rvalchev

Hell yeah

Hey notacrook, looks like we'll be classmates in the very near future! Btw, the letter I received from Duke says it starts July 30 but online it says July 20 ... we'll have to enroll in the class through the grad school anyway, so whenever we receive the e-mail from the registrar as to how to do it this issue will clear up. I am all about a bar crawl at Chapel Hill, so how are we organizing this? via facebook?

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Small private school. First tier according to US News but dead last in that tier :p Undergrad GPA: 4.0 - I have another 2 weeks till graduation but hopefully it'll stay this way Type of Grad: n/a Grad GPA: n/a GRE: 800Q, 530V, 5.0 AWA Math Courses: Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Optimization, Real Analysis, Topology, Probability Theory, Computational Statistics, Differential Equations Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intermediate Micro and Macro, Econometrics and Forecasting, Game Theory, Money and Banking, Public Economics Other Courses: Assortment of Business core classes. Letters of Recommendation: 2 Letters from Econ Profs and 1 from a math prof. I think letters will be good to great, math professor has taught me for 2 years and I've conducted research for an year together with one of my econ profs. Research Experience: Honors Thesis, RA for two summers but I wasted those summers so nothing really came out of it. Research Interests: Metrics, applied metrics ... i am open to anything SOP: It was weak, unfocused and not customized for schools RESULTS: Attending: Duke ($$$) Acceptances, declined: Wisconsin ($$$), Cornell ($$$), Ohio State( $$$), UNC -Chapel Hill ($$$), Michigan State ($$$), Pitt ($$$), Tinbergen Institute ($$$), LSE EME (Research), Oxford MPhil, Michigan (no $), Texas(no $), USC ($$$), Waitlists: Duke funding waitlist, BU funding waitlist, Princeton Waitlist, Texas Waitlist, Michigan waitlist Rejections: MIT, Princeton (rejected from waitlist), Berkeley, Yale, Harvard, UPenn, Chicago, UCSD, Penn State, Boston College, Cambridge What would you have done differently? First, read jeeve's thread about suggestions for people from less known undergrads (it was impossible since it was not written until a couple of days ago, but that's what future people should do). Second, apply to NYU, Columbia and Northwestern (but most probably I would have only taken Northwestern over Duke. But still, my portfolio of schools was a little unbalanced). Third, write a much, much better SOPs that would be much better tailored to different schools. You'll be surprised how much SOPs matter (heard it directly from admissions directors at TOP10 and TOP20 schools).Fourth, don't get RA positions that are in the network of your schools and professors because you are already part of this network, so it doesn't add much to your profile. Go out and work for somebody different.

okay it's official now, I formally accepted Duke's offer. Looking forward to see both treblekicker and notacolour at some point this fall!

Just got it too. Onwards to the Blue Devils for me.

Agreed. I never knew that April 15th (tax day) could actually be exciting before I started attending this forum and applying for schools lol

My displeasure with taxation is negatively related with the closeness of April 15th.

I was actually entertaining the idea of pitching a tent on the lawn outside the econ Department in Duke. I can put it equidistant from the Econ building and the library ... seconds away from where I'll be spending most of my time! I wonder how would that sit with their facilities management folks :hmm:

It's simple actually ... we just rock :D

Btw I live in Pittsburgh Gymshorts. I think you'd enjoy it - it's not a bad city to live in at all. You've got everything you want from college bars to hip night clubs to excellent opera and theater and it all comes in a very small, almost traffic jam free package.

Awesome, congratulations to both newcomer09 and gymshorts. Decisions feel good don't they :)

On the biased side, come to UNC and hang out with the cool Triangle crowd :)

Well, i'll get it tomorrow then I guess.

Unfortunately I am totally unfamiliar with UVA, but UNC is great at econometrics. Otherwise, not to hijack the thread or anything, I think Duke is better than UNC and UVA. Duke has TOP15 placement record.

nervewracking. I have the feeling they might just take a while to send out all these personalized e-mails. I don't have it yet but my name is way down the alphabet so I am waiting for it.