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  1. Just for the record Leigh, I started this as non-econ reading (or at least non technical/mathy reading). Thank you to everyone for the awesome suggestions. Here is the list so far: Jeffrey Sachs, "The End of Poverty" William Easterly, "The Elusive Quest for Growth" Avinash Dixit, "Evaluating Recipes for Development Success" Paul Blustein, "And the Money Kept Rolling In (And Out)" "Count of Monte Cristo" Robert Rubin, "In an Uncertain World" Arundhuti Roy, "God of Small Things" "DaVinci Code" "Memoirs of a Geisha" Khaled Hosseini, "The Kite Runner" Gabriel Garcia Marquez Jonathan Kozol, "Amazing Grace" Tracy Kidder, "Mountains Beyond Mountains" William Easterly, "The White Man's Burden" Barbara Ehrenreich, "Nickel and Dimed" David Halberstam, "The Children" Jostein Gaarder, "Sophie's World" Coetez, "Disgrace" Zafron, "Shadow of the Wind" "The Russian Debutante's Handbook" "A Brave New World" "The Borthers K" "Invitation to a Beheading" "Middlesex" Jean Jacques Rousseau, "What is the Origin of Inequality among Men?" Machiavelli, "The Prince" Machiavelli, "Discourses on Livy" Neale Donald Walsch, "Conversations with God" Isaiah Berlin Nietzsche, "Gay Science" Anna Karenina Martin Kihn, "House of Lies" Yochai Benkler, "The Wealth of Networks" Dan Yergin, "The Prize" Tom Friedman, "From Beirut to Jerusalem" Escobar, "Killing Pablo" Paul Hoffman, "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" Bertrand Russell, "History of Western Philosophy" Rousseau, "Confessions (autobiography)" Platon (anything by him) Moody, "Coming of Age in Mississippi" Jorge Luis Borges, Any Short Stories James Joyce, "Finnegans Wake" James Joyce, "Ulysses" Isaiah Berlin, "The Proper Study of Mankind" Alan Weisman, "Gaviotas" L. J. Dumas, "Lethal Arrogance" Frederick Neitzche, "Beyond Good and Evil" John Delillo, "The Underworld" Dostoievski, "The Idiot and The Possessed" Yann Martel, "Life of Pi" Doestoevsky, "Crime and Punishment" Rand, "The Fountainhead" Maupassant, "Bel Ami" and "A Life" Greene, "The Power and the Glory" Tolstoy, "A Confession" Herman Hesse, "Narcissus and Goldmund," "SteppenWolf" and "The Glass Bead Game" Deirdre McCloskey, "How to Be Human (Though an Economist)" Dostoevsky, "White Nights" T.S. Eliot, "The Wasteland" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Keroauc, "On the Road" and "Dharma Bums" William McDonough and Michael Braungart, "Cradle to Cradle" Wallace Stevens Theodore Roethke Blake
  2. got HM: intellectual/impacts excellent/very good excellent/very good very good/very good
  3. So, now that I am committed to going to graduate school next year, reality is starting to set in. Does anybody know what the best way to minimize one's tax burden is? Which receipts should I save? What common categories of expenditures qualify as exemptions for grad students?
  4. THE LIST SO FAR. I have been keeping a running record of the books posted here (plus a few more that I got from other sources). For anyone interested (and thanks to everyone who has posted - this is great stuff!): Thaler, "Winner's Curse" Schumacher, "Small is Beautiful" Graham Greene, "Getting to know the general" Peter Smith, "Talons of the Eagle" Jeffrey Sachs, "The End of Poverty" William Easterly, "The Elusive Quest for Growth" Avinash Dixit, "Evaluating Recipes for Development Success" Paul Blustein, "And the Money Kept Rolling In (And Out)" "Count of Monte Cristo" Robert Rubin, "In an Uncertain World" Arundhuti Roy, "God of Small Things" "DaVinci Code" "Memoirs of a Geisha" Khaled Hosseini, "The Kite Runner" Gabriel Garcia Marquez Jonathan Kozol, "Amazing Grace" Tracy Kidder, "Mountains Beyond Mountains" William Easterly, "The White Man's Burden" Barbara Ehrenreich, "Nickel and Dimed" David Halberstam, "The Children" Jostein Gaarder, "Sophie's World" Coetez, "Disgrace" Zafron, "Shadow of the Wind" "The Russian Debutante's Handbook" "A Brave New World" "The Borthers K" "Invitation to a Beheading" "Middlesex" Jean Jacques Rousseau, "What is the Origin of Inequality among Men?" Machiavelli, "The Prince" Machiavelli, "Discourses on Livy" Neale Donald Walsch, "Conversations with God" Isaiah Berlin Nietzsche, "Gay Science" Anna Karenina Martin Kihn, "House of Lies" Yochai Benkler, "The Wealth of Networks" Dan Yergin, "The Prize" Tom Friedman, "From Beirut to Jerusalem" Escobar, "Killing Pablo" Paul Hoffman, "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" Bertrand Russell, "History of Western Philosophy" Rousseau, "Confessions (autobiography)" Platon (anything by him) Moody, "Coming of Age in Mississippi"
  5. out of undergrad: Financial research internship for most of the summer, beach on weekends, and lots and lots of reading (going to try to stay as qualitative as possible just to start getting the ideas flowing, since I think the hardest part of grad school is going to be coming up with an interesting dissertation topic after the first two years.) Going to try to keep a journal of ideas/random thoughts. Also planning to do 1-2 wks of traveling (Europe).
