Volconomist

To be honest, the material has been a bit easier than I expected, or I may have had better intuiation than I realized. However, the sheer amount of material covered is far and away ten times even what i expected. I have enjoyed my classmates, a lot of different backgrounds and regions, so that has been fun. I had my last final this evening (micro theory), and I am very realived to have this first semester under my belt. Once grades are in, i will be even more realized, at least I hope so. I look forward to next semester classes, and a new set of students to TA for.

I apologize for this, I really didn't think they were under that much protection. I am sincerely sorry.

Does anyone know where I can find a FREE solutions for MWG.

Math: Calc I Calc II Calc III Linear Algebra Matrix Algebra Stats Econ: IO--Advanced UG Micro Public Finance Public Expenditure Monetary--advanced UG Econometrics By the way, my classes start today, in about an hour and a half to be exact. So here's to my first year of PhD work. May god have mercy on my soul.

1) What fields do you plan to study? Microeconomic and experimental economics with a special focus on game theory, and IO. 2) How much time do you think you will spend studying each week? I have been told that my program suggests about three to four hours a day, so around 21-28 hours a week. 3) Which class do you think will be the hardest? The easiest? Hardest: Micro. Easiest: Math for Economists 4) What do you think will be most different about the PhD program than your undergraduate program? Math, Math, Math, Math, and a lot harder....Math. 5) What are you most worried about in beginning the PhD? Making it through the first year, and still having my full funding. Keeping a 3.75 sounds tough.

No offense is meant by this, but here are my two cents. I agree with bayern, what you would be doing seems a bit unethical in the sense that you would be utilizing a funded spot to study in another area. I would assume to get this funded spot you would have to lie on your SOP, in which case this becomes even more unethical. I have been lurking your last few posts, and to be honest you have jumped around what seems like 10 different plans. To be completely honest with you. Your comment about what you would be doing is the same as utilizing the GI Bill was quite offensive to me, and I am not even military. What the GI bill enables people to do is give up years of their life to their country, possibly risking their lives, in exchange for a college education. What you would be doing is cheating the system, this of course is assuming this plan would even work. Those are not the same things. It would seem that you need to calm down just a bit, and get a few things in order. If you want to do medical school, why not do it the normal way. I know you have some sort of degree in engineering, would this not enable you to get into say, biology grad school, and then that would be a more clear path to med school. If you are looking for an easy grad program, may i suggest looking at other disciplines than Economics. It is usually regarded as one of the top three hardest PhD's to obtain. Going into an Econ program without commitment to that program will most certainly spell disaster.

I have finally started the blog that I talked about a couple of weeks ago. There is just an introduction on there right now, but certainly more to come. Hope you enjoy. here be the link Diminishing Utility

I want to make a distinction. I will not be complaining about how hard a professor/exam is/was, or how unfair things are. Besides the fact that I am not that type of person, that is not my intention. This will be a sort of captains log of my personal well being, and mindset throughout the first year. Sure I'll talk about some difficulties, but never will i whine about something. I wouldn't see a reason that my department would have a problem with this even if they knew about it. Its not like they try to make the program sound easy, I was told it was going to be hard as hell, like drinking from a fire hose. I doubt anything i will say will be worse than that.

I hear you with the problems. I blogged for about 3 years, using my real name, and it came up at an interview with a campus job. This blog will be completely anonymous, and I don't even think I will say the name of the school. Another reason I have thought about doing the blog, is that for one year I took 18 and then 19 hours respectively over two semesters, and blogged more than ever, and those were my two best academic semesters, also the hardest classes (honors econometrics, linear algebra, advanced stats, business law etc...). I really feel it helped me have an avenue to be academic, and opinionated without having it graded. I'll go ahead and say that I am going to do the blog, pretty soon even. I am going to preface it with my application experience, and attempt to give some advice on that. I will have the address soon.

I have been kicking around this idea for the past few days, and wanted to run it by you guys so I could get your thoughts. I have been thinking about blogging my first year of my PhD program. This will be very in depth, and will cover not only the classes I take but also the lab classes that I will be instructing. My overall purpose for doing this would be so I would have a documentation about my first year for myself, but also for others who would like to share in the experience, either as they are going through their first year, or for those who are entering the following year. I will focus very heavily on my general mindset, and how it changes while the program tries to swallow me up. I believe that this will be very helpful to myself, It will give me a place to vent. I also think that it will be helpful to others, who will no question have their own struggles. So what do you think? Has someone done this before, and what was it like? Discuss amongst yourselves.

I have been kicking around this idea for the past few days, and wanted to run it by you guys so I could get your thoughts. I have been thinking about blogging my first year of my PhD program. This will be very in depth, and will cover not only the classes I take but also the lab classes that I will be instructing. My overall purpose for doing this would be so I would have a documentation about my first year for myself, but also for others who would like to share in the experience, either as they are going through their first year, or for those who are entering the following year. I will focus very heavily on my general mindset, and how it changes while the program tries to swallow me up. I believe that this will be very helpful to myself, It will give me a place to vent. I also think that it will be helpful to others, who will no question have their own struggles. So what do you think? Has someone done this before, and what was it like? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Yes, Knoxville. Sorry I did not make that clear. The town is going through a revitalization so construction everywhere, as well as on campus, but still a really cool place.

I love it here so far. Bars upon bars, and the smokie mountains only a few minutes down the road.

Alot of higher ranked schools have large incoming classes, so the money is spread around thinner. At my school, they only give 12 out of 130 applicants assistantships, so there is a bit more money to give around.

thats great with the fellowship. UTenn's assistanships are 13.5k, plus tuition waiver plus health insurance. I also got a fellowship, made the total around 18k for the year not counting an additional 3.5k for summer teaching. congrats!