lamahe

I don't know. It seems like first year micro is even more about the "tools", basic skills you need as an economist. You rarely see any references to research (unless you are in place like UoC). Macro course content may depend on the school where you are, but if it is a good one the basic idea will be to teach you how to think about questions analyzed in macro. The "tools" are there just because there is no way to teach macro without them. I would agree with pevdoki1 that if you're interested in macro you should take that rather than micro, to find out whether it is what you think it is. Not necessarily the research, but the approach. And one big advantage is that if you'll like it, you will enjoy it more the second time. ;) Taking micro twice is probably not that helpful.

That's exactly what happened to me last year. I accepted a funded offer on April 18 and had to ask for a release from another funded offer. I felt really bad, but I know that I would regret it if I didn't. Before deciding I made a poll, I asked some grad students and faculty I know in different places what's their opinion. With one exception they said that if it is really my dream school I should do it. Some schools/people will be probably more unhappy than others if you ask for a release, but they will most likely give it to you, even in the case of a funded offer. I don't think that any school wants a student who would much rather be somewhere else. What motivation can he/she have to study and do well?

Well, I'm certainly not a Fortran expert, it would be nice if somebody with more experience could comment on this. My problem was that Silverfrost requires administrator rights to install, and I needed to get Fortran runnning in the school computer lab one evening. And I also didn't like the small notice that appears every time you run a file compiled using FTN95.

Yeah, and it's just one questions in each part so to take some special preparation is probably not necessary. I think that the new question in the verbal part is easier than the antonyms and analogies questions. I found out about the new type only in the morning of the day when I took the test, so my preparation was to go to the ETS website to see what the heck is this new question type, and at least look at the sample questions they have there. ;)

Does anybody know whether Rios Rull will stay at Minnesota, or whether he is likely to go back to Pennsylvania?

I am also going to attend the math course in summer. Btw, have you guys already thought about which courses you will take in addition to the micro and macro sequences in the first year?

LOL, now that's comforting. :) I just wonder how big is the weight for this part of their utility.

Type of Undergrad: International, top in my country but probably not known outside Central Europe. Undergrad GPA: 1.24 (1-4 scale, with 1 being best) Type of Grad: MA in Economics, top place in Eastern-Central Europe. Grad GPA: 3.88 GRE: Q800/V590/AWA4.5 Math Courses: Linear Algebra I-II, Mathematical statistics I-III, Real Analysis I-IV, Complex Analysis, Differential Equations, Dynamic Optimization Econ Courses: Standard Micro, Macro, and Econometrics sequences at MA level. Letters of Recommendation: From 4 professors; PhDs from Chicago, Minnesota and WUSTL, and 1 who graduated from a local university. Worked as a TA for all of them. Research Experience: Worked for 2 years at Institute of Economic Research in my country, but I think that it is actually not worth mentioning. Useless in the longer perspective. Teaching Experience: TA for Macroeconomics I-II Research Interests: Macroeconomics, Public economics. SOP: Indicated my research interest and the reason why I want to leave my current program. RESULTS: Acceptances: UPenn ($), Minnesota ($), WUSTL ($) Rejections: Columbia, NWU What would you have done differently: Maybe applied to a couple more places, but it would not change my decision where to go anyway.

So has anybody done this thing? How did it go? I just received an offer from my dream school, unfortunately I have already accepted an offer from some other place. Both offers come with funding, if I choose this new one I will have to ask for the release letter. This is really unfortunate. :(

Sure, if you plan to get Inspector Rex; I would say that he can learn it in no time.

Well, the syntax of Fortran is quite similar to Matlab, so to switch is not that complicated and it is definitely worth it. Debugging is however really horrible at the beginning :yuck: I also had some problems to find a user friendly freeware version for Windows, now I am using Eclipse as an editor, and g95 compiler. Photran - An Integrated Development Environment for Fortran The G95 project Another possible choice is the Silverfrost version, but I didn't like that one. FTN95: Fortran 95 for Windows I don't know about a good manual, most of the time I just google up the thing that I need ;) But try to check this pages Home Page of Karen A. Kopecky makoto nakajima’s homepage: macroeconomics, computational methods and the links there, it might be helpful.

If you haven't found this yet, here are some impressions from the Chicago flyout EconVisit2008: Chicago From what I heard it went actually quite well.

who, moi? :) not really, i'm slovak

Yes, it was a personalised email.

With full funding for 5 years. Yay. :) (But I wish I had received such an offer from UMinn.)