hedgehogging

Hi, I was wondering if there's a PhD student here who is skilled in the field of money lotteries? It's a field I spent less time on and need a bit of help with solving one problem, which does not seem all that complex, but perhaps I am just braindead from all the pre-exam practice on other subjects. Please PM me if anyone has time at this point (I know it's exam period for everyone). Thanks a lot.

Hi Giova, There is nothing to prevent you from applying to a PhD with only your undergrad results available- many people do that. The only issue is, of course, that your results have to be very strong if you are aiming for the top universities. I agree with most things you say about both of the courses - the thesis in LSE is a fairly minor thing. But thereagain, you will do your Oxford thesis in your final year, so it will not help you much when you apply. Regarding LSE being hard. The only issue is - the exam marking is quite weird. You can be expecting a fail, and may end up with a first, or the other way around. It's weird like that and you really have to write what the teachers want. I can not comment for Oxford about this. The courses on their own can be hard, if you choose hard ones, but you can always go for one or two easy options which will lower the workload. Good luck with deciding and message me if you have any questions!

I would go to LSE if I had those choices - it's a one year programme, which will allow you to place well and will give you good knowledge as well as exposure to London's job market. Oxford has a very strong programme and in my belief it is the only school that can compete with LSE in terms of faculty (in UK), however, it is two years.. I would not go to Bocconi personally, I have worked with people who are graduates of Bocconi and was not impressed by their knowledge, however I am not closely familiar with the programme and am opinionated due to my previous exposure, thus can not comment here. EDIT: furthermore, in terms of placing, you will need to apply to US before the masters starts, pretty much, if you go for a one year programme...

Which school would you go to, if granted admission to all of these? What are the benefits of each? I guess the top question is Harvard vs Stanford as usual.

I would disagree also regarding the step down to warwick. You do not necessarily have to stay at LSE - what if you want a change after all?

The typical reply to this question for me was that you will be able to focus on finance within the econ programme and be supervised by the GBS faculty.

The guys on the programme organisation committee are very good - to have the chairman of RAS, who is likely to be one of the most respected academicians in Russia if not the most, says a lot - in terms of mathematics, the Steklov institute is recognised as a world leader and the MSU faculty of computational mathematics is among the most prestigious faculties in Russia. I can not say much in favour of the quality of economic education in Russia, however, the quality and depth of mathematics will be exceptional.

What worries me is people debating going to MIT/Harvard/Berkeley over Chicago, when not faced with that situation.

Oxford DPhil is a fairly good course. You can fall back on any department within the university, and you can, if you wish switch to DPhil straight econ, if you do well. It's a very broad and interesting course - I think that it will serve you well on the job market.

Being on the topic of grading etc. How does a first class honours (undergrad) and distinction (grad) compare to the US GPA system? The reason I ask is that, for example with some of my courses based on essays, the maximum mark they strictly give is 74%. And given that a first class is 70+ getting that is pretty much like getting 70/74 - but noone really knows that :s

Joint JD/PhD. Does seems interesting. Also take a really long time, but I guess that's not an issue...

Lots of people at Oxford/LSE do it... Although I can not define "lots" - I know of three or four in each this year and similar numbers last year.

Hey, thanks for the advice. I will certainly look at those unis - I'm currently thinking of the LSE quite seriously as well as they time series and general metrics research is said to be really top notch. Also - one of my profs went to Wisconsin-Madison, and talks really highly of it. I guess there's still time to think over this and talk about it to my profs. Thanks for the comments everyone.

Hey, thanks for the reply. It's not that I'm interested in getting in to the most prestigious programme - of course that would be a plus. I guess for me the issue is that I discovered statistics fairly late, and one key aspect of it I enjoy is that you can apply it to so many different fields I have not explored before. Econometrics just seems to be one of my particular strength right now, in which I know I am fairly interested, but the issue is that I feel I can not say I would not be as interested in biostatistics over that. I was thinking of applying for both stats and econ programmes - if I went for econ, my dream school would probably be Yale, because of the Cowles foundation, which is at the forefront of metric research. As for stats, it's probably UC Berkeley. What worries me is that for stats, people with Physics, maths etc majors will be applying and I may be at a big disadvantage, just because my education was focused on one field to which stats is applied.

Hi, I'm new here, I'm currently an econ student at one of the top UK unis. I am facing a slight dilemma. Over the past 3 years of education I've realised I'm interested in all the mathematical aspects of econ - econometrics, the stats behind it and so on, and I've been thinking about trying to apply for a Stats PhD. How do you think my profile would look with respect to other candidates applying, and do you think it's at all worth trying? Do you think I have a greater chance for an Econ PhD (econometrics focus) or a Stats PhD at the top unis? Degree: BSc Economics (first class honours) Maths and metrics courses: Statistics Theory (85%) Mathematical Methods (80%) Linear Algebra (90%) Real Analysis (90