jenizaro

Yes, I have now a F1 VISA and am in the US, but would like to go to another school. I realize now my current school may not be the best match for me.

Hello, I am a PhD student in the US who just finished the first semester of the program. I did not do very well and am having doubts about continuing in this program. I will apply to other programs but don't know if, once I get a new I-20, I should return to my country and apply for a new VISA in my country. Is it possible to do all the visa related paperwork in the US? Thanks for your help.

The most difficult of the four is Adv Calculus, though the best signal is sent probably by the Real Analysis course.

Read Freakonomics. It is in fact a vulgarization of many papers authored by S. Levitt. Bear in mind however that what you will find there is only one style of current economic research (though a very hip and popular one). Also read blogs, there are many very good ones writen by reputed economists, political scientists and statisticians.

You obviously come from Di Tella, right? If so, your chances depend crucially on your LORs and GRE performance. Ask your letter writers where you should apply. I think you have built a wonderful profile and can aspire to the top.

Bayern: you could comment on the books used or describe in detail the topics covered. For instance: we reviewed all the first 4 chapters of W. Feller in my Probability class, or we saw this and that application to microeconomics of the lagrange multipliers method in my adavnced calculus class. I think that's what TruDog means.

I don't know if my SOP was an important factor in my admission outcomes. I think the most critical component of my application were my LORs, especially one of them. With my SOP what I tried to do as much as possible was to show that I had a lot of ideas about research projects. Over the years I have assembled a list of questions and observations on different topics and I pretty much tried to summarize those in my SOP. Something a little bit like what Akerlof recommends here: http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/webfac/akerlof/e202_f07/lecture1.pdf (see point 11 at page 5) I want to think that my SOP readers saw at least one interesting research idea in that and that this benefited my application. Though I really don't know...

Thanks Tino, I read the following: ALWAYS HAND-CARRY YOUR DOCUMENTS Do not check the following documents in your baggage. If your baggage is lost or delayed, you will be unable to present the documents at your port of entry. As a result, you may not be able to enter the United States Your passport, valid for at least six months beyond the date of your expected stay; SEVIS Form I-20.here: ARRIVING AT A U.S. PORT OF ENTRY … WHAT A STUDENT CAN EXPECT (FACT SHEET). Does point 1 means that my passport should be valid for a period six months longer than my student visa?

Hello, I just received my US visa for 5 years. Didn't have any problems because of my wife not having permanent status in my country. I need your help now with the following. Both my wife and I have passports that will expire in aprox. two years. Will we have to solicit a visa again in 2010 when our passports expire, notwhitstanding that our visas are for 5 years? Thanks for your responses.

Prof. Maloney's message to prospective graduate students (on his website) is really cool. I wish I had applied there. I should've visited his website before... :wallbash:

This guy seems to have two PhD in Economics degrees from different institutions: http://www.youngeconomists.it/defeo/cv_eng.pdf

You learn everyday... I wish I'd have known this before.

Hello lily264, I'm sorry but I didn't apply to a PharmD program. I am not a pharmacist by the way. I applied to a PhD in Economics program. However I immagine the process is very similar. I got most of the information from the school's website and this forum. You should pick a place you want to go to and check thoroughly their website, they normally have an "admissions" or "graduate" section where all the relevant information is. Hope it helps. Best of luck! BTW, Tino, I haven't received an answer from you to my PM! I would appreciate very much your advice! Thanks!

You may like this post by Rodrik: Dani Rodrik's weblog: Re-uniting development economics

Thanks Tino! I have sent you a PM.

Hello, This my first post in this forum, I will appreciate very much all the help you can provide me. I have been admitted to a PhD program in the US and currently await the arrival of my I-20. I will ask for a F1 visa and F2 for my wife. I was wondering if my wife could process her visa in my country (where she resides now obviously) since she holds only a tourist visa from my country. We got married recently and haven't been able to change her status. COuld this affect in any way her receiving a F2 visa from the US embassy in my country? Thanks a lot for all your help!

I read the second one and it was great. It really is a wounderful book and quite relevant for people about to start a PhD because Derman begins his story talking about his days as an international physics grad student in Columbia. The first part of the book is a warning about how dangerous academics can be to your ego. Realizing our own limitations can be a devastating blow. So be prepared ;)

Wide understanding of basic economics is so important for democracy to really work. I think that if people in my country knew just a little more economics we wouln't be making so many mistakes. About the OP question, I don't think the main objective of academia is to cause impact but to understand the world. If what you learn has important practical applications later, that's a bonus. But trying to focus on impact is not really a good idea. If what moves you is causing broad impact, I'd advice to follow another path.

Good recopilation: Hetecon.com - The Heterodox Economics Portal

University of Utah also does heterodox stuff. Don't have idea though about their rankings in the heterodox league.

Outliers (of either kind) are not good evidence to support or refute any claim. BTW, I don't really know if econ stipends are really less than in other departments. I think in average they're sort of equivalent but with wild variations, even within the same ranking tier.

I will not enter the discussion about whether a statement of truth not shared by everyone is or isn't an opinion. But, semantics apart, I wasn't referring to "most posts", but to EPM's post, WHICH BTW wasn't about presenting counterfactual evidence but about saying "haven't you been such an slacker before, you would enjoy a better deal now". This same argument applies to those people "who argue that econ stipends are high compared to others based in the higher end of the stipend distribution" (Stanford, Yale anyone?).

This has to be one the most arrogant and attack-the-man-not-the-argument kind of post I've seen in this forum. And BTW it seems the OP is not at UWash but at UWisc, so I think that his/her position in the "supply distribution of econ students" is not as bad. Not that this fact really matters to entitle the OP to have an opinion.

I don't think departments hire Nobel Prize winners only to brag about them, though obviuosly this is part of the reason. However, even when not very active, Nobel Prize winners possess superior judgment capacity to discern good from bad research. So, having a NP winner with whom to discuss ideas is a great benefit for the other members of one such department.

I am not at UC Davis so I don't know the institutional details, but past tests are online (and they look insanely hard): Department of Economics