helpzwouldbenice

Highest Ranked Admit: Michigan ($$) Lowest Ranked Rejection(s): WUSTL, Texas probably a function of my very narrow interests. Also WUSTL was surprisingly selective this year, was it not?

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 10 LAC Undergrad GPA: 3.79/4.00 Type of Grad:- Grad GPA:- GRE: 800Q 710V 5.0AWA Math Courses: Multivariable Calc (A); Linear Algebra (P); DiffEq (A-); Intro Proofs (A-); Econ Courses: Intro Econ (B+), Intermediate Micro (A), Intermediate Macro (A), Econ Stats (A), Econometrics (A), Trade (A-), Public Econ (A-) Other Courses: Took a year of physics, lots of random courses. Lots of A's in courses an econ student typically wouldn't take, like Religion and Chinese. Letters of Recommendation: 1 Math Dept. Prof, 1 Econ Dept. Prof, 1 External Prof who I RA'd for Research Experience: Fair amount in health services research. Have a paper up for submission, and another one that my supervisor and I are working on. Teaching Experience:None Research Interests: Health, Labor SOP: Very tailored to my interests. Definitely proved to be hit or miss with regard to schools. Other: Rejected from NSF RESULTS: Acceptances: University of Virginia ($$), Rice University ($$), UNC ($$), Michigan ($$) Rejections: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Cornell, Texas, WUSTL, Duke, Caltech, Berkeley, Northwestern, Wharton Applied Econ, Maryland Never heard from: Wharton Healthcare (interviewed, then never heard back) Atttending: Michigan What would you have done differently? Taken more math classes and pushed harder for A's instead of A-'s. My school doesn't have the greatest reputation when it comes to elite grad schools but the teachers are really supportive. I did pretty well here and there's no telling what would have happened if I had gone to a different school.

oh ok, sweet... not really seriously though, is there some sort of rating cutoff? My two review sheets were: Intellectual Merit: VG, E Broader Impacts: VG, G

I only got 2 of my review sheets back... anyone else in my situation?

fwiw i turned down a unc offer with funding.

I got an email from my dept. chair about an RA posting for Prof. John Donahue of Yale Law who's going to be visiting at Stanford in the coming year. The job seems pretty empirical (they're looking for SAS/Stata experience), and sounds like as good an RA job as you can get, really. I can give you more info if you want to PM me. The deadline to apply is March 31st.

Anyone know when they typically send out decisions?

We used Lay's Analysis with an Introduction to Proof, but we only went up to proving continuity of functions (section 23 or 24, if I remember), and we proved one fixed point theorem: the Intermediate Value Theorem. Do you think that level of analysis is enough prep for grad school or no?

Hey all, Since I'm about to be applying for grad school, I was wondering if anyone knew any general fellowships or grants that I could be applying to besides the NSF grant. I know perhaps none is as prestigious, but anything would do (but if there are some big ones out there I'm not aware of, please enlighten me)... I've had a hard time finding others online. Thanks

Unfortunately, I made an A- in the intro Analysis class... along with A-'s in DiffEq and Linear Algebra... in fact the only 'A' i have in math is in Mulitvariate Calc, which is what's prompting me to take more math classes... just fyi

Nah, jeeves' comment is completely valid. My advisor has actually told me the very same thing. In response, I guess I'd say that my focus regarding grad school right now is just getting in. With more mathematical exposure and a certain context for the theorems I'm trying to prove in grad school, perhaps I may succeed there in classes much harder than Real Analysis. But honestly, I won't know if I don't get in. And if I want to go to as good a grad school as possible, I need to send as good signals as possible. Anticipating a response to the above response, I know that grad school is much harder than undergrad, and the fact that I'm not willing to take the hardest possible math classes does seem to make me a subpar candidate. But I do like the research process and the idea of creative thinking, and I feel like there's more to grad school than proving theorems--- I'd guess that not every (great) economist out there is a mathematical wizard (reading Steven Levitt's bio provides a basis for this statement).

Hey all, I just finished my junior year at a top-10 LAC, and I was thinking of taking Abstract Algebra this coming fall in place of Real Analysis for three big reasons: (a) Real Analysis is notoriously hard at my school (as I'm sure it is everywhere else; but people much smarter than me have told me it was extremely hard), and I'm not sure I would do well in it (b) I took an Intro. to Analysis (basic proofs) class this past semester, and found I liked the Ordered Fields/Metric Spaces etc. part more than the Limits/Continuity/Connectedness part, so I think I might actually like the material in Abstract Algebra, and thus be motivated to perform well © While I know that many on here and elsewhere have said that Abstract Algebra is pretty much irrelevant to economics, my feeling is that doing well in Abstract Algebra is a strong signal that one is comfortable with numbers and generally 'good' at math. My point here is that if the admissions process is a signalling game, and if I guess I'll do better in Abstract Alg than in Real Analysis, then it would be better to take the less relevant class in favor of the better signal... Thoughts? thanks

Let's say I get a 720 on the GRE Quant. If I decide to retake it, will grad schools still see that I got a 720 the first time around, and if so, will this detract from my application? thanks

How important are these classes for admission to grad school? Math Stats is only offered this year at my school, and Probability is a prereq. I'm just planning on taking Calc, Differential equations, Linear Algebra, an Intro to Analysis class and Real Analysis, and I'm not very inclined to take Probability, since it would make my schedule this semester a little jam-packed. any suggestions? Is it really something grad schools look to see if you've taken, or is it more something that you should know/be familiar with in order to make it through the first year of grad school? thanks

Not taking sides or anything, but I've finished my school's Calc Sequence (the terminal class being 'Calc 2,' which covers Multivariable Calculcus, partials, gradients, lagrangian, and basically everything else I needed to know in Micro)... it actually ended up being only one semester, so technically I have only one semester of college calculus, but I got credit for another semester in high school. Anyway, with all that calculus (and Linear Algebra, which I just finished), anyone think the book would be sufficient? And for the record, I go to a liberal arts college (no grad programs), so I was just going to find some other school perhaps around some metropolitan area that would let me take their PhD micro...