argmax

Is it essential to use Stata?? Matlab has a nice function called roots that does it in a very simple way. I only had a brief expossure to numerical methods, but the way of solving nonlinear equations or finding roots is through iterations methods as Newton-Rahpson or Bisection. You could google them, they are very easy to understand. However, the problem is that with this methods you get only one of the solutions to the problem and not every solution. I hope it was helpful.

Since this are personal rankings it woulde be more useful (for other people to see) if we all put our research interests and if you are attending any school in particular. That way other people are aware of possible bias and some logic for our personal top 10 ranking. I am interested in macro theory, open macroeconomics, international finance and computational economics. I think that, 1-2 MIT~Harvard 3-4-5 Chicago~Princeton~Northwestern 6-7-8 Berkeley~Yale~Stanford 9-10-11 Upenn~Minnesota~NYU 12- Columbia

BTW, i just looked at WUSTL web page and they have the placements of their job market candidates, so you could have another data point for your decision. The board implicit conclusion is that their placements in five years should be better. So i think is worth the 8-9k for the first year.

If you have read some other threads about WUSTL and BC it seems that WUSTL is going up in terms of rankings, while the situation at BC is unknown. From the point of view of your interests, BC seems to have (if you look at its job market candidates) more faculty in intl macro while WUSTL tends to have more macro/monetary oriented faculty. I think from your interests WUSTL strictly dominates the other options but i do not know about the status of saltwater/freshwater in these schools. Just my two cents.

I agree with Efe Ok Real Analysis with economic applications will become a very useful book for economists. A first course in optimization theory by sundaram is a very nice and rigourous introduction to optimization.

I'll also agree with everyone who gave their opinion. Northwestern seems like a better choice at least in macro. Although UCLA is pretty good in intl macro (and they have very good placement last year if i remember correctly), i have the feeling that nu has a better training program for economists. It seems like macroeconomists from nu are more succesful in the academic community (but this is just a very subjective idea). BTW, do you know if you want to work at a research university or at an organization when you end up your phd? I looked at UCLA placements and they seem to place a lot in the private sector and in places like World Bank, IMF,etc. Just my two cents.

From a financial point of view i think CEMFI dominates di tella because they are offering more funding from what i know. You can also check the page at CEMFI that say that if you are a Latin American (that i think your are because of previous posts) student you are eligible for special scolarships. In terms of placing students at top departments, i know di tella in the past few years had an incredible placement with around 10 15 students in top 30 economics department. I don't know how CEMFI places students. I don't know much about difficulty and interaction with faculty at di tella, but it seems to me that they are very good at preparing students for phd since i saw a lot of succesful phd students with m.a. from that institution. As you can tell i only know a few things about di tella and pretty much nothing about CEMFI, so may advice is biased. Hope i helped you un some way.

How will you rank your recommendations in terms of possible strenght of the letters and if your profs are relatively known in economics? This plays an important factor, especially for internationals students, from what i have heard. Do you have any class ranking? Do your school places people at top programas in the US consistently? Maybe this things can help a little more for guidance.

I don't know much about these schools (that is why i asked about UWO in other thread) but i think your research interests might help for people wanting to give you any advice.

Thanks for the quick replies, i guess mich U is in the game again with your answer asquare.

I went through the website of umich econ department and i found this "Because of this need for demonstrated fluency in English, the few international students to whom we are able to offer financial aid in their first year are ones who have already lived in the United States for a year or more, usually enrolled in a bachelor's or master's degree program at a U.S. college or university. Courses on English as a foreign language are available on campus for students who do need minimal further training in English." Does this mean international students cannot get any teaching positions in the first year? Does this mean there is no financial aid for international students at all?? Can someone comment on this issue? Thanks in advance

Do you say that implying that is a lower or greater risk of sending my app and not getting admitted?

Bump for this lonely thread Anyone with UWO phd program info in the forum??

I was wondering if there is anyone in the forum that is the phd program of University of Western Ontario. I am thinking of applying there and i want to know more about the inside of the program. My research interests are in macroeconomics, international economics and finance, and monetary economics. Can someone help me?? Thanks in advance

This is directly from BU web page What fraction of students is typically supported by the Economics Department in the first year of PhD studies? The department offers about 8 fellowships to first year students, within a first year class averaging about 30 students.