Fulbrighterpak

Thanks for the all the comments....Would it be a good idea to get LORs from my PhD prog professor or go to my Undergrad prof.... I am optimistic that my Econometrics prof will give me a decent LOR, Macro Prof too ( but not very strong) and Micro (the one i screwed up) I dont expect something really good... Also would it be a good idea to apply to some Public Policy program or B-Schools. I also decent grades for Math for Econ and Applied Econ course.....So maybe that signal my ability... Transcripts that I got from the Univ does not mentions prelims results, only semester grades and a comment Withdrawn from PhD program...(Does not mentioned whether I failed and was asked to leave ) Thanks a lot for the comments...

Thanks for the comments, Any one who been in similar position and has applied to UK programs. Do you get a waiver for masters (Mphil) first year and get directly into PhD program ? P.S. I was awarded a master degree as a consolation prize

I expect my Metrics Prof to give me a good one, I did well in his class...But I have no research or TA experience with him, so I doubt it be would personalized... Should I try for Public Policy phd ? Is that worth it or only aim for Econ depts

I was enrolled in top 25 program and I failed to pass the qualifying exams. My program had 13 students who took these exams ( one students was from class of 2007, who was giving his third try for micro), and the dept failed 6 students. This was pretty brutal since the previous years average has been around 3-4 out of class of 20+ students. My semester grades were decent. I was always on or around the mean marks in the class. Do you ppl feel I should give PhD Econ another shot and given the current job market, that compounds my problem even further. Do you think I would have a decent chance at other similar ranked programs with funding ? or the dropout stigma means my chances of getting a PhD are over for sure. Looking forward to your advice.

Brown incoming class is 13....for next year..

well if it was not a serious enough topic a lot of prof at UC Berkeley would not let her write the paper on it. I am sure people at Berkeley know a thing or two about economics and academic placements.... So I would not jump on the bandwagon and call it "Fun Paper" ....

Fuhito kojima (harvard) which university is he joining ???

How are placements to places like Kennedy school public policy or Chicago Public policy considered?? Is at par with say Econ or B-school at Harvard or Chicago??

last year a friend of mine got admitted without funding around first week of april.....so you can expect without funding acceptances....

Related to this topic : Why people fails comps....sometimes the reasons could be beyond ones control for instance one of 2nd year student at Brown told me that although comps primary purpose is test your grasp and understanding of material....sometimes departments are forced to use it in bit more sinister sense...For example if the incoming class is too big than average class sizes in past years...than they may weed off more ppl.....if funding decreases or maybe the next year yield of incoming class higher....than also you are more likely to face the axe..... This was based solely on the fact that they do not tell the cut off points on Core exams and historically when classes are bigger more ppl get the axe....atleast past 10 year data suggest that.... Ofcourse one can argue ( I am sure economist love to do that after sitting in those seminars...hehe ).....but point is LACK of MOTIVATION or ABILITY are not the only factors....behind failing comps

I know its only have been little over a month and probably I am getting a bit too nervous...But I am scared of failing the Cores!!!!....my mid terms grades are not as good as I was expected...to make things worse I feel that I am not getting the stuff in class completely...even with reading up notes again and doing problem sets I still feel I lagging behind my class mates....maybe its due to lack of masters degree or lack of any grad level courses in econ before coming.... So just wanted to know that if you miss on cores and get MA degree what options due you have...Can you join the Corporate World with some dignity or you always considered a failure who can not make it to academia. I mean is master in Econ a good degree to get decent jobs...ofcourse i be behind in line to MBAs but will it considered at Par with say master in public policy, or master in finance/statistics etc....

Add Harvard and Chicago to list as well....i guess one way to counter act the randomness of admission process is to apply to more places...otherwise your choice of places u applying to looks good

Slightly off the Topic, But does this implies more casualties at the Qualifiers stage...My question is not Stanford Specific.... but it is natural that programs are not sure about their Yields and with classes sizes as small as 15-20, few students here and there matter a lot. So does this translate in to tougher Core Exams (qualifiers as they called at some places) as I think there is no specific passing mark on the qualifiers and the cutoff points are kept mysterious. On converse if the yield in your year is much smaller which translate to below than standard class size, will the dept be slightly easy on you and let you go ?? if you a marginal case between pass or fail ??

Can you tell details about what exactly they did to get into those 2 schools??? Like was it transfer from Econ to Economics or Economics to Finance (since Wharton B-school) ....Did profs from Rutgers and MSU wrote there recs...or they used old recommendations...grades etc at Rutgers and MSU... I would appreciate if can tell us more details...cause of i have seen this thread on Econ PhD zillion times...and once for an all ....if u can provide some good anecdotal evidence than we can conclude something on this...

http://www.aeaweb.org/joe/articles/2006/timetodegree.pdf This paper discusses in detail the factor that effect time to degree at various top universities. I hope this helps...