Elly

First of all congrats on your admit. Wrt the waitlist for funding, unless you really don't want to go to MIT, there is no good reason not to hold out until very close to April 15th. The funding does move around- some people slated for funding get external fellowships, others decide to go elsewhere, etc. The adcom does their best with limited resources, and at the end of the day, if you don't get funding, you have great other funded offers to fall back on. Feel free to PM with other questions.

When I was working on my proposal last year, I used this resource from UC Santa Cruz: UC Santa Cruz - Division of Graduate Studies - Student Affairs - NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Information It has essays from someone who was rejected the first year but won the award the second time she applied. This is especially useful because her qualifications really didn't change, just her essays, so you can really see how you need to present yourself.

As a student that did my undergrad degree at a liberal arts college, I wanted to specifically address how LAC students can be successful in the application process. This will be most useful for students that did not attend one of the very top LACs- these schools tend to have built in opportunities and advantages more akin to top research universities. If you are interested in what happened to me specifically, my profile is here. The first question to address is transferring. I do believe that graduating from a mid-ranked LAC can be somewhat of a liability, so if you are sufficiently early in your studies, this is definitely a legitimate consideration. However, if you are committed to your school, or if it is too late for you to transfer, there are many ways you can use the strengths of your school to your advantage. The benefits of LACs are as follows: 1) Personal attention from faculty members- if you are a strong and interested student, your professors will be delighted to work with you and help you. Even if they don't do much research anymore, professors love mentoring potential PhD students, even more so at an LAC where students interested in getting their PhD might occur infrequently. Use this to your advantage- they will be more willing to devote effort into independent study courses, independent research projects, or research assistantships, more so than many faculty members at larger schools. LAC faculty will also tend to be great letter writers, in the sense that they will write thoughtful and insightful letters because they know you well and care about your success, even if they don't have the name recognition that gets your letter actually read. 2) No competition from grad students- this is related to point 1, but since LACs generally only have undergraduate programs, if you are at the top of your class, you will be the strongest student in the department period. This means that if there are any opportunities for TAing or RAing, you will get them. By the time I graduated, I had TA'd for 2 classes in the math department, 2 classes in the econ department, and 2 classes in the MBA program. Some of these included teaching sections. It's hard to say if this will help you specifically with applications, but it will help you get stronger letters and will be useful preparation for teaching in the future. 3) Math departments- The math department will be smaller and more supportive than what you will get at a larger school. This means that even if math isn't your strength, you will get the support you need to graduate with a math major. This will definitely be an asset on your applications, and I would strongly encourage all LAC students to get as close to a math major as possible. There are also plentiful disadvantages: 1) Less likely to have well-known letter writers 2) Less likely to have advanced or mathematical econ courses 3) No access to graduate level classes 4) Reputation- if your school only rarely sends students to Econ PhDs, it will be hard for the adcom to compare you with other applicants. Adcoms err on the side of rejection if there is any question of your qualifications. This also means that if your GPA isn't stellar, and your letters aren't excellent, you will have a very hard time. You really need to do well in the small environment to have a shot at making it in a larger one. 5) Research- as teaching institutions, many LACs have fewer opportunities for research If you are committed to staying at your school, there are things you can do to maximize your chance at success. 1) Class rank- as mentioned above, you want to be the best student in your class. This means maintain a high GPA and impress your professors. Clearly you also want to do well on the GREs. 2) Math- also mentioned above, I highly recommend getting the math major. Your economics courses are unlikely to be sufficiently rigorous, so this will be absolutely the best preparation for graduate school and the best signal of your qualifications. You want to do well in these classes. 3) Get experience outside of your school- since your community is small, you want to show that you can be successful in other environments. If your school has a cross-registration agreement with a research university, take advantage of it. Be discerning in your course selection- take the advanced classes your school doesn't offer and do well. Think about trying to take grad classes. You could also look into summer school at a top university, or studying for a semester or a year at another institution. While studying at another institution, you want to be thinking about letters of recommendation. If there are two classes that you are undecided between, but one is taught by junior faculty and one is taught by senior faculty, take the course from the senior faculty. Throughout the class do things to get yourself noticed (ie do well, ask thoughtful questions, go to office hours). If you play it right you can get a letter of recommendation, which will be much more powerful than what you can get from your home institution. 4) Research- take advantage of any research opportunities that come your way. Write a senior thesis. Ask professors if they have any RAing opportunities. Apply for summer research programs (e.g. REUs). 5) Take the NSF seriously- I strongly believe that the NSF has less small-school bias than graduate programs. This is largely due to differences in mandate- the NSF values academic achievement and diversity, whereas grad programs are looking for someone who has a high probability of being a successful economist and adding to the reputation of their program. The NSF is highly competitive but if you win it you will be in a much better position for a top admit, and at the very least, it will get you off some waitlists. 6) Masters program- especially if you have holes in your application or high aspirations, consider applying for masters programs. This will allow you to prove yourself in a more competitive environment. It's important to be realistic about your qualifications. Think hard about what programs you have a chance at being accepted. If you think you are awesome, apply to top schools but be sure to have a couple of degrees of safeties (such as masters programs). Even if you are a stellar candidate, you need to be prepared for the fact that top schools might discard your file after glancing at the school and the names of the letter writers. As long as you apply to a reasonable range of programs, if you are a good candidate you should be accepted somewhere, and be able to lead a productive career as a researcher. If you are a great candidate and play your cards right, top 10 programs are definitely not out of reach.

