Georgian Economist

Greetings TMers. I was curious as to any/everyone's opinion as to the econ program at the university of Iowa. I have recently been toying with the idea of doing a joint jd/phd, and Iowa is one of the few schools that offer such a program. I know that some of the best schools offer a jd/phd, but the chances of getting into either the law school or econ program at somewhere like Michigan are low on their own and getting into both would be that much more difficult. Because of that, I have been looking around at other schools that give you the option of doing a jd and then designing a joint degree with another grad program on campus, and Iowa is such a program. However, I was curious as to how well respected Iowa's phd program is. I have found information that is more conflicting than usual--I have seen rankings as high as 34 and as low as 52. Which ranking is more commensurate with Iowa's stature? Also, my interests lie in micro, IO, and public, and I think Iowa is more geared towards macro. Is Iowa an okay place to study the above or not so much? I appreciate any insight anyone would be able to offer.

Thank you very much for all of your advice and insight. Having read your responses, I will definitely begin revising my list of schools. I will definitely be applying to CalTech and George Mason, and I will add several more highly ranked schools. Asianeconomist, I have talked to my professors about the range of schools to which I should apply, but that was before I received my GRE scores, so they couldn’t be too terribly specific, but my major advisor strongly hinted that UVA would be a good match for me pending my GRE scores. I will be speaking with him as well as several others as soon as I arrive back on campus. Regarding George Mason, I have looked very carefully at them and have liked everything I’ve seen, but when I mentioned GMU to my advisor, he reacted badly. He didn’t use these words, but the idea of professional suicide seemed to be the idea he was trying to convey. Would going to GMU severely limit my professional options in either academia or the private sector? Thank you again for all of your help

Hello all; yet another lurker popping up to hopefully take advantage of the collective intelligence of this forum. I have checked this forum periodically over the past few years and have always been amazed at the amount of collective wisdom floating around, so I was hoping to partake of some of that wisdom in the form of a profile evaluation. I am neither dumb nor naïve enough to believe that I could compete with the talent I’ve seen for spots in top 10 programs (although, this is not to say that I don’t have some reaches). However, I do think that I have at least a shot at some 20-50 programs (however small that shot may be). I have a preliminary list of the schools to which I plan to apply, but I would greatly appreciate any insight anyone has as to which schools I should add to that list and/or which schools I should remove. My interests include IO, public econ, law and econ, and political economy. Unfortunately, not many schools (the kind that I can get into anyway) offer a formal field in law and econ, and even fewer even touch political economy as such. I also have some interest in health econ. I also had one additional question regarding recommendation letters. I am pretty sure of where two of them will come from, but as for the last I have 3 options, and I’m not sure which is best. First, I could ask for one from my social choice theory prof (PhD Maryland). Second, I could ask my linear algebra prof, but I’m not sure if econ depts would want to see a math prof recommendation or not. Finally, I could ask the professor for whom I have been a research assistant, but the caveat there is that she is a political science prof. Any insight into this conundrum would be helpful. If anyone needs further information in order to provide greater insight, I would be more than happy to provide such. Thank you very much in advance. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 30 national university according to US News Undergrad GPA: 3.93 Type of Grad: N/A Grad GPA: N/A GRE: 790(q), 650(v), 6.0(w) Math Courses: calc I (A), calc II (A), multivariable calc (A), linear algebra (A), intro stats (A), statistical methods (A)*, optimization theory (A)**, dynamical systems (A)**, real analysis (in progress at time of application), math stats I (in progress) Econ Courses: intro econ (A), micro I (A), micro II (A), macro (A), microeconomic models (A-)**, macroeconomic models (A)**, social choice theory (A), econometrics (in progress) Other Courses: minor in political science Letters of Recommendation: should be fairly solid: 1 from micro II and micro models prof (PhD Chicago), 1 from micro I prof (PhD Virginia, still deciding on the last one (see above) Research Experience: 1 year for political science prof (not terribly relevant) Teaching Experience: none Research Interests: IO, public econ, law and econ, political economy SOP: should be good???? Concerns: lack of relevant research experience, lack of graduate classes, I’m sure there are other things I’m not thinking of right now Schools (for now anyway): Reaches: Cornell, Duke, Virginia, Cal Tech, WUSTL; What I feel are possibilities for me: Georgetown, George Mason, Clemson, FSU, Notre Dame, Georgia, Kentucky: Safeties (I think these would be considered safeties for me, but I could be way off base): American, South Carolina *Statistical methods is the introductory stats class for math majors. Basically, you learn everything you would learn in a basic intro stats class, but you learn it on a deeper level. **All of these were half semester classes required of all mathematical economics majors. Optimization theory involved the basics of optimization in one, two, and multiple variables (the last ten minutes of the last day we talked about Kuhn Tucker restrictions if that helps explain the type of class and what was covered). Dynamical systems was basically an idiots guide to simple differential equations that may appear in simple models. Micro and macro models just introduced a few of the basics of economic modeling. Thanks again for your help.