Something wrong with Rochester?

[chappl]

I was surprised to see (on the profile and admission thread) that quite few people applied to Rochester as compared to similarly ranked schools, such as Brown, PennState, Wisconsin, Cornell, JHU, Duke, or so.. There even seems to be more applications to programs such as Vanderbilt or Georgetown, which usually rank much lower that Rochester

Is there any reason for this? Has the department there become weaker recently? Or has it to do with the location?

I got accepted in Rochester with tuition waiver + 16k and was initially placing that program quite high in my list. I now guess that this judgement may have been biased..

Could some of you comment on this? possibly trying to compare this program to those of schools like Duke, JHU, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maryland , BU, Virginia, UBC or Toronto (i applied to those too -- still pending..)?

(my interests: monetary macro, international finance and maybe computational)

Thanks a lot..

[kartelite]

This should tell you what you need to know:

http://www.weather.com/weather/local...om=search_city

[econchick06]

Chappl,

I got in same as you, but I almost didn't even apply! I think for me it was lack of knowledge of the program, it doesn't seem like a school you hear about a lot like the Harvards and Chicagos. Then one of my professors asked me if I was applying and I said no and he said I should, he heard they give a lot of money to students that they want. So I pretty much added it last minute figuring the MC wasn't that high considering that I had applied to so many other schools and there is no app cost and I'm glad I did.

But I can't really answer your question, the weather may play some part but I can't imagine that is the whole story. They definitely seem to appear in the top 20, or at least very close to it, on most lists (I've seen anywhere from 8 - 22). I am definitely excited about the offer and highly considering it (esp since I have no others right now!).

Maybe someone else can shed more light - if you didn't apply, why? Was it a specific reason or did you just not even think about it (like I almost didn't)

[Starvingecon]

They lost some Earthlings recently, in metrics and macro to top schools or places with lots of money, Micro is still very strong and macro is pretty solid, I would only hesitate if you wanted to do metrics theory. I was an undergrad there last year you can PM me if you have any specific questions. I'm now a first year at a comparable program.

[jahizbarlas]

i think their macro is not strong now either. they have lost most of their faculty in macro (i think), but if starving went there, i guess he would know more
the reason i didnt apply is because i want to do macro and i know their macro is just not as good as when krussell was there.

[econchick06]

Starving -

For the benefit of others I will ask you here but if you feel it more appropriate you can PM me.

I am definitely interested in Micro - which you say is still strong (an impression I seemed to get). What faculty would you say is the strongest in micro? Would you say applied or theory is their strength?

Thanks!

[jahizbarlas]

epstein is awesome i hear...

[Lombardo]

I was considering applying to Rochester, but since I want to specialise in econometrics, I decided to not to as, to the best of my knowledge, they only have one guy doing econometrics.

[Starvingecon]

In Micro Epstein and Thomson are the big boys and its definitely theory not applied.

[Econ07]

I believe Epstein is leaving this year.