Cph

I just came across this really old, but very useful thread for future applicants.... http://www.www.urch.com/forums/graduate-admissions/25098-faqs-future-economics-phd-students.html

All of my letters from the US have taken 2-3 days to arrive here in Europe, except for the letters from Stanford and Northwestern which both took ages. I haven't received anything from Oxford, except for an email (!!!) asking me whether I was interested in being considered for a fellowship... Maybe that means I'm admitted. I'm no longer interested in attending, though.

Thanks! And no funding for me. This route was only in case I didn't get into an ordinary Ph.D. program, so I'll not consider it. I'm so happy that I don't have to go through another admissions cycle!!

There's info about sharing a room and who to contact in one of the emails from Stanford.

My status also changed today for the MSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics (Research) (1st preference - didn't apply directly for the MRes/Ph.D.). I'm in.

bscout: The answer is the same anyway (unless you didn't ask for advice here, of course) :)

kartelite: You were the one most perfectly predicting my chances, although I didn't believe it at all at the time... thanks! You said I'd be admitted to one or two top fives, which is what has happened. One of my recommenders, however, said that there was a great risk that I wouldn't be admitted to any of the 20 schools I applied to. It turns out I should have believed in kartelite and not my letter writer :D

But it's a problem if it keeps people from applying to the best school they can get into. However, from the few responses to the poll about the precision of the forum's predictions, the advice given seems to be correct on average, and the variance is small... but let's see what happens when we get more responses.

I'm an International student.

I know that most of us haven't received all of our replies yet, but I think we have a general idea of what the final outcome will look like. So for those of you who have posted your profile on the forum, asking for advice, how well did the forum predict your chances?

I finally received my Harvard reject today in the mail.

Thanks, fp

Now this text shows on the status page: (My emphasis) Now isn't that an evil message to write on a Friday?! I'm glad I have other choices...!

Don't worry too much about it. I've declined some offers, and I've told them which other schools I am considering. They were all very friendly - they congratulated me on my other offers and seemed to appreciate the early notice. They also asked me to inform them when I have made my final decision on which school to attend. No need to refer to "unforeseen circumstances".

I'm very surprised (and positively so) about the many

On average, how many hours do you effectively study per week during term time, i.e. including classes and seminars, but excluding meals, procrastination etc.? Please don't look at other people's responses before you answer, since this may (consciously or unconsciously) bias the results! ;)

:D Great signature, EconChump

I was actually once asked to write my own LOR for a fellowship application. This was very uncomfortable, and I was of course forced to be very modest, since I knew that the professor would never sign it if it were too positive. He might even have become offended. I don't think this is an advantage at all. I have also heard of someone who wrote his own reference, and the professor deleted whole paragraphs of the letter and told the student to come back with the corrected version. He only let the student write it because he didn't support him strongly enough to bother doing the work... For all professors who are internationally recognized, it is very important not to inflate their recommendations, since this will make it difficult for them to get outstanding students accepted into good programs in the future. For this reason, they will never accept a letter that is too positive. For professors who are unknown and don't know the system as well, it may be different (?), but their recommendations will not carry much weight anyway. However, this is NOT the standard way to do things - I have only heard of these cases.

I received an informal e-mail a couple of weeks ago. I have declined the offer, but I have now received an e-mail with a formal letter attached (also specifying the funding), and there's also a letter at the status page.

Oxford has several "gathered field" deadlines for the MPhil, with decreasing chances of being admitted the later you apply. LSE's deadlines for the MSc's are when the programs are full. UBC has a late deadline for unfunded admission, but it may have been March 1.

Ah, ok, thanks :) Looking forward to see you TM'ians at the flyouts. I'll be the girl in the khakis. :)

Thanks Jhai, very useful, since dress codes differ tremendously across countries. I had no idea how to interpret the term "business casual"... And I'm still not quite sure what khakis are... :blush: I guess this is not what it means :D

LuLecon: I applied for the 1-year MSc EME (research) around December 1. No updates on my status page. My app was complete at the beginning of December. So for me, it's around three months by now.

Wow! I'm in too! [banana] Oh, and sorry for putting it in this thread, dominep...

That's horrible! They could at least send you the right e-mail immediately after the "glitch"!!