Thank you U Western Ontario, for giving me a heart attack.

[Olm]

U Western Ontario had this phenomenally bright idea to send invitations for campus visits to all students who applied for graduate programs. For a few seconds I thought I was in, until I noticed the note never bothered to say "congratulations". It basically said "grad orientation, come visit, activities, etc!".

A few days later I received an email from some school official saying that the email had nothing to do with the admissions process.

Some inside info (do not ask how I got it, but it's extremely reliable): U Western Ontario received a record amount of applications this year, and the quality of the applicant pool has risen considerably. So much for UWO being my "safety".

[pevdoki1]

I got those, as well.

I don't view UWO as a safety at all.. It's probably my #1 choice of all the Canadian schools I applied to (big 4), and I'd easily take it over some of the PhD programs on my list, as well.

It seems like a very closely knit department with a very nice placement record and professors that care about the students. What more could you want?

Also, the mathematical emphasis is a nice plus. I remember someone here talking about learning number theory or something in micro. The little number theory I learned in abstract algebra was great fun, and I think I would appreciate it if I could learn a little bit more of pure mathematics while getting an Econ PhD =)

[Olm]

I viewed it as a safety since it used to not get very many applications (even places like UBC rarely eclipse 200) and the department rank used to be quite low. Now it's on its way up, and is also popular because of its very generous funding (to those who don't know, everyone gets at least $20k plus tuition), so...

And the worst part is that it'll be over a month before we start hearing from Canadian schools.

[pevdoki1]

Generous funding is nice..

My Rutgers funding seems to go up about 10% each year.. Starting with a 19k fellowship, and moving up to a 27k TA-ship. It seems ridiculous to be paid 27k for getting a PhD, but I'm not complaining!

Where was it lowly ranked? I think EconPhD is full of crap. I've seen ranking of placement records where UWO is top 50-ish in the world... There is also this ranking, which makes it look quite good: http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/economics/grad/rankings.pdf

[Legatus]

I think the situation with Western right now is a strong push for mathematically inclined students. Also, from what I've heard a number of people have already been admitted, which is early for a canadian school.

Also I agree with pevdoki, Western is much better than the econphd rankings suggest. IMHO, Western is on par with Toronto and UBC and better than Queens, only with a much smaller class < 20 (compared with 40-50 in the others), and with young active faculty and excellent placements recently. And the technical reputation is true, there are very few people who enter with just an econ degree, the majority with physics and math.

I would probably go to Western over any of the other big Canadian schools.

[ekonomiks]

A number of applicants were admitted by Super Bowl Sunday. A couple more have been admitted since then. As far as I know, the vast majority of the admitted applicants are math/physics majors.

[pevdoki1]

I think it's strange in a way that the majority of those accepted are math/physics majors.. How will they know they love economics? Where will the desire to do economics research come from?

On the other hand, most Russian PhD students in the U.S. seem to have taken the Math/physics BA at Moscow State U --> Economics MA at New Economic School --> Economics PhD at Duke/Harvard/Minnesota route

[Olm]

UWO already sending out admits? Looks like I am not getting in anywhere.

[flipecon]

hi. iv been getting those emails too. admits are out? probably to those who sent their applications earlier than expected. i handed in mine feb 1 i think. i emailed, and they told me results will be out by end of feb or march. i hope i get in. haha. congratulations to all who got in. if you could post thy profile, it would be awesome.

[Olm]

UWO admits don't tend to post their results on the gradcafe. Looking at the history of the results, you hardly see any decisions PERIOD. This is one of the reasons why I am a little nervous about how/when the decisions were made.