Signal Preference for a particular program

[ICECOLDECON]

Hello all,

Its summer break time for me, so Ive decided that in between playing Sim Tower, watching preseason football, and looking up economics depts, that I would pose questions to this forum (the first of which I shall post in this post):

Suppose that youre applying to several similarly ranked programs. Is there any good way to signal to a department that they are your top choice? Just blurting out on your SOP that the dept is your top choice seems to be not tactful to me (as well as a bit of an empty signal, if that worked, I would just tell all depts that they were my top choice, as would everyone else). One idea, would be to research a dept really well, so that when you construct your SOP, you are able to thoughtfully articulate why the program is a good match for your interests (in particular mention what is special about the dept, rather than open ended statements such as: Im attracted to the University of _____ b/c of its strong placement record, commitment to research etc...).

It seems to me to be a matching problem on both ends. Surely the student wants to attend their number 1 choice, but I imagine the institution would rather attract someone who is really enthusiastic about the dept, as opposed to someone who thinks of the dept as a safety (all else equal). There just doesnt seem to be many credible means of resolving this problem.

[desimba]

As you said yourself, researching the deptt. very well and getting that reflected in your SOP is a good idea. While writing my SOPs for instance, I remember having spent quite a bit of time looking at the websites of the schools pretty closely and trying to get a "feel" of what characterized their environments and what made them unique relative to other schools in that same tier. I also remember having read 2-3 of the papers most relevant to my area of interest that were authored by professors in that particular deptt. and then referencing 1-2 of these papers in my SOP. To the extent that the SOP is not made much attention, this may largely have been a waste of time.

Another way (which I am purely speculating on) could be to show up at PhD fairs that are generally held during the Fall across some of the major cities in the U.S. From what I hear, usually academics don't come to these fairs and instead send Admin folks in which case networking with them might not be all that helpful. Nevertheless if you are able to speak with folks there and like what you see, it can't hurt to mention that in your SOP. Now while I know they are usually attended by the business schools (e.g. PhD Program: Stanford GSB), I am not sure whether pure Econ departments also participate in anything that is similar to this.

[TruDog]

Originally Posted by desimba

Another way (which I am purely speculating on) could be to show up at PhD fairs that are generally held during the Fall across some of the major cities in the U.S. From what I hear, usually academics don't come to these fairs and instead send Admin folks in which case networking with them might not be all that helpful. Nevertheless if you are able to speak with folks there and like what you see, it can't hurt to mention that in your SOP. Now while I know they are usually attended by the business schools (e.g. PhD Program: Stanford GSB), I am not sure whether pure Econ departments also participate in anything that is similar to this.

I've never heard of econ departments using anything like this due to the small number of American students and the lack of need for such a fair. Perhaps programs like Directional Michigan and ULU-Pick 'Em (college football fans know what I'm talking about) need to use this to advertise their programs, but the Harvards and Yales need not advertise like this.

[veroniquaz]

I wrote into two SOPs that their school was my top choice (and I did not really lie) and I was accepted to both. I do not think there is anything wrong with saying that, as long as you are able to convince them that you are a good match for them and have good reasons to consider their department your top choice. I think I did pretty well in that because my background and interests really were a good fit for those two.

[desimba]

Originally Posted by TruDog

I've never heard of econ departments using anything like this due to the small number of American students and the lack of need for such a fair. Perhaps programs like Directional Michigan and ULU-Pick 'Em (college football fans know what I'm talking about) need to use this to advertise their programs, but the Harvards and Yales need not advertise like this.

As I said, I wasn't sure of the econ departments myself, but as far as B-schools go, you can look at the list of the schools attending one of these fairs to be held in NY in September' 08: hardly what one might imagine given your previous comment.
Columbia Business School
Harvard Business School
MIT Sloan School of Management
Northwestern Kellogg School of Management
Stanford Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business

(Link: Events)

[asianeconomist]

If you are really interested in the research done in a department and see that there is a match between your own research and that of the departments', then it might be a good idea to get in touch with some of the professors whose work you admire (probably by emailing them about specific research directions) and then mention this correspondence in your SOP.

[ICECOLDECON]

Originally Posted by asianeconomist

If you are really interested in the research done in a department and see that there is a match between your own research and that of the departments', then it might be a good idea to get in touch with some of the professors whose work you admire (probably by emailing them about specific research directions) and then mention this correspondence in your SOP.

I heard that this is the worst possible thing you could do before being admitted to a big program. Maybe this strategy would work at a Clemson or another low-ranked school, but Ive read admission guides written by econ professors that say not to do this (for example, http://www.stanford.edu/~athey/gradadv.html under contacts). Some departments even directly state this on their application instruction page.

[desimba]

Originally Posted by ICECOLDECON

I heard that this is the worst possible thing you could do before being admitted to a big program. Maybe this strategy would work at a Clemson or another low-ranked school, but Ive read admission guides written by econ professors that say not to do this (for example, Advice for Applying to Grad School in Economics under contacts). Some departments even directly state this on their application instruction page.

That is precisely the reason I did not offer this advice even though I followed it myself during my application process. Now the reason I had personally gone for e-mailing 2-3 of the profs is that it seemed very unlikely to me that if one were to contact 1/2 professors, they would keep a note of your name and come application time, they would tell themselves that "Hey, no matter what, I don't care how good this guy's application package is, I am going to reject him in February '09 because he had written me two e-mails to me in September '08." I mean to me it personally seemed ridiculous that such a thing would ever happen. More realistically the profs to which you are writing will give the mail a casual read and hit the delete button rather than respond back. However there were exceptions to that as well as I can attest from my personal experience. I was interested in applying to Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) (they do work in the areas of labor economics and transitional economies, etc.) but I was undecided whether I should apply to them instead of another school that also looked appealing. I then wrote to two profs at ILR whose work most closely matched my interests and they both responded back almost immediately with very positive responses and that clinched the deal as far as applying to the school was concerned. Later on, I indeed did get an admit from that school. However at the same time, there were profs who did not respond to my e-mails but to me, that was fine. Eventually my acceptances and rejects had little correlation with whether I had shot an email to 2 profs in those departments or not. However it did help me in finetuning my list of schools that I applied to.

[asianeconomist]

Although I see little rationale behind the professors' vendetta against students who email them, I also categorically stated that the email should have nothing to do with admissions. Rather, it should be an opportunity to discuss your research ideas with the faculty of your liking - it should have nothing like "I would like to get my self enrolled at xx. / I really love xx and am planning to apply there in Fall'09...)

[Thesus]

It's funny, because we already have the formal signalling mechanism come job market time, so why not an equivalent for applications? Only seems to make sense.