3ohto4oh

Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

for how many of these did you use wooldridge ;)

econ only: ba: 14 ma: 10

Can anyone spot the irony in this thread?

#2 - I had a professor in undergrad who regularly held office hours on the patio of a local margarita bar.

First hit on Google for this precise question: Economists

Count me in for a unit-root-based forecast.

Two issues: NBER dates the recession from December 2007. Do PhD applications lead, coincide, or lag economic conditions? I do not think this has been well established.

first hit on google for Dutch grade conversion... WES Grade Conversion Guide: The Netherlands

hahaha

sounds like me, minus the MBA - I am in at UNC of course additional math will help, but you have already repaired much of the damage - or enough for top 50

i like that your safety is caltech if it isn't beneath you, why not add nyu, look at this poster: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/111901-profiles-results-2009-a.html#post730450

GRE is a metric used to predict chance of success in grad school... succeed in grad school and I believe this becomes a non issue.

I hadn't heard that about applying twice... I did this, although I used different rec providers and applied to (mostly) different schools. There are other threads on TM about applying twice that come to very different conclusions: if you are rejected from a school, you have the right to ask them to discuss ways you could improve for a second go at it, both there and elsewhere. More on my situation... On the first go, I was rejected by: U Washington, U Oregon, UC-Irvine, UCo-Boulder, and Oregon State. Washington State U let me in to their PhD program w/o funding, and I turned this down to attend a U.S. MA that offered funding and tried again, with much better results (chiefly, UNC). UW has the distinction of being the only program that has rejected me twice (although they did waitlist me the second go around.)

I've seen this before - it is a good text, but many intro econ courses do not include calculus as a prereq. I support finding a free text for your students... if not, I think the Krugman/Wells text that I used in undergrad was okay. Mankiw is also very good. Can anyone out there find a free, good intro micro text?

I am probably a good person to respond to this post... I had 3.0 ugrad, similar gre (although higher verbal) and did a US MA (also originally without thinking PhD, but I quickly caught the bug). My program mandated a thesis, and I do believe this research component helped substantially - you should definitely take this route. I had a 4.0 in my MA; however, you may be able to offset this with good LoRs (GSU has at least a few 'known' professors). Of course, you will have to impress them. If you can use a math course to satisfy an elective requirement for your MA, that would also be helpful. Summary: Research (thesis) + Math + LoR = good program. If you are willing to wait an extra year to begin a PhD, then I would suggest that you include only target schools - schools that you would be happy attending with funding - and skip the safeties. If it doesn't work out, then you can try again, but I don't see a reason not to apply...

too many TMers in one location... it just wasn't stable

Sorry in advance for soiling this thread by reneging on happy kitten status... I am now an ecstatic kitty! UNC-CH for me (admission in late April). Long story short, I applied in tandem with another, and this was our second favorite choice behind a serious reach. So, not only am I going to a dream school, I applied to other schools ranked slightly higher (but much worse fits) and was wiped out, so I also have the peace of mind that I got into the best school I possibly could. :) Having to request a withdrawal from another program (see earlier in the thread) was painful and awkward for me, but the DGS was amazing and supportive... the e-mail ended with "Best wishes and good luck!"

that is helpful information

In undergrad, I skipped a paper worth 15% of the final grade and got 85 on both midterms... A. Roommate got 90s and did the paper (A) and got a B. Moral: Literature department at my ugrad is pretty f'd up.

I looked at the syllabus for the 500-level course... Based on this, I conclude that your "intro to calc based probability/stats" is better preparation for econometrics than most/all incoming MA students at UMT will have. So, they will be the ones playing catch up.

Also, compare your profile to the other students applying to top programs here: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/111901-profiles-results-2009-a.html At first glance, assuming you get a decent GRE score, you seem to be shooting too low.

what's preventing you from taking both - there should be a ton of overlap here? i suppose I should take this constraint as a given and suggest econometrics.

For practical, undergrad purposes: Run random effects, then fixed effects, and do a Hausman specification test. If the test rejects, then random effects is biased and fixed effects is the correct estimation procedure.

it's a method of analyzing panel data that assumes no individual-specific effects