DancingBanANNA

I did not apply in this admissions cycle, but the RA who sits next to me at work did. No word yet, we talk about it a couple of times per day. Hope this helps!

I work as an RA/statistical programmer in the private sector at a public policy think tank. There are nearly 20 people on my floor that just program all day. Most economists we work with exclusively use SAS, because of the size of the data sets we deal with (especially on health projects with Medicaid data and other things with hundreds of thousands or millions of obs), but I've noticed that some econometricians here are starting to use R for specific tasks. It's definitely catching on in the last year or so. Also, there's the complication that almost any newer researcher coming out of grad school wants us to program in STATA, because it's what they're used to and they've never touched SAS. I know this debate has raged in other threads, I just mention it to say I feel like my programming skills can never quite keep up!!!! :yuck:

Thanks, everyone, for your input. I will definitely work hard at my math courses and make sure I do as well in them as possible. I'll let you know how it goes. Any further opinions are definitely welcomed.

I've been "lurking" in these forums for a couple of years, and it has been really helpful to me in recognizing my different options. I want to tell you all a little about my background; it is my hope that some people will have some insights, or will be able to point me to any threads that I've missed by searching the forum where people have been in similar situations. I graduated from a no-name liberal arts school in 2007 with a BA and a high GPA in econ and sociology. I applied to Ph.D. econ programs during my senior year, but was woefully ignorant about the admissions process and did not have any success. I have been working for a well-respected, nonpartisan policy research think tank for the last year and a half as a full-time RA, mostly programming in SAS and STATA. I've gotten the opportunity to work with some fantastic economists, and over time, I have come to work on projects that exactly match my research interests (econ of education). People who come out of a 2-3 year stint here as an RA (even from my undergrad institution with a similar background) have had some success in being accepted into top 50 econ programs. I plan to work here for another year, and I am starting to figure out my next move after that. I would love to ultimately be able to attend a top 20-ish Econ Ph.D. program, which is going to be a huge stretch for me, but I am willing to put in the time and take the steps necessary to do so. I want to be an academic economist, because teaching is a passion of mine, so I think this is my best bet, although I know standard advice would be to aim lower. My plan is to try to work as dilligently as I can here in my position to try to get my name on something substantive. I have read all of the forums on what sort of publication counts in your favor in the admissions process, and while some of the people I work for publish places like AER, I'm not at all convinced I can do something of that caliber. My math background thus far is calc I and II and linear algebra, all with As, but I know this is just the tip of the iceberg. I am going to start taking math courses at the nearby university (an Ivy) in the spring, and get some other basics out of the way: multivariable calc, probability, and real analysis are what I think I can accomplish in the next year and a half, realistically. Since money is not a real object while my job will pay for me to take courses, I figured I would try to get up through analysis at the most prestigious school I have access to. When I have finished my stint as an RA, my options as I see them are: (1) To do a post-baccalaureate program for a year in math (the NSF-funded program at Smith College is the most appealing to me, for financial reasons). This would allow me to get through 6 more math courses, and I could potentially try to take the grad-level micro sequence at UMass, which I know is not top tier, but I think would still be helpful nonetheless. (2) To do a second bachelor's in math at a better university (maybe UC Berkeley, Columbia, or UMich, which all allow second bachelor's students). I would also try to take some grad-level courses at these places Financially, this is much less appealing, but I want to know how much better all of you think this would be from an admissions standpoint than doing the program at Smith. (I say second bachelor's instead of just taking courses as a non-matriculated student because there is at least some opportunity to find funds for this.) (3) Apply directly to Ph.D. programs out of this RA-ship and focus my sights on lower-ranked schools that are perhaps excellent in labor and education, using my connections at my job to apply to some of the places researchers here went. Thoughts on these options? I will of course ask undergraduate advisors and people I work with now, but I wanted as many opinions as possible. Thank you so much for your time!

I was not aware of that! That would definitely make it easier, a Roman alphabet made Vietnamese so much less daunting...

