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!

I got it on the sameday as rdjohnny. I also noticed that someone got on the waitlist on March 15 - it is hard to say what it means though. Yeah one of those was me too - rdjohnny did you post your waitlist status too? I think there is 1 other TMian person on the waitlist at NYU. I agree it is stressing me out too. Friday and Saturday will pretty much be spent refreshing my email and estimating how much time it will take me to fax my acceptance to my backup schools! Best of luck!!

It sounds like the waitlist situation at NYU is a bit grim. I believe rdjohnny in another thread said he was told they might touch the waitlist at the end of this week.

from Wikipedia on Trinity College: "Trinity College consistantly ranks as one of the top Liberal Arts Colleges in the nation. The US News and World Report ranks the school in the top 25 institutions in the nation. Recently the Wall Street Journal ranked Trinity as the 43rd top "feeder school" for the top graduate school programs. Trinity College is a highly selective and respected institution. It attracts students from all over the world with it reputation." So basically Cornell only 'gambled' on students from Penn State, (considered one of the finest public schools in the US) and Arizona. It is still difficult to believe that students from less well known schools had completely equal shot at funding. Edit: I find it delightfully ironic that the wiki article on Trinity College includes misspellings in the section trumpeting its academic prowess

Kenyon College is an exculsive liberal arts school. From Wikipedia: "The 2005 Princeton Review and Fiske Guide to Colleges 2005 both ranked Kenyon's admissions as "most selective" and the college received top academic ratings." So while Kenyon College isn't among to top 20 economics schools it is certainly among the more elite US colleges for undergraduate education.

(posted this in the double of this thread too - whoops!) That is crap - especially since the Ivies are infamous for grade inflation. It is even more crap because your ugrad institution is determined by your performance in HIGH SCHOOL. I applied to Cornell for Econ Phd and got in without funding. In high school I got into U Chicago for ugrad but since I wasn't a charity case or the son of a plutocrat I wasn't eligible for financial aid and there was no way I or my parents could afford it. So basically Cornell didn't fund me for econ because coming out of high school my parents made the wrong amount of money. Sweet! Somewhere Ezra Cornell is spinning in his grave! Well if you look at the CV's of job market candidates from those schools who are also from the US his assesment has some credibility, (I know I know if you went to a top 20 ugrad school you are more likely to be driven enough and have the talent to get in to a phd program with funding, but at the very least the CV's don't contradict the Cornell prof's claim)

That is crap - especially since the Ivies are infamous for grade inflation. It is even more crap because your ugrad institution is determined by your performance in HIGH SCHOOL. I applied to Cornell for Econ Phd and got in without funding. In high school I got into U Chicago for ugrad but since I wasn't a charity case or the son of a plutocrat I wasn't eligible for financial aid and there was no way I or my parents could afford it. So basically Cornell didn't fund me for econ because coming out of high school my parents made the wrong amount of money. Sweet! Somewhere Ezra Cornell is spinning in his grave!

No worries moralHazard - this is a once in a life decision you gotta make it count. Congrats and the admits that are luring you away from NYU and congrats on getting into NYU! :tup: Does that mean you got in from the waitlist but since they did not offer you funding you turned them down? If I got in with no funding there would be no way I would be able to go either...:( If NYU doesn't let me in, (or does without funding), there is a strong possibility I might go to UC Davis - is that where you are heading?

I feel like it is going to come down to the wire. April 15th I will be rocking back and forth next to the phone and computer mumbling to myself.

I have been told that NYU hopes to make a second round of offers to let people in off the waitlist - possibly today. I thought I would put up a new thread so people can announce if they have heard anything new, (got in didn't etc.) or if they have an offer from NYU that they have not rejected but plan to (keep us peons hoping!).

Not to be a downer but Savannah is 5 1/2 hours away from Atlanta. I also would not make the assumption that Emory is less demanding because it has a lower ranking. Its ranking is based on research output, not on the difficultly of its graduate program - most programs tend to use the same books etc, according to my understanding. Obviously the decision is yours but I would encourage you to make your decision based on your prospects of employment following the program.