In my case, I think I was originally rejected for informational reasons rather than problems with my application. I come from a small school, and while I've done well, I can understand why my original application didn't provide sufficient evidence as to why I would be qualified to attend MIT. After winning the NSF, which is largely based upon a research proposal so provides an entirely different set of information, other parts of my application were suddenly cast in a new light. Thus I don't think they made a mistake in rejecting me originally, I just had a very different application the second time they looked at it. Thanks for the congratulations everybody. I hope this is enough inspiration for next years applicants to take the NSF seriously!

For the sake of information. I was rejected a long time ago, but then I won the NSF. So I contacted a couple of departments that I really wanted to go to (Berkeley and MIT) and asked them if they would be willing to reconsider. Berkeley never even responded to my email, but at MIT they were very friendly and said they would be happy to look at it again. I know they contacted at least one of my letter writers to ask her for more information, but I figured it wasn't good because they asked her things like if I ever took the Putnam Exam (I didn't) and how I did in a Grad math class I took last semester (I got a B). But then yesterday they emailed me an offer of admission. It's clear that they don't just blindly offer admission to people with the NSF, because they did further research into my application. However, getting the award makes them look more closely and see you in a different light, which I now know, can make all of the difference.

Well it's certainly a hard offer to turn down!

I was just accepted... I was already rejected but I got the NSF and they changed their mind...

I could add some insight here: I received the NSF but was rejected from all top-10 schools. I took the NSF application very very seriously- I wrote all of my essays with the evaluation criterion in mind, to the point of being ridiculous. Read some of the sample proposals available online, these aren't necessarily the best written or soundest proposals, they just mastered the game of how the scoring works. I'm not saying people that receive the award don't deserve it, it's just there is a large group of sufficiently awesome people, they give it to those who followed the directions.

I'm not really sure- I'm not a student there. I know there are some opportunities for summer TAing and RAing. You have to take your exams in the beginning of summer, but other than that I guess you are free? You'd have to ask a current student for a definitive answer.

I think cost of living in London was discussed elsewhere. I'm sure it is enough to live... comfortably may be a different matter. I guess it depends on if you plan on having other income for the summer. If you are making 14k stretch for 12 months it will be more difficult.

Regarding the LSE PhD, from my experience, direct entry admission is about as difficult as getting into any other top 15 PhD program. As the website is confusing, I'll clarify. There are three ways to get into the PhD program: 1) Attend the masters program and meet progression requirements, 2) Direct Entry (Track 1), which is like a normal US PhD program, 3) Direct Entry (Track 2), which is a sped up version of a US PhD program. Since their own masters students get fed into year 1 of Track 1, I'm guessing Track 2 is for people who have already taken some PhD level coursework. I was accepted to Track 1 without any previous masters, so applying after a different masters shouldn't be any harder then getting into a top 15 school, which as Sam pointed out, is probably harder then going to the masters at LSE and getting distinction.

I'm an American and they offered me 14,000 pounds/yr, which seems like their standard fellowship.

Thanks, but I already got rejected from MIT...

My last name starts with []. Apparently what happened is that the login is the same for applicants and fellows, so when I logged in (as an applicant) it took me directly to the fellows page, where they had my award letter and other fellow information.

Thanks guys... this is so unexpected!

I went to fastlane and logged in and I could see my award letter. I guess this should work if you received the award. Good luck!

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Small LAC (women's college) Undergrad GPA: 3.91 Type of Grad: N/A Grad GPA: N/A GRE: 720V/790Q/5.0A Math Courses: Math Major: Linear, Advanced Linear, Multivariate, Differential Equations, Probability and Statistics, Real Analysis, Abstract Algebra I and II, Grad Analysis and Topology Econ Courses: Econ Major: Micro, Macro, Int'l Trade, Int'l Finance, Econometrics.. etc. Other Courses: Intermediate Programming Letters of Recommendation: all strong- one from my math advisor, one from my econ advisor (who I also did research with and TA'd for), one from a respected economist at a top department at which I took classes Research Experience: Summer REU in Game Theory, Senior Thesis Teaching Experience: TA'd for Calculus, Linear Algebra, Intro to Econ, Macro, MBA Micro Theory, MBA Statistics and Econometrics Research Interests: Development, Micro Theory SOP: I took it seriously but it wasn't too long Other: RESULTS: Acceptances: MIT($), NYU(off of waitlist), UCLA ($), LSE (MRes/PhD Track 1, $), Toronto (Research MA, $), NSF Rejections: Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Brown What would you have done differently? Nothing! I will be attending MIT.

Update: the department emailed me back today with a reject... what a tease.

Not sure about last year, but on the website it does say there is a second round of notifications around March 15th, and on gradcafe it doesn't look like anyone's received word since the 7th- so hopefully the rest of the decisions are coming soon. I emailed the department on Monday so if they divulge any information I'll be sure to share.

Is anyone else still waiting to hear from Berkeley at this point?

Also waitlisted. The email says that they will make a second round of admits around April 10th... considering how many people it looks like were accepted but won't be going, you'd think the waitlist could move a little more quickly than that...

To get to Berkeley you can fly into either Oakland or SFO- Oakland is closer so taking a cab is cheaper, SFO is easier to get to using public transportation (BART will take you from the airport to campus). To get from the Oakland airport to Berkeley you have to take a bus to BART. To get from Berkeley to Stanford, the best and easiest way is to take BART to Milbrae (just past SFO) and then take Caltrain. This will take you about 2 hours to get from Berkeley to Palo Alto, and cost about $10. If you get a van I would expect it to cost much much more. Just be sure to check the schedules, because Caltrain runs less frequently than BART.

Okay, now I just got another email of acceptance. Let's see if this one is recalled too...

I got the same emails (acceptance and then recall). It just sort of adds to my perception of UCLA as a disorganized/ not well run department...

I also was accepted to the LSE MRes/PhD track 1 with £14,000 for 4 years.