Jamie25

Can you point me to information on this program, because I searched on the site and found no particular "summer program" only a summer research fellowship. Thanks.

I am considering 2 PhD programs, one in econ and one in geography. I noticed that in the geography program (which is about 20 rankings higher) there are more students and none of the MA students had publications. However, in the small econ program the MA students on average had 4 publications. I asked a friend who is working on the PhD and he said the program is trying to work hard to gain a better reputation and so many students are getting the chance to publish with professors. Is this true when it comes to small vs large? Or is it just an odd occurance at my university? I know the pressure is on to publish publish publish in well known programs at the PhD level. Thoughts?

So languages like French and Spanish for doing research on Africa or Latin America are not worth learning? What languages would help me get my foot in the door for better research options? I only have a 3.6 GPA so I need some other good qualifications to boost my chances. *edit* OK I posted this right after the poster above. I think that is good idea but those languages are only spoken by

I did a search and did not find an answer to this question. I am interested in a PhD in Econ, and I am wondering what languages will give me a wider range of research opportunities. I am a native English speaker and I am decent at Russian (all around). I am wishing to add two other languages for research (i.e. reading only). I am interested in East Europe, and the CIS countries in general. I am going to choose either International Economics or Development Economics. What two languages should I choose and why? I looked at the rankings and all the top programs are in English, after that comes France, Holland, and Israel. Thank you. Jamie

Thanks to all of you who have responded! After speaking with all of you, I think I would be better off in a Geography department studying development. I may still go the econ route, I still must do more research (I have a year till I apply). An MA in econ would really help me with advanced research and a PhD in geo would get me a decent professorship. I see more prospects with a phd in econ though. Asphalt, I am at the University of KY and am a US citizen. I just love Finland. Finland is the most advanced nation in the world. Thanks for answering my background question. I feel better knowing that it probably won't hurt me too much. Do you think I have a chance with an MA at LSE? Thanks again folks, Jamie

Asquare, Well Russian is my second foreign language. I just love Finland. My dream job would be to get a professorship there. By RA job do you mean at a university or at some think tank? Where in the world would I look for such positions? I am looking around on my dept. web site and their building, but I do not see any. Could you give me a nudge in the right direction? OneMoreEcon, I would really like to be either a professor at a research university or work in the government. I was hesitant to speak about my political and economic beliefs as some people would probably not help me out for this or that reason. I have far left leaning beliefs. I was told by many geographers, that I would probably fit in well at Ann Arbor's econ program. I know that I will disagree with a great deal of the stuff taught at most econ departments, but to me that is all the more better to challenge my beliefs. What do you think about Ann Arbor with that said? Thanks to those who have responded. Jamie

Hello RRR, I am an undergrad math major with a minor in CS here at UK. I meant that many of the CS and math classes are used in both departments. I had a Ph.D student for a teacher that said he, as well as another person in the department, could have gotten their phds in CS. I just meant this in passing to imply that there is a great deal of math you will probably take (I have no clue about phd programs in CS I have just heard that the CS prog here is fairly math intensive compared to univ. of its ranking). UK is a good school. Fairly large (30,000). The people are nice here in the south. The city is safe (300,000 people). Decent weather. What area of CS do you wish to study in? Jamie As Holden_Caulfield said, you could probably get a research position with a phd from UK CS.

Hi. I attend UK. The CS program is nice. Most of the professors have PhDs in math, so expect to see a great deal of math. I know that most CS dept. in this range are not as math intensive. I have a few friends working on their MA and I know two PhD students. There is a really nice networking lab here and in the CSE there are multple super computers. www.aggregate.org You will for sure get a TA position (there in demand so much so that they hire ugrads). They will start you out at "intro to comp" boring but you will get free tuition, plus 10k per year. You must work 10 hours but everyone tells me they work less than 3 or 4. After a year or so you will get an RA or be able to teach the night intro to computing, or basic programming. Only after completing your course work will you be able to teach at the 200 (rarely the 300) level. This is mainly a research dept. I once had a teacher who quit the dept. because of the pressure put on him to produce papers. Uk wants to be a top 20 univ. so you will have a large amount of pressure put on you. The head of the dept. (head now for 10 years) is very smart guy pumping out about 10 papers a year in logic. Everything above is only what I have witnessed. I was a CS major and switched to math, as the CS degree was really a watered down math degree. Contact me if you need any other info. Jamie Oh yes, the math and cs dept work together on many things. We have some good math prof. here. in discrete math and numerical analysis. I have had TA's that got their phd in math but could have easily gotten it in CS.

