macro dude

Any more thoughts??

I think it is most likely because Duke isn't very strong in macro/international. They place their top finance, IO, and applied micro people well, but macro doesn't seem to be as strong. In terms of average placement, I think two years is too small of a sample. Wisconsin is a well established Top 15 school, with placements to go along with that. Duke is breaking into the Top 20, but a couple of years of strong placements at the top end don't necessarily mean Duke's graduate program is "better" than Wisconsin. I should add that I was ranking them given the funding you've been offered. If you had a full stipend from Duke, it'd be a toss up between the three. For me, funding tips the scale in favour of Wisc/Cornell. Just my two cents. Anyway, it depends what you're interested in, but Cornell, Wisconsin or Duke are all great options.

That's cool. But you'll only be at NU for 5 years, and your chance of getting a good placement somewhere in California afterward is better coming from NU than any of the other places. A 30-40 year academic career is alot longer than a 5 year PhD program. Just something that my professors have mentioned when trying to give me advice about which school to choose. Good luck! Whatever you choose, you've got some great options!

With your offers funkychinamen, isn't Northwestern a no-brainer??

I think most people would take Wisconsin fully funded over Duke with no stipend. Placements are better overall at Wisconsin (i.e. 25th-75th percentile), though Duke's top end is quite good recently. My ranking would be Wisconsin>Cornell>=Duke taking into account grad program, placements, and the funding offered.

I spoke with someone at Stern today. They only admitted one person for the economics PhD. They are waiting for his decision, and those of candidates in the other fields (finance, accounting, etc.) before they make additional offers. The person I spoke with said, depending on their yield in the other streams, they may offer one more spot for economics. Just so you know, the chances of admission for those still waiting are fairly small, as there are around 30 people on this pseudo-waitlist for the economics PhD. At best one or two spots will open up. At worst, zero. Hope this helps.

My bad. I thought the person I talked to was in the 2nd year, but he must have been in 3rd or 4th year. However, that doesn't change the fact that in his year, 8 out of 23 left after the first year. Also, if you look at the link I posted to degree completion rates, from 1997-2002, only 56% of students who entered Duke's program graduated with a PhD. That is really low. But again, that information is a bit dated, so take it with a grain of salt. I don't know much about Wisconsin, other than the common advice on this board about it being a high attrition school. They have such a large incoming class though, many of them unfunded offers, so it makes sense that more people will fail. Rvalchev, I think if you have nice funding at Wisconsin, you probably won't have any trouble getting through, as you are obviously one of the stronger students they've admitted. If you had an unfunded offer, then it may be a concern.

Last year, 8 out of 23 students left Duke's PhD program after the first year. This information was passed on to me by a student currently in the 2nd year of the PhD program. So... I don't think we can say that Duke's attrition is necessarily low. I've heard that it is actually very competitive at the end of the first year. 8/23 is 34% attrition. That is quite high. Perhaps that year was an anamoly. But if you look at Duke's job market outcomes, they only graduate about 10-15 people a year, which is quite low if they have an incoming class of around 20 or more. Also, check out these stats. They're a bit dated, but it looks like it is pretty tough to make it through the program and graduate with the PhD at Duke.

Bump. Any news?

Bump. Anyone heard anything yet?

Do you go to BC FOSD? If so, do you mind if I PM you with some additional questions?

Bump.

Dude, chill out. The link I posted shows the commonly used up-to-date research rankings for all economics departments. Hence, it is a good measure of faculty quality. Just so we're clear, I wasn't talking about master's programs at all, but addressing the statement that LSE's faculty is of similar quality to a "state school" like the University of Florida. That is completely bogus. LSE's faculty is comparable to the US Top 10. That's all I'm saying.

Rankings at IDEAS: Economics Departments Facts don't lie. Sorry to be a buzzkill, but these are the facts. Top 20% Economics Departments 1. Department of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2. Department of Economics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 3. Department of Economics, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, California (USA) ... 8. London School of Economics (LSE), University of London, London, United Kingdom

If he was also referring to LSE when he made this statement, then your professor needs a reality check. LSE's faculty is comparable in quality to a Top 10 American economics department. I don't know anyone who would disagree. Your prof is smoking something dude.