Quota By Field in the Selection Process?

[App2007]

Is there a quota for each field (e.g., international economics, public economics) in the selection process? Will applicants of the same field compete with one another?


Many thanks.

[crslr]

No. People change their fields anyway after coursework - the # who say on their SOP that they want to do international has little to do with the # that ends up doing international.

[Corneconomics]

Originally Posted by crslr

People change their fields anyway after coursework - the # who say on their SOP that they want to do international has little to do with the # that ends up doing international.

I have a hard time believing this, as it isn't like 2 years of elective coursework is usually enough time to turn someone from micro theory to finance. Also, it isn't likely that someone who comes in with three years expirinec in development at the WB or on wall street in finance is going to drastically change. I doubt that these concerns will have enough import to make any quota necessary.

In fact, wouldn't it be great if an entire class hapened to be all interested in something like labor. 20 kids working together in an area like that could really do something, I think.

[crslr]

Well, whether or not people's preferences change drastically over that time, they will face the hard constraint of getting a supervisor in a particular field. If there are too many people taking electives in a field and going into the qualifiers, more will fail in that field in that year, since the department knows it doesn't have the resources to cope with that.

After the first year, PhD students begin to understand this mechanism and take "realistic" electives. If you're not among the best, you'll know you'd better do something that's less popular, or you're really taking chances.

So whether you change your intended field based on this consideration or because classes influence your preferences (which does happen a lot): the department will end up with the right mix of field choices. Hence it doesn't have to worry during admissions.