albertalla

If you feel the certifications are important, you could add them to an Certifications section in your CV. Some applications let you add a CV

What's the difference between your overall GPA and your major GPA? It will make you look like you didn't care for other study as much as economics and mathematics. If it hurts your overall GPA, it will hurt you, but this is typically something you can address in your SOP.

Cellphone: do not go T Mobile. Oh what a mistake that was! Try Verizon or Sprint, they're both good. With T Mobile I didn't have reception where I lived and I was right off campus... Car: In the end I didn't buy a car, but in retrospect I should have. Getting around Davis on a bike is easy and convenient. The roads are flat, there are bike lanes everywhere, and cars are very aware of bikes. You need a good but rundown looking bike with a sturdy U lock. But what about when you want to get out of Davis? I was given lifts all the time, but I wish I could have gone snowboarding more. The mountains are two hours away and so is the bay. Secondhand cars are cheap in the US. A 92' Camry in good state with 150,000 kms on the board is under two thousand dollars. You won't drive it around Davis much, but at least you'll be able to get out of the town whenever you want. Interesting stat: there's 1.1 car per driver in the US. Davis is an exception, but a Californian without a car? Yeah, right...

Really commenting on elhuevon's answer: If you live in the Netherlands, you need to speak Dutch. It is true that Dutch people generally speak English, but one should be polite enough to approach and keep a conversation with them in their own language. Now you may not speak Dutch at the moment, but that's not a worry. If you apply and get in, you'll have months to try to learn the language.

I am not going to Davis, but I went there for a year two years ago. I got lucky: trying to arrange housing, I got in contact with two guys who were going to Australia, my home country, a few months after I got to the US. point of the story is I stayed at their place free of charge while looking for something. It's not easy to arrange accomodation when you are outside Davis. There are many places, but you really need to go there before you make a choice. Some of the appartments are real dumps, while others are very very nice. The colleges at La Rue are a case in point of the latter. Regarding the colleges: try to get into them if you can, but go the subleasing way. There are no free appartments, but there are free rooms in appartments that were reserved months ago.

I am pretty sure klop was being sarcastic. The only reason you would refuse a school that waitlisted you is either that you have a better alternative, or that being waitlisted is too hard a pill to swallow. As the others have said, professors won't know, won't care; you don't need to tell your fellow students.

There have been many posts on this subject, a lot of them embittered. Your question is valid, but please go back through the forum and read the previous threads first.

This is a very general answer, but if I was you, I'd look at european programs. Oxford is still accepting although you'd probably apply for a late field and they may already have their quota. Look at the continent too.

It's hard to say. If they're American, you could always try calling them. Some European programs have very late deadlines...

Fiction that makes you think: Crime and Punishment - Doestoevsky The Fountainhead - Rand Animal Farm - Orwell For sheer pleasure: Bel Ami - Maupassant A life - Maupassant The Power and the Glory - Greene Just from glancing at my book shelves, but there are so many others. Enjoy your year off; you're already off to a good start!

Thanks Reactor, this is indeed interesting reading. It seems like you are avoiding naming and judging particular programs besides yours. I wonder whether you or anyone could comment on specific programs with Reactor's advice in mind. Reactor mentioned placement, mathematical sophistication, quality of teaching, and method of teaching.

Consider masters outside the US if you really think a masters will do the trick. I am thinking of the UK and Canada but there are others. You could always try applying for masters and PhDs at the same time. If you don't get into a PhD program you want, start a masters. Schools will have rejected you, but if you decide to reapply, you will do it with a different profile, different grades, and different LORs.

I used professors from my exchange institution. Just make sure they know you. So when you're looking for what course to do overseas, you should really be looking for a famous professor and take whatever class he teaches.

About the GPA and transfer question: when you fill out an application, there are fields for three schools usually. I went to four so it was a bit of a problem but I could add the fourth in the extra section. For each school, there is a field for your GPA. When an application asks for your overall GPA (or something like that), I gave them my degree granting university GPA, but since I saw no rule out there, if it makes your GPA better, you could always combine GPAs. It sounds dodgy, but they can always work things out from your transcripts and the individual GPA you listed. Moo types faster than me :-)

Oxford -- gives me couple of years to improve my profile, and work out whether I really want to do a PhD

Yeah, it would be good but that'll be hard to implement. I sure am interested, but how could it be done? Soon we'll all stop using TM as frequently as we do now. Business schools have people working full time to ensure alumni keep connected. But there are online solutions like OpenBC. If there were open source solutions, i guess TM could take up some of their functionalities, but how would you set access to the community? We wouldn't want everyone to have access because we wouldn't use it then. That raises the question of standards, or access rights: must a TM member be accepted by at least two others before having access? must they have 100 posts? must there be a subjective standard administered by a third party? Right, I am getting ahead of myself. I just wrote the specifications for a pretty complex IT system, so my mind works like this at this stage. Got to switch it to econ mode :-)

A friend graduated from Davis with a 3.6 GPA in civil eng, applied for masters and got into Columbia, Stanford, and UCLA, plus a lot more, but UCLA gave her a full tuition waiver + fellowship. She took it because it's free education. Her GPA wasn't that great, but spent every summer doing some research project (some earthquake thing at UCLA and then some at Stanford.) I can only think she got great LORs. Just put this up to give you an idea of what it takes to get fellowships in engineering masters. And yes, masters are less funded than PhD.

Travel, travel, and do some more travel: South Africa, then Madagascar (for three months), then a month in Europe to catch up with old friends. It's going to be good :-)

Travel, travel, and do some more travel: South Africa, then Madagascar (for three months), then a month in Europe to catch up with old friends. It's going to be good :-)

According to the old and trusted source econphd.net: http://www.econphd.net/rank/rmacro.htm http://www.econphd.net/rank/rtrade.htm They're not the most reliable source, but then again...

http://www.www.urch.com/forums/graduate-admissions/46173-turning-down-offer-your-ug-institution.html

Yes Ivo, I am from Australia. Actually I'm from Australia and France. The lifestyle in Australia is amazing, which makes me think that down the track I will return there. For now, I'm going to spread my wings. UWA: http://www.crystal.uwa.edu.au/Images/aerial.gif How can you beat that location? And the buildings are nice too!

Should people who've done a masters have an LOR from their undergrad?

Ivo, did you study at UQ? That's my uni! It's nice, really nice, but I tell you that the University of Western Australia beats it hands down. At UWA, you can go to the river, do a bit of windsurfing, and come back in time for your next class. And the weather is probably equivalent to Brisbane's. Not so humid in summer but hotter, rains in winter and not in summer, lots and lots of blue skies. Perth is one of those cities: live there, and you'll love it...

Some people wake up in high school, some at university. That is, some smart people study hard in high school, get into a top school, do well there and there they are, thinking that they're on top of the world. Others take a bit more time: they don't get the best grades in high school, get into a lesser college and start studying there. They do well there and they doubt themselves. I've been to a few universities, and as long as the university is decent, doing well in one is just like doing well in another. If you're a top student at your school now, you've got it, so don't worry.