  6. Here's a question for anyone currently in econ grad school. I am trying to decide between taking a year off now and traveling OR going straight to get my PhD this September and then travel the following summer. How big of a disadvantage would this be (not doing an internship/summer research)? Alternatively, how long do internships at places like the World Bank/IMF/elsewhere last and are they available to first years. Thanks for the advice.
  7. Agreed about Freakonomics - it definitely wasn't meant for economists/people seriously interested in economics - but it was really nice to have all my friends impressed by how cool econ can be.
  8. Thanks for the suggestions so far - I've put them on my list. For those who are curious, I plan to attend Princeton (either this coming Fall or in a year if I get a deferral).
  9. I'm planning to take a year off before I go on to start an economics PhD. During that year, I will be traveling, working a bit, and most importantly reading, reading, reading. I was wondering if people had any book suggestions? (Absolutely no constraints - I want to read fiction, nonfiction, interesting papers, short stories, extremely long novels, anything!) Unless it is really good though, I would like to steer clear of mathematics-oriented writing. Thoughts?
  10. I definitely see what you are saying. Obviously, academics work in the "real" world as well, and their contributions are often invaluable. I am planning to start my PhD next year, and although economics excites me, I am not yet sure what I want to do with my degree. A job at the IMF as described above seems exciting to me not because of the idea of saving people from themselves, but instead because I would have a chance to see my work have an effect much faster than as a professor. Professors certainly change the world - their students go on to do great things and their research often encourages other research as well as informing the decision-makers of the world. However, in my ideal job, I would be able to see the impact of my work as soon as possible. I want to reiterate that I don't think this is a better or more valuable occupation (in fact, being a top professor without doubt takes more academic brilliance than working at the IMF, etc.). I just think that it might be more rewarding for me. I also get the impression that academia is often more lonely than industry, and I really enjoy group collaboration (i.e. a room full of bright people discussing and drawing on a whiteboard). It would be great to have someone with experience working at the IMF, World Bank, RAND, Investment Bank, or any other non-academic post give their perspective... How much group collaboration is there? How much time is spent sitting in front of a computer vs. interacting with other people? How much time is spent sitting alone thinking? Thinking with groups? Are the results of your work readily apparent? What activity do you find yourself doing the most of? (programming, writing, presenting, listening to presentations, discussing, ...) How important are language skills?
  11. or go for a masters elsewhere and then try for a top program.
  12. This discussion is really interesting. I remember when I first found out that academic positions were so much more competitive and carried more prestige than most jobs in industry, I was pretty surprised. What interests me about economics is using math, exploring data, working with theory BUT ALSO actively changing something or affecting something in the world. I know a lot of very meaningful, influential economic research doesn't necessarily have an immediate, definite impact on the world, and I definitely respect that type of research. However, I do not think I would find it all that rewarding. I am starting to doubt that a phd is the ideal path for this though. Perhaps an MBA or a Masters? What do economists at the World Bank/IMF/RAND do? Are those less fulfilling or desirable jobs than academia? Why?
  13. Tatonnement, I'm an undergraduate at the moment and was accepted by Princeton. I believe that I will really enjoy economic research, but I am feeling pretty burnt out at the moment. What I would really like to do is take a year to work a 9-5, read a lot, travel some, and think about what exactly I want to get out of a phd in economics (and also give myself some time to question whether or not I truly want one). My problem is that I've heard it is difficult to get a deferral. Do you have any recommendations for ways to approach Princeton about it? Talk to a professor, talk to the graduate administrator? Assuming that I cannot defer but still take time off, I was thinking of reapplying in the hopes of getting into Harvard/MIT (I would prefer to live in Boston for personal reasons). Do you know what the best way to strengthen my application would be? Work at the NBER? Work for a Cambridge professor? Get a Masters (perhaps at BU or are there better programs out there?) Thanks for the help - I really enjoy reading your posts on this forum. They are incredibly useful for those of us struggling to figure out how we fit into the academic world.
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