no one knows

Unfortunately I can't be there since I am about as far away from Davis as you can be in the continental US. It sounds like it will be cool though - let us know how it turns out.

I would be willing to bet that there are at least a few people, (and I would guess more) who have decided to go to one school over another because of a ranking difference as slight as you are talking about. Especially if the change in rank is the difference between being able to say you went to a "top ten" school and a "top twenty" school. That is a very good point about schools with more economists getting more votes as well. I bet this compounds the self selection bias since schools that USNWR ranks low probably discount its importance and therefore are less likely to respond, while schools with high rankings are more likely to believe the importance of the rankings and are therefore more likely to respond. This is pure conjecture on my part though.

I work on surveys so I'm like a broken record on this topic - it is my special time to be relevant - I've got to take it! The problem isn't the use of surveys it is the fact that they have an atrocious response rate. They only get a 38% response rate for the economics rankings. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/about/07method_brief.php The surveys I work with would be considered failures if the response rate got below 80%. That gives you an idea of how bad a 38% response rate is. I'm guessing that the NRC gets a much much better response rate - and if they don't then they are just as bad as USNWR. I think the department size issue comes into play with the Econphd rankings because the idea is that if you have a department with 100 people who publish 100 mediocre papers they might be ranked above a department with 20 people who publish 50 revolutionary papers. Obviously the 20 groundbreaking economists would be better to be around than the 100 mediocre ones. I haven't poured over the methodology section on Econphd though so I maybe wrong on this.

UC Davis. Just made the final decision email. Wow that was one long process.

Nice! UPenn is great! Yeah I've decided to head to Davis if NYU doesn't come through. Just found out that I'm not on the waitlist anymore either. Davis here I come - GO GUNROCK GO!

Make sure to apply to a nice range of schools - the more the better. Just make sure you don't wear out your letter writers, and make sure you give them way more time than you think they will need!! The admissions process is very hard to predict, the best way to insure you get into the best possible school is by applying to a lot of them.

I am sorry to hear that coffe. Where in Philadelphia are you going?

Anyone hear anything new?

Congrats Gringoire!! That is an awesome admit!! :tup:

Wait a minute. So the Harvard guy and the Grand Valley State guy won't talk to each other because they have nothing in common. Why does there need to be a rule keeping them apart then? If they don't want to talk they won't. If they do want to talk the rule keeping them apart is an unnecessary burden. If I am going to even consider being part of this there better not be any rules keeping me away from people I could benefit from interacting with. I wonder how many of the people clamoring for the creation of this network will be excluded from it?

Is it possible that you can defer until next year and brush up your credentials in the mean time? I was surprised to find that it was possible to defer for econ phd at UCSD. You are guarnteed admission for the next year and then they will re-evaluate you for funding.

Awesome rd!!! [clap]

I just installed the gmail notifier for firefox AND windows. My suffering has reached new heights...:) For me it is now it is down to UC Davis and NYU. Davis said they can wait for me until the 19th. Man I hope NYU doesn't take that long!

Thanks for the heads up moralHazard! Did you decide where you will end up?

That is rough! It is hard enough for me being NYU's waitlist alone. I feel for you, especially since it would be extra incredible to get into Princeton or NW!