Ricardinho

Overseer is right about the ESRC as a possible source of funding. But it only funds UK and EU students, and the competition for scholarships are extremely tough. Moreover, I don't think it's means-tested, but rather merit-based.

Berkeley's maths camp starts on the 28th of JULY!

Angeletos, Laibson, Repetto, Tobacman and Weinberg (2001) Attanasio, Blow, Hamilton and Leicester (2005) Chang (2003) Duffee (2005) Piazzesi Schneider and Tuzel (2005) The links don't work, but that should get you started.

What do you mean by "not succeeding"? If by that, you mean not being able to finish the program, then I think you shouldn't worry. They admitted you, so they think you'll be able to finish. I've no idea how many people in their class get first year funding, but I would imagine there to be a few self-funded students. Of course if by succeeding you mean getting a good academic placement, then it all depends on your research and where you think you'll be able to do your best. In addition, I think having someone well-known in their field (e.g. Andrew Harvey) as your advisor does help. While Cambridge may not have had the best academic placements lately, I believe they still place very well at research institutions such as the IMF/World Bank.

Yep will be there for maths camp. I've applied for accommodation at the I-house and the other two grad residences.

Hey Antonio, I'll be at Berkeley this fall.

Congratulations! Princeton is awesome.

Going to Berkeley.

italos: My international macro professor said in class that nowadays one cannot do research in international macro without knowing international trade. I'm not sure if he was just talking about basic tools like Dixit-Stiglitz, but I suspect not. In fact, he also mentioned there are people whose work sort of integrate the two fields (things like trying to introduce dynamics into trade models?). Hence I'm a little surprised at your experience.

It is becoming increasingly common for people specialising in trade to take IO as well. Afterall, I think around 1/3 of all world trade is intra-firm trade. Plus a lot of the latest literature make use of heterogeneous firm models, e.g. Melitz 2003.

I heard one British commentator during the game last night saying that Utd still have 8 games left this season (5 in the league, and 3 in the Champions League)...talk about arrogance.... Anyway on top of his FCB and UPF involvements, Sala-i-Martin also runs an NGO! And yes he's hilarious in class....

I want to second everything canecon said. One other thing which might work in your favour is that if you decide to apply this fall, you'll be able to send in fall grades if you go to UPF, although you probably won't be able to get new recommendations. But the most important thing is to perform well wherever you go, as canecon said.

I would go with Maryland.

Depending on how sure you are about your interests, I might be tempted to pick Duke, for the reasons you've already mentioned. With an interest in finance, you might want to look at the b-schools as well, and clearly there Duke is better than UCSD.

I think you should make sure that you ace the grad econ and analysis courses. Other than that, I would also apply to more schools. Admissions can be really random sometimes.