Econ PhD Funding

[asquare]

Originally Posted by lyos

asquare, that's good to here. I have a friend who started this year over there and said things should be a bit better next year too. I still haven't decided whether to apply to the Ford School's joint program or just the econ dept. Since I still want to open up the possibilities that I could focus on fields that would be less suitable in a Policy School, like international or macro, I become hesitant. At least, now I can expect higher probabilities of funding next year than this year.

lyos, as far as I understand it, there is no downside to applying to the joint program. Your application is still considered independently by each department (i.e., you have to get in to econ separately) and it's possible to be admitted to econ but not the joint program. It is not possible to be admitted to the Ford School but not econ, since you have to have a "diciplinary home" to be part of the joint program. As a bonus, all students in the joint program are funded (through their departments and the policy school). And they get offices in the fancy new building, instead of the Lorch basement.

[lyos]

So if one applies to the joint program via Ford Schools program and gets admitted by the econ dept but gets rejected by the Ford School is that person officially admitted into the econ dept?

[asquare]

Originally Posted by lyos

So if one applies to the joint program via Ford Schools program and gets admitted by the econ dept but gets rejected by the Ford School is that person officially admitted into the econ dept?

Yes. However, I think that in practice, the joint program has far fewer applicants from econ than the other affiliated diciplines, so the real stumbling block is more likely to be the econ department than the Ford School.

[lyos]

Yeah it seems that's the case based on Ford's website. Thanks for the input asquare.

[Freakonomizer]

Does anyone know about other schools that fully fund their students?

I think this will make a BIG difference for me in terms of accepting eventual offers.