mpleportals

If Econometrics is not your concentration you can select the following options Econometric Analysis Microeconomics for MRes Students Macroeconomics for MRes Students Quantitative Economics or Contracts and Organisations Time Series Other courses in Statistics or Mathematics may be selected with the approval of the Programme Director. The coursework is extremely solid (much more solid than MSc Econ at LSE) but I don't know whether all adcoms know that (I guess most do). It will be very hard to get a distinction

LSE is definitely the best in Europe in Economics and EME has great reputation. Thus for me LSE>Oxford>Cambridge=UCL

Any good latex equation editor?

I read some very nice comments here. I personally believe that the severe use of axioms and unfalsifiable/non testable hypotheses results into rather esoteric or even metaphysical (philosophically) theories. Additionally economists tend to formulate convenient but rather limiting hypoteses in order to derive simple and intuitive theories. Those theories may have a pedagogic value but they lack predictive power. I believe that economics should be driven more by induction. Otherwise we could run the risk of creating a pure mathematical but unrealistic discipline. Economic behaviours are more complex than physical laws and therefore economics should not mimick physics. I believe that behavioural, experimental and empirical economics are following the right path. Additionally, it is claimed that economics is not an exact science. I believe that economics is becoming as exact (if not more than) as medicine. The inductive tools used in medical research are (unfortunately for current and future patients) less powerful and sophisticated than the ones used in today's empirical economics. Most doctors do not even realize that the diagnoses and the medications have been developed through probabilistic reasoning and not by exploiting certain deterministic laws. It shouldn't therefore be strange that they call those medications "recipes".

To stay in topic, in (almost) all of the above rankings Toronto>Cambridge Note, that Kalaitzakis et al. is probably the most cited economics ranking

1) Revealed Performances Worldwide Rankings of Economists and Economics Departments 1969-2000 Tom Coupé ECARES Université Libre de Bruxelles 2) Rankings of Academic Journals and Institutions in Economics¤ Pantelis Kalaitzidakis et Al 3) econphd rankings Note that our guy is not interested in doing a phd. Therefore academic placement is irrelevant

Would you mind sharing a flat?

I've heard that Cambridge is extremely hard (most people struggle for a pass- check master's thread). I don't know anything about Toronto.

True...

Berkeley and UCLA are state schools....

I disagree. Many Oxbridge graduates do their master's at LSE in order to improve their chances for a job in the financial market.

Duke...

"I don't intend to pursue the PhD and actucally" Bear in mind the above. Some answers are not relevant in this case. If jister wanted to do a Ph.D. in the US I would have recommended Duke...

What I claimed is not based on logic but on experience. LSE graduates get the best jobs in the city of London. Furthermore LSE has the strongest brand name in the UK (not only I would say). LSE is also well known amond US employers (whereas Duke does not have a very strong brand name outside the US). It is not strange that around 40% of the LSE's postgraduate students are northern americans. Furthermore, far more influential politicians, academics and business people are affiliated with LSE than with Duke. That is not to say the Duke has not got an excellent economics department. Probably Duke is as good as LSE. But that is something that prospective students and academics, but not necessarily employers, know. For example, despite the good quality of their economics departments, nobody knows UPF, Toulouse or even Tilburg in the financial market. That is because the above universities lack prestige (Duke is for sure more reputable than those universities though).

LSE for sure. Duke is not top in the US while LSE is top in Europe (in terms of brand name). So I belive that LSE>>Duke for europe while LSE=Duke or even LSE>Duke for US

I would go to Cornell or Duke! They are great schools... No second thought! Don't waste your time doing a masters. It will probably not change your chances (it would if you were not placed well now) You can apply again next year to "top10" though while doing the Phd.

I don't think that going to Harvard or MIT is an easier route. People tend to forget that Harvard and MIT produce around 25 graduates a year. Only the very best of them manage to build a career in top20 universities. Many graduates from those schools even work in non-research colleges or in low ranked universities. I believe that the reputation of the Ph.d thesis supervisor as well as his academic links are more important factors .

Companies are only aware of general reputation of the university as a whole rather than the one of individual departments (I've been through the process and I've also hired people myself for a bank in the UK). Employers, for example, prefer statistics graduates from UCL rather than from Bath or Lancaster (Bath and Lancaster are stronger in statistics than UCL). Despite that, Toronto is the highest ranked Canadian university in economics in terms of research output.I guess companies don't care at all about Ph.d placements.

If you want to work in Toronto I believe that it is better to go to the UoT. UoT is the highest rated university of Canada and you'll be able to find a job in a Graduate programme while at the programme. The logistics of interviews are not easy at all!

Since most of you aim to accomplish research in economics I though that it could be good to discuss the issue of epistemonology in economics. To the degree that economists use inductive logic to either falisfy (Popper point of view) or enrich (Kuhn point of view) their hypotheses, economics is a science. However economics (most economics theories at least) has relatively low predictive power (it is not strange that are so many jokes related to economists). Thus some philosophers of science/positive scientists could claim that economics is not a science (Putnam point of view?)! So what do you think and why?

Passfield is bad if you like cooking (or even just backing frozen pizza). The freedge is too small and is shared between 40-50 people (I used to keep my milk out of the window to stay fresh!). The food at the canteen is edible (most times) but not great. No food is served on weekends. My room was a small corridor. The location however is great and the rent relatively cheap (you don't have to stay there on x-mas or easter holidays). You're welcome

A friend of mine was admitted in Minnesota several years ago. So his background was -studies in Economics at a big Greek university (only 2 1st Y maths courses - mostly linear algebra) -800 Q 450 V GRE -No research (according to what I know) -Good reference letters He now works at Yale Good luck and let us know your results

It would definitely help if you could get a master's with distinction from LSE. If you however fail to get a distinction, you may deteriorate you position. Try applying to Minnesota. It is very close to top10 and its graduates are placed in top economic departments.

I've lived in Passfield last year. Don't you find the rooms and (especially) the kitchen way too small. Passfield is very well located though... My Room on Flickr - Photo Sharing! Passfield on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Good job! A friend of mine graduated from MN and he now works at Yale