am completely wrong. If you're interested in macro and monetary, you're probably better off going to Texas, where you'll have Coibion and Bhattarai. Rochester has Mark Bils, who's excellent, but he's the only really active guy there and not working in monetary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
behavingmyself Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 If you're interested in macro and monetary, you're probably better off going to Texas, where you'll have Coibion and Bhattarai. Rochester has Mark Bils, who's excellent, but he's the only really active guy there and not working in monetary. Rochester has a mid-sized macro group with three active seniors and several juniors. By contrast, to my knowledge, Texas has no senior faculty in macro. I would be quite hesitant to pick a school for the junior faculty. I don't have any inside information about the two guys mentioned above, but with the exception of fresh hires, the odds that an assistant professor will be in the same department in five years are usually less than half. Now, the two guys at Texas have research interests more related to monetary policy than the group at Rochester. But my experience is that prospective students are better at predicting their field interests than their subfield interests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillymaya Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Rochester has a mid-sized macro group with three active seniors and several juniors. By contrast, to my knowledge, Texas has no senior faculty in macro. I would be quite hesitant to pick a school for the junior faculty. I don't have any inside information about the two guys mentioned above, but with the exception of fresh hires, the odds that an assistant professor will be in the same department in five years are usually less than half. Now, the two guys at Texas have research interests more related to monetary policy than the group at Rochester. But my experience is that prospective students are better at predicting their field interests than their subfield interests. Coibion is senior now. And UT has 3 juniors: Bhattarai, Glover and Kherig. I guess it depends on the type of macro you prefer: macro-labor is definitely stronger at Rochester, but for macro-monetary I would unhesitatingly go for Texas. And that's ignoring quality of life issues, which clearly push toward Austin over upstate NY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anniejerry Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Coibion is senior now. And UT has 3 juniors: Bhattarai, Glover and Kherig. I guess it depends on the type of macro you prefer: macro-labor is definitely stronger at Rochester, but for macro-monetary I would unhesitatingly go for Texas. And that's ignoring quality of life issues, which clearly push toward Austin over upstate NY. Do you think Oli is going to stay in UT Austin for a while? Or going to a better place, actually I am hesitating about going to UT Austin or not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillymaya Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Do you think Oli is going to stay in UT Austin for a while? Or going to a better place, actually I am hesitating about going to UT Austin or not I was told he has personal reasons for being in Austin. But it's hearsay. Why don't you email him and ask if that's a concern? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.