ForTheWin_08

I know a decent amount of measure theory, but no macroeconomics. If what you say is true, that is pretty worrying. I'll be sure to bring it up in macro (with Stokey herself!) this year...

Are you going to Clemson? Yikes. If so, it might be worthwhile to find out who Mr. Maloney's boss is and forward her this missive.

On the contrary, I think that would demonstrate commitment to political economy. I have a friend at U of Siena who has one master's in economics, and one in creative writing. Another of my friends (at UCLA) has an undergraduate degree in history and economics. So I don't think that an interdisciplinary background hurts at all.

Obviously, it depends on whether your goal is to impress the public at large or economists. I picked Chicago over Princeton, which I maintain was the right choice, but non-economists think I'm an idiot.

Which is...?

You are given that the events {bead 1 is yellow} and {bead 2 is yellow} are independent. So Pr({beads 1 and 2 yellow}) = Pr({bead 1 is yellow})xPr({bead 2 is yellow}) = 6/49.

It's not a tutorial, but Cleve Moler (creator of MATLAB) has a really nice (and free) book called Numerical Computing with MATLAB.

Chicago's math camp starts on September 9th, which is a bit later than I would have liked.

Why did you apply to places where you weren't prepared to accept even funded offers (UAZ, Tilburg, BC, UCD, etc)? Did your preferences change between December and now?

I think by "necessity," chicagoer was referring to his subjective preference ordering, not claiming that micro and econometrics in general are but the handmaidens of macro. Right?

empirical micro>game theory>econometric theory>macro Warning: preferences subject to change without prior notice.

I agree, though perhaps not for the same reasons as pevdoki1. I appreciate that you want to hurry up with the PhD, and that you are likely very clever, but I don't know if trying to squish a dense, abstract subject like analysis into six weeks is wise. Sometimes one actually needs time to mull over the new concepts and the new way of thinking.

I got accepted to Princeton from the waitlist. But Chicago beat them this time...

Congratulations to all!

Not quite - mine's from Wikipedia. As for your excellent choice of grad school... well, what's that they say about the sincerest form of flattery? See you in September, Mr. Keen and chicagoer!

Woohoooo.... Chicago is the place for me!

Why, yes. (To be clear: I'm Chicago-bound.)

Take my advice with as much salt as you like, but I think you should be wary of trying to play the schools off of each other. I think you can disclose that you have an offer with a fellowship, etc from school X and Y, but I think it would be unwise to strategically withhold information (for example, if you tell school Y that you have a fellowship, but omit to say that it's only partial tuition). These places talk to one another. I doubt any one student is valuable enough to them to risk upsetting relations with people at the other school, especially if you are only waitlisted and not admitted outright.

I'm unable to say anything because I was on the wrong side of the Atlantic (and the equator, come to think of it) at the time. I'm just as vexed as you by this silence.

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: International, best in South Africa (University of Cape Town for those in the know) Undergrad GPA: We don't use the GPA system. About 80%, which is 4.0 according to the WES conversion scale. Type of Grad: N/A Grad GPA: N/A GRE: 800Q, 5.0 A, 670 V Math Courses: A year and a half of calculus, Linear Algebra, Algebra I and II, Real Analysis, Metric Spaces, Complex Analysis, Measure Theory, Functional Analysis I + II, Differential Geometry, Topology I + II. All above 75%, so I guess A- to A+ range. Undergrad thesis: Explained the Delbaen-Schachermayer version of the "Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing" (basically, a financial market satisfies No Arbitrage iff there exists an equvalent martingale ["risk-neutral"] probability measure). Essentially, it was just a whole lot of functional analysis and a little bit of stochastic integration. Econ Courses: Intro macro/micro/game theory, Intermediate Macro/Micro, Honours Macro/Micro (i.e. 4th-yr level - we used adult Varian for micro, to give you an idea of the level), Undergrad Metrics and Quantitative Methods, Computational Political Economy (4th-yr elective on simulation methods and behavioural econ), Masters Econometrics, Masters/PhD Microeconometrics. All A- to A+ range. Other Courses: 3 years of Mathematical Statistics, including stuff on: basic probability theory, regression analysis, stochastic processes/time series (not that I remember much of it!), Bayesian statistics, generalised linear models/qualitative regression models. Some basic applied math courses on ordinary differential equations (A's). Letters of Recommendation: One should be very enthusiastic, from the one of the country's most hardcore empirical microeconomists (though his PhD is local)... another is likely to be good (I mean, I'm certain the guy thinks I'm smart, I got the second-best grade in his class), from quite a big-shot macro guy (PhD Cambridge, and he's co-authored some stuff with Phillip Aghion), but he's only taught me once. I'll probably use my honours thesis supervisor for the third one. Research Experience: Not a lot... I've ostensibly been an RA for one professor for a summer, but I'm not sure how much work you should do to say this of yourself... I attempted to solve this game theory problem for him (he kind of gave me a half-finished paper of his and said "Can you fix this up?"... I couldn't). So not so impressive on this front I think. Teaching Experience: Tutor for intermediate micro for two years, rewrote some of the problem sets for the same course. Research Interests: Development micro, game theory, criminology SOP: Decent, I thought. I posed a few questions that I thought were interesting and tried to show how my personal background led me to be interested in them. Customised one paragraph to mention which fields at the respective schools were strong, and why I thought they should want me. Weaknesses: No research experience, from a relatively unknown university; no money to live off of if financial aid is denied. Results: Admissions: Michigan ($16k + tuition + health insurance), Chicago ($20k + tuition + health insurance) [attending] Waitlists:Northwestern, Pennsylvania, Princeton Rejections:Yale, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard No Reply:NYU What would I have done differently: Not much. I wish I had gotten my undergraduate degree from a more prestigious place. Other than that, I'm not sure there was much that I could have done differently. But I'm not at all unhappy with what I got...

Hmmm. I wonder what this all means.

Only the multivariable calculus stuff will not be heavily used in graduate school. Unless you plan on skipping econometrics entirely and becoming an 19th-century physicist instead, I wouldn't worry about not knowing Stokes' theorem. You will, however, need to be conversant with all of the topics you mentioned from the latter three courses.

Bump! I, too, am interested to hear.

Thanks, israelecon. (Also: bump, timed to coincide with the afternoon in America, since that is from where most of the posters hail.)

...given these interests (in decreasing order of importance): applied micro (esp. criminology/demography-related things), development, and game theory. [i'm actually only waitlisted at Princeton, but I guess I should form preferences in case I have a decision to make.]