FilleNouvelle

I know you said you were interested in a few social science/psych programs as well, but if you're using these recs for Econ programs, I think you'll be at a serious disadvantage. Your first is not an Econ PhD, which won't hold much weight. Your second may be from Yale, but is probably not the best choice since he/she is recently graduated. The potential last one would be a bad idea...I definitely wouldn't choose anyone without a PhD (even if they did not complete it for a justifiable reason. The adcoms have enough doubt about you as an applicant and don't have time to consider doubts about your recommenders as well). Applying for a variety of fields is always tricky. I have a friend who applied to history, medicine, and law school all in one year. He had to get a separate batch of recommenders for each one of those sections. Perhaps you could do the same?

If you don't have any econometrics courses already, you should take it.

I have a friend in the MA at NYU. If he wasn't sleeping so much (out of sheer laziness, not because they're working him so hard) he could totally work a job.

I think a lot of the interest in policy comes from wanting to add real-world validity to theories that to many non-economists seem pretty far-fetched. Also, I think generally economists do have an interest in policy for the same reasons as many other social scientists. There is some interest in wanting to use knowledge of a social science to want to help the greater good. While I'm sure many people just have sheer intellectual curiosity for the field, many also do it because they want to have an impact, and not just within the academic literature. As for business, it's tough. I'd say economists are interested in business, but in a different way. There are many theories out there about executive compensation and other business practices, but I think many economists don't expect many business leaders to really take notice and heed their advice. Whereas in policy, there is room to have an influence.

Hey now, don't go calling him an a**hole...unless of course, you have a**hole friends. Then it's all good :p Seriously though, Weary, you knew that comment was going to be rather controversial (hence why you felt the need to justify it, albeit rather poorly). Perhaps those sorts of things are just best left unsaid in a public forum.

My guess would be because his/her grades were not that great.

LOL, nice.

Dude, take that money and run. If you're wanting to work in Canada, you couldn't be in a better position!

If that's true, that depresses me greatly. The term 'professor' to me means being a teacher above all things. If there are people out there who don't care at all about teaching, it makes me wonder why academic institutions hire them. I think it's great to have a love of research, which I do. I even think it's great to love research more than you love teaching. But it really breaks my heart to see people in academic placements who don't care about teaching at all.

I remember a while back we had a thread about teaching at LACs. It wasn't an overwhelmingly popular choice, but for most on here, it seemed people would be satisfied taking a job at an LAC if they didn't have better offers from research universities. However, I'm wondering if anyone else out there has different preferences (like myself) and would prefer to teach at an LAC over a research institution. It's not that I have a dislike of research, it's that I love teaching (my parents were both teachers, my grandparents, etc.) What I'm wondering is if for someone who is interested in teaching at an LAC above all, should I approach the next 5 years any differently? I am going to TA and may get an instructor position in the 3rd year onwards, which should get me rather acquainted with teaching in general. The first year, I would guess, would be no different, since it's all about learning the material thoroughly and passing prelims. 2nd year is probably much of the same as well, still learning but in a specialized field. It's years 3-5 that get me wondering. So I guess bottom line question: If you are interested in teaching in an LAC as your number one preference, should you approach a PhD program any differently, or is it simply a matter of making your preferences known on the job market?

I'm not sure I've ever heard the whole 'freshwater' thing... can someone explain?

Congrats! I'm done with everything next Wednesday, but for some reason my school doesn't have the actual ceremony until July 3rd! Oh well, makes for a good 4th of July I guess!

Alright then, my apologies :). I think LSE is pretty damn good for econometrics, as well as Berkeley and MIT (amongst others of course, those are just the ones that stick out to me). For safeties, you can try MSU and UNC. And by not treated well, I'm assuming my professors meant that the professors were a bit too busy with their own research. I'd imagine Cambridge would be alright, if you are the type of person who is very proactive about getting help from professors. If you've got an offer from a UCL or LSE though, I wouldn't do it.

I think it must have been about how students are treated, rather than the people themselves. I'm hoping your last comment wasn't meant to be rude because that's very much how it came off (as if I was being stupid for having chosen Virginia). I chose Virginia, not for econometrics, but for applied micro.

That's probably true, but I don't think that's why my professors discouraged me from applying. When I first started talking to them in 3rd year, I told them I was going to apply to LSE, UCL, and they were like, "that's great!" When I mentioned Oxbridge, they said, "You really shouldn't go there. There are much better places to go." I'm someone personally who really likes econometrics, and they knew that, and still discouraged me from going there. Considering my professors got their degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, it really made me think. But I didn't end up looking much into UK schools in the end, and decided to just go straight into a US program. I don't know what the particular advantages/disadvantages of Oxbridge programs are. All I know is that my professors, at a British university, had a low opinion of it, and that was enough for me to think twice.