KingOfConvenience

this is unfortunately true...

Why would you avoid Bernanke, Frank? At the moment I'm leaning towards their textbook, but given your experience teaching from this book, I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts. A friend of mine has used Krugman, Wells and like it too. I'm going to look at that book.

I'm definitely going to look through Cowen, Tabarrok, particularly because I like Tyler Cowen's style. I'm curious to see how they treat macro...

Hello TMers. I'm teaching Principles of Micro in the Fall, and I wanted to ask you all for your thoughts/suggestions/recommendations on a textbook for the course. I'm not keen on Mankiw, by the way (perhaps you can give me a compelling reason for its superiority). In general, I want to give my students a broad perspective, and not restrict the course material to vanilla, neoclassical economics. Furthermore, I'm not interested in teaching a technical course, but more of a concepts/big questions type course. If nothing else, you might just post the book(s) you used for your first micro course. That'll give me an idea of what's typically used. Thanks a lot!

1) if you post a profile with test scores and grades, it's pretty straightforward to match moniker to applicant 2) the main use to adcoms of this forum is the knowledge of who the competition is

probably unfounded rumors

BU is really good for micro theory, and they have good placements.

Yes, the environment at BC is quite good, actually. Because everyone is funded, there is little reason to be excessively competitive, and generally everyone is pretty friendly and fun. BC just hired two people in international this year. One is from Penn and does empirical international finance and the other does international trade and macro. And of course, there is Ghironi, who does international macro. As for monetary, the two main people are Peter Ireland and Fabio Schiantarelli. And for macro in general, there Susanto Basu, who is brilliant. I'd say the international macro program at BC is really good. You'll certainly find the classes challenging. Especially Ghironi's. Hope this helps.

BC fully funds admitted students. BU is very stingy about funding. BC has a growing group of international economists, and the one and only Peter Ireland. Also, keep in mind that you are in the Boston area, so if you are enterprising, you can certainly sit in on courses at BU and attend seminars, etc.

go long on oil.

i hear vanderbilt's law & econ program is good. also, i assume chicago would be a great place to study law & econ!

I think you should inquire about BC's hiring plan for the next few years. I'm sure they are making some hires this year and the next. If you haven't, you should email grad students in the department.

i'm not certain, but i think not receiving a rejection by now could mean that you have a slim chance. if in doubt, email and ask.

I think Duke is a program with a very good reputation and has had good placements recently. I don't think UVa is quite as strong. If you don't have a strong predilection for a particular professor at UVa, Duke is a very attractive option considering you have partial funding (tuition + health). Also, don't underestimate the value of paid-for health insurance. Is UVa offering you health insurance as well?

Hi Filroz. Here are a few things i can tell you about BC. First, there is a soccer team, one that has done very well in the intramural league. Second, if you are sufficiently motivated and have good enough ideas, i'm sure you could have a BU professor on your committee. In addition to the option of taking electives at BU, there is a BU/BC macro workshop every semester designed to disseminate the research work being done by graduate students in the two departments. Third, BC is in Boston, and Boston has three other excellent schools with active research programs, BU, Harvard, and MIT. None of your other city choices can boast anything close to this. As for beauty of campus relative to Georgetown, one could call it either way. Upper campus, which I suspect you did not get a chance to appreciate given the weather conditions during your visit, has beautiful collegiate gothic buildings similar to those in Cambridge or Oxford university. Lower campus doesn't do BC justice; alas, the economics department is most easily accessed via lower campus, and I suppose this was your first impression of the campus. The weather in DC is often nicer (somewhat milder winters and earlier springs), but the summers in DC can be sticky and hot. Boston, however, is really quite nice most of the summer. Winters can be rather nasty with snow storms, but it isn't terrible. I venture that the weather in Boston is still more pleasant than London most of the time. I hope that helps enrich your perspective.