Bad things to say on your SOP

[YoungEconomist]

I think that's basically the case at Rice and many small programs. Even at reasonably big departments like MSU many fields, such as Advanced Macro or International Macro, are offered every two years. That basically means that you have to wait until third year to take your major field course. This is of course not desirable because it could certainly reduce the amount of time that you have to finish your dissertation. But it's not like taking other field courses is a waste of time. (or do you want to study ONLY IO?). One way to deal with this problem is to find out in advance when exactly your field courses will be offered, and only apply to universities that will offer your field of interest during the second year. Just for your record, Purdue does seem to offer both I/O field courses every year.

I guess I don't know about IO for sure, but I definitely want to keep the option open for my second year. Correct me if I am wrong, but I imagine that Purdue is not completely unique in this respect. For example, I imagine that a lot of the public schools tend to have a larger program and can get away with offering IO courses every year. I assume that schools like UNC, MSU, Arizona, and Texas A&M probably offer IO every year. But then again maybe I am wrong?

[90323001]

Dear all,

Would you give me some hints on how to find out whether my field course will be offered or not in the future when choosing school. Thanks!

[YoungEconomist]

Dear all,

Would you give me some hints on how to find out whether my field course will be offered or not in the future when choosing school. Thanks!

One thing I've done is go to the schools website and check if they even claim to offer that field. It should say something like "during the second year students choose to fields of specialization, the fields we offer are..." This is a good first step, but it cannot be completely trusted as they may only offer it every several years. The second thing I like to do is go to their job market canidates and see if they have a few people who are graduating in that field (it usually talks about their research interests and/or their fields of specialization). Aside from that I don't know how to get completely accurate information, I guess another thing would be to email the department.

[apropos]

One thing I've done is go to the schools website and check if they even claim to offer that field. It should say something like "during the second year students choose to fields of specialization, the fields we offer are..." This is a good first step, but it cannot be completely trusted as they may only offer it every several years. The second thing I like to do is go to their job market canidates and see if they have a few people who are graduating in that field (it usually talks about their research interests and/or their fields of specialization). Aside from that I don't know how to get completely accurate information, I guess another thing would be to email the department.

Find their schedule of classes web site and see if they had offered a course you need within 1-2 years (many universities have that available on the web). Also, the department web site might have a link to course web sites, etc.

[YoungEconomist]

Find their schedule of classes web site and see if they had offered a course you need within 1-2 years (many universities have that available on the web). Also, the department web site might have a link to course web sites, etc.

I have seen course listings, but generally it hasn't said specifically when they offered it. Maybe I should go look again more throughly.