commodore

There are a lot of other threads on this, but I'll go ahead and talk about Yale. Yale has a pretty relaxed atmosphere, and the usual attrition is 1 (max 2) per year, out of a class of about 22. Until this past year, that is. In a real shock to us, 4 of our 21 will be leaving. I am inclined to think that this is a one-time deal and not a regime shift. Overall, the pressure we feel here is fairly low, I'd say.

If at all possible, retake the GRE. To get into a top 10 place, you're going to need a 780 at least, I'd say. I'd worry less about the B in graduate micro. I mean, most grad students get a B in graduate micro! I think the signal that you took it and didn't get pounded is the important part. A couple of lower-ranked good devo schools to consider are Brown and Cornell.

This guy did his routine at the Yale Christmas party last year, and it was a big hit. He's a pretty funny guy.

econphd.net has such rankings, though I don't find them that reliable. Still, maybe they could give you some basic idea.

I'm actually stunned to find that some people don't use study groups. I love to work by myself, and if I could do the problem sets on my own, I would. But there's just no freakin' way you can do first-year problem sets on your own...or at least I can't. I didn't "study" much with a group last year, but I did problem sets with a group every day. I would have never passed my comps without those group partners.

Yeah, 2nd year obviously varies by school. Here, we don't TA until the 3rd year, and the fall of 2nd year is pretty light, whereas it picks up in the spring with oral exams and preparation for actual research. Still, even on its busiest day, 2nd year is nothing like 1st year. I honestly don't know if I'd take a payment of $100,000 to go back and do the first year over. It's that big a difference.

Macro is useless in everything. Or maybe I'm just useless in macro :) But yes, the previous posters are correct.

Second year study hours: 30 max per week, counting class. This is nuts. I don't know what to do with myself. Note to first years: pass those exams, and life gets a lot better :)

Jesus is a great economist.

I think this is right. Yale, for example, puts a probability of attendance on every person it admits, and I presume that it's based on this list of other schools. Also, some schools (Duke, for example) are known to turn down students they think will get into top 5-10 schools. Others may do this, too -- Brown turned me down even though I got into Yale and NWU.

I say don't sweat it. Make sure your statement of purpose is written well (have someone good in English proofread it), and I don't think the verbal score will be a big deal.

That's good to know. I had a friend who visited and still got the impression that it was rough, but it may not be. Either way, southern California is hard to beat.

The scene is my professor's office, 2 years ago. I walk in and hand him my list of schools that I'm going to apply to. Prof: Why UCSD? Me: It's a great location. Prof: Do you want to be a time-series econometrician? Me: No. Prof: Then don't apply there. So that's my advice on UCSD. Northwestern is great for theory, but not so great for development. Penn is the worst location of the four, in a rough part of Philly. I'd go with UCLA.

Hey, the stand-up economist is going to need a successor someday. Keep up the good work!

double post

We had either no proofs or close to no proofs on our comps. If we had one, I don't remember it. Unless you want to do theory, real analysis is mostly a signal of mathematical ability and sophistication. I never took it, and I'm doing fine in the Ph.D. program. Don't sweat too much over it.

There are two separate issues here: 1. Does it matter on your applications? Yes, because all math on your application is a sign of mathematical ability and maturity, which is what they really care about. 2. Will you need it in your econ program? Possibly. I never used it in first year, but macro people apparently use it all the time.

Nalfien survived, thankfully. Once again, proof that TMers pass their comps! As for the percentage debate, I'd count the dropout as a comp failer, since that person failed both exams in May before deciding to drop out. So I think 20% is the right number. Anyway, the point isn't comparing Yale with other schools -- it's comparing Yale this year with our expectations, which were that no more than two would fail. Plus, when friends of yours are leaving, it's sad even if the numbers are small.

YALE UPDATE This week has been sad around here, because it was the bloodiest year in Yale's recent history. Of our entering class of 21, one dropped out and three have failed their comps on the second try. Thus, 4 of 21 will not be here after December. That's compared with Yale's usual cut of one or two people per year. Is it an outlier or some kind of regime shift at Yale? We really have no idea.

Getting back to the question... At Yale, of 21 students, 7 failed macro and 5 failed micro (4 failed both, so 8 total retakers). Note that those failures are more than average for Yale historically. Retakes were last week and this week, and we don't know those results yet. History says we'll probably lose no more than two people.

I sure hope so. Time for Yale to be #1! (just kidding) Just curious -- would anyone actually change their list of applications based on these rankings?

And how'd that macro comp go, buddy? :p Just kidding. Nalfien has a sweet apartment and some super nice stuff, so I don't blame him for how he spent his money! I just prefer to save mine to buy lots and lots of pizza.

At Yale, we got $28,700 our first year (the new first years now get $36,000!!!). It was way more than enough. I saved about $600 a month, after taxes! Yale is very generous, so we have nice lives.

Keep in mind that there's a really big lifestyle and weather difference between Rice and MSU. If you're averse to cold weather (or to incredibly hot summers), you should consider that as a minor factor. In general, I agree with everyone else that MSU is the better school.

You should definitely apply to a couple more top 10's, because you have a very strong profile. It may seem like application fees are a big deal now, but the potential marginal benefit of another application is huge.