Hello. Thanks for the responses. I wanted to include more about my background and why I am interested in Econ, but my last post was already so long. So here it goes: Asquare, I have taken a large amount of geography classes, most focusing on the developing world. Economics plays a large role in these classes, and I was told by one prof. in the GEO dept. to apply for econ. geo (the dept. is top 4 overall but the econ. geo is just now developing). I want something with more rigor so Econ seems like a good route. I have worked in the student Fair Trade movement for about a year. This has let me travel and speak at many conferences (mainly workshops but some formal speeches, should I include this on a CV?). During this traveling I have become more and more interested in transitional economies (via travel to Russia and Estonia). Over the past 5 years I have been reading about classical economics but nothing of any true rigor. I would like to work internationally, moreover, my focus in geo was in East Europe and Central Asia. If I attend the U. Helsinki, I would be able to travel to this area more easily (assuming I could find a thesis topic). The program is taught in English. I would take courses in Finnish language. I do, however, like your idea of finding an RA position. I really would like to work a few years and make some money. I will look into this option. Tad, Yes I should have taken more advanced math classes. The reason this did not happen is I was math/cs for a while and several classes counted for both but not the rigorous ones. Moreover, I would have had to take a few more rigorous classes BUT the math dept. worked with me so I could study abroad. Ricardinho, If one is interested in working internationally, is it sufficient to just have my background? I have been told over and over that studying abroad looks very good to adcoms, so I figured studying abroad twice would look even better, especially two languages. None of you commented on my background. Do you think I will be OK as long as I continue on my present course? I am really worried about it. Thanks for the responses. Jamie

Hello Folks. I searched the forums and could not really find anyone with a similar background. I was stupid and quit high school at the age of 18. I worked for a few years and realized I was not going anywhere. At 19 I got a GED and at 21 entered a community college. I had to start out at elementry algebra, and then college algebra. I received A's in both. After taking these classes I began to like math, in fact so much I became a math major. After making up for other deficiencies (only in English), I moved to a state university. When other math professors see I had to take such remedial math classes they say it is impressive I am at my current level. I, however, am worried this is going to hurt me when I apply to better schools. My stats are as follows: B.S in Math overall 3.487 I have taken Calc 1 (B) 2 (A) 3(B), differential equations (A), lin. alg (A), applied alg (B), graph theory (B), and numerical methods (B). This summer I will take Operations Research and Algebra 1. Next summer Real Analysis (I receive my B.S). I am studying in Russia for one year (language). I also have a minor in Comp. Sci. Courses: Prog 1 (A), Prog 2 (B), Software Eng. (B), Algorithm Design and Analysis (A), Discrete Math © I am worried about this, but it was taken my first semester at the univ. and my only C. Would it help if I posted my whole transcript? I have received a few scholarships and have TA'd college algebra. I have only had one elementry Econ. class. I received an A. I do not really have time to take any econ classes. I have been reading a great deal. I plan to take intermediate micro the fall after I return from Russia and inter macro in the spring. I want to work full time and save some money. Clearly I probably need to get the M.A. first before proceeding to a PhD. So my question is, my home univ. will accept me (we are ranked 107 this probably gives me away hehe). But, I would like to study in Finland and receive a M.S. from Univ. of Helsinki. I am currently teaching myself Finnish. I want more international experiance. My questions (sorry my post was so long): Is studying in Helsinki a good idea (tuition is free, and I can receive multiple scholarships)? Instead of this, should I just try to get into a top 30 school and get an M.A. in the US? Helsinki is 20 spaces back. How worried should I be about my background? If I am honest in the state of purpose, will this hurt me? Anything I should do besides getting A's in intermediate econ? Thanks to those who will respond. Jamie