I agree with what other posters have said about the difficulty of Mandarin versus Spanish. As a native English speaker who spent a lot of time learning Spanish in HS & college, and also as someone who spent several months in Vietnam (complete with intense language training), I disagree that learning tones is the difficult part about learning an (South)East Asian language. For me it was more that the grammar is so different, and that there are language concepts that have no analog in English. However, Vietnamese has a Roman alphabet, complete with tone marks, so even when I had a limited vocabulary, I could read words aloud and be understood. This would obviously not be the case with Mandarin. However, I would emphasize that any language is relatively painless to learn if you have a respect & curiosity about the culture and feel that what you are learning will have a useful application someday. Regardless of difficulty, in the end I would tell you to just go with whatever language you think you are going to be most passionate about, and it will be quicker & a lot more fun.

Of course this is true, but there is also a correlation between race and this "sorting" and "choice." I never said this was causation or that one race would be inherently better at one field than another, but it is certainly the case that race is related the type of schools one is likely to attend, the subjects one is encouraged to concentrate on, the type of college one is likely to be admitted to, and so on down the line. Racism is a subtle thing that many people do not acknowledge; while the Sommers comment may not have been overtly about race, there are certainly racial implications. However, as other posters have pointed out, the source is questionable... Not to mention that there is a certain "Economism" among economists that I have not noticed among social scientists in other fields.

No, Cph, I too got a rejection email yesterday as well. Funny because I was in Princeton for a job interview and walked around campus right as they were rejecting me. Hehe. :D

This is a hilarious thread, guys...but I really am in awe of all ya'lls accomplishments. :) Has Antichron himself seen this?

I emailed Jody Johnson this morning as well, and found out that I was rejected. Congratulations to all that have heard better news! :tup:

Congrats, weirdo, I know you have expressed worry about your profile on some of the other "completed application" threads. BC is a great program, awesome job! :)

Congratulations! :) I agree with econ2007, UMass has an amazing heterodox program. We just interviewed a job candidate here (I attend a small LAC) who did her Ph.D. at UMass, and she was a really impressive feminist economist. Congrats again!

Econ2006, I think it is generally understood which schools are technically Ivy League, but people are qualifying this term in search of a way to refer to prestigious, private universities--the MITs and Stanfords--that seems like would be viewed equally in the eyes of an adcom as a "true Ivy." I apologize for the lack of precision of language.

This whole thing is difficult to have accurate data about. It's great to hear anecdotal evidence of people who have made it out of a third-tier LAC and have gone on to do well. (Just finished my applications, and I've been feeling hopeless because I'm in that situation now! :blush: ) I am sure that it is much easier to get into Princeton, etc. from an Ivy or a similar caliber school, but it's hard to know how common it is to be from somewhere else... At the top 5 Econ programs, what would ya'll think class composition looks like in terms of Ivy vs. non-Ivy undergrad backgrounds? By "ivy," I guess I don't really mean just those in the ancient football league, as I would certainly include Stanford in any discussion of excellent undergrad institutions, for example. Also, I am mostly interested in domestic applicants, as I do not have any reference point for international undergrad programs. Maybe anyone who is currently in one of these top programs, or know friends that are, could speak to the composition of their classes? There may already be a thread like this somewhere, in which case just point me in that direction. I have only been around this forum for a month or so. One more note...I think on forums like TM, there is a bit of a bias toward people with stronger profiles to advertise what they have going for them, while there are others of us who are intimidated and do not put ourselves out there. (I'm guilty of what bscout's tagline says not to do: "don't be a lurker"). Even all the nervous "evaluate my profile" posts usually seem pretty strong to me. Consequently, I am willing to bet that the picture that emerges from reading forum posts on TM of the average Econ Ph.D. applicant is a bit distorted (i.e. if the only other people you have heard of applying to the same programs as you are the people on here advertising their 800Q/extensive math background/research experience, it's easy to feel like if you are not to that standard, there is no hope for you). I guess my whole point with this is just to buck up anyone else like me who feels a little inadequate, but knows they are "coachable," and wants to just let March decide whether their credentials are good enough. :D Sorry for the absurd length of this post!

Columbia Princeton Michigan Yale Boston College ...seems I didn't apply to as many as others here, but we'll see how it goes.