decisions2019 Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 Hi All, I was recently admitted to Rutgers with funding, but I've read a some concerning posts regarding the program over on GC and EJR (especially regarding funding and attrition). I was wondering if anyone here had any first or second hand knowledge regarding these topics that they'd be willing to share, other than what is out there on the internet. Separately, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on how these programs might stack up against the Ag Econ programs at MSU and Purdue. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feanor88 Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 Be careful, I heard some very bad news about the funding, the organization and the importance of Ph.D. students in the department, from some insiders. Moreover, the placement is not very well. If it is your unique option, go. But, if you have alternatives, think twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decisions2019 Posted February 24, 2019 Author Share Posted February 24, 2019 Thanks for your response. Were the insiders you've heard this from students and if so, do you know what their funding status was? A lot of what I've read online has been regarding the sorry fiscal situation of the department, but I'm not sure if that applies to me since I will be entering with funding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazakh Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 This might be useful in your situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decisions2019 Posted February 25, 2019 Author Share Posted February 25, 2019 Thanks, I saw that and it actually prompted my questions. Since that seemed like a disgruntled current grad student (who also posted that over on GC), I was curious if anyone else had any thoughts/inside knowledge. It's a bit unclear to me how reliable EJR is a site, since it seems incredibly toxic over there... Also, not trying to have someone post something to assuage fears of going there, just looking for more than one data point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutonic Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Not trying to crap on Rutgers, but their PhD placement page only has data up to 13/14 batch. Purdue is similarly ranked, and unless there is a severe mismatch in terms of field of interest, personally, I would pick Purdue over Rutgers, but only because I'm very risk averse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decisions2019 Posted February 27, 2019 Author Share Posted February 27, 2019 Thanks for the feedback. Seems reasonable to me. When you say Purdue is similarly ranked, are you referring to their Ag program or their pure Econ program? Also, anyone have any thoughts on how UMD AREC fits in to all this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutonic Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 (edited) Thanks for the feedback. Seems reasonable to me. When you say Purdue is similarly ranked, are you referring to their Ag program or their pure Econ program? Also, anyone have any thoughts on how UMD AREC fits in to all this? Oh, I just realised you were referring to Purdue's Ag Econ instead of Purdue Econ. My previous assessment was related to Purdue Econ. Notwithstanding, from the outside, Purdue Ag Econ looks kind of similar to Rutgers' in terms of the available placement information. I'd still pick Purdue over Rutgers, but that's only because I'm very very risk averse. Since I had some free time today, I went and searched out most of the TBD's on Purdue 2017 Ag Econ's placement list. Below are the results: From Purdue's 2017 Ag Econ Cohort: AA - Field Coordinator consultant for Agricultural Labor Survey EB - Penn State Post-Doc DK - went back to his co-founded consulting firm KA - Visiting Scholar at Mississippi State This was on top of 2 apparent TT-AP position in the US, 1 abroad, 1 Post-doc, and 1 teaching position in the US from the rest of the 2017 cohort. Overall, pretty comparable placement as compared to Rutgers' Econ. MSU's Ag Econ placement looks marginally better. Hard to tell, since they don't separate the masters placement from the PhD placement; but the good thing is, they have links to all their past students on their webpage, so you can technically form a list by going through all the placed students, to see if they came from the PhD or masters programme. In my opinion, if you are going to be doing stuff in applied micro, UMD's AREC strictly dominates all other programmes. UMD's AREC is actually among the best Ag Econ-type of programme you can get into, to the best of my knowledge. Edited February 27, 2019 by tutonic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decisions2019 Posted February 27, 2019 Author Share Posted February 27, 2019 Thanks for doing so much research Tutonic! I feel like the obvious choice for me right now is UMD and it is good to get some external validation of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutonic Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 Thanks for doing so much research Tutonic! I feel like the obvious choice for me right now is UMD and it is good to get some external validation of this. No problem at all. Personally, if you're holding UMD's AREC offer, it's a no-brianer. It dominates all the other programmes in question here. Perhaps others can chime in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zshfryoh1 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 I am a current PhD student in Finance at Rutgers Business School. We take Micro I and Math Econ (and any econ electives) with the Econ PhD students and I got to know some of the econ students. We discussed differences between our programs and I can confirm a lot of the issues with Rutgers Econ. About 40-50% attrition in quals. PhD student funding is an issue for the entire University - even the B-school funds There are a number of excellent faculty members in the department, and their econometrics group, while small is pretty strong but I would advise anyone with a funded offer at any roughly equivalent Econ PhD program -you got into UMD AREC which meets this criteria- to take the other offer even if funded at Rutgers. I might even say to take a funded MSU Ag Econ admit over a funded Rutgers Econ admit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decisions2019 Posted February 28, 2019 Author Share Posted February 28, 2019 Thanks for your input! I think right now my decision is pretty clear. Rutgers is definitely seeming like a run don't walk away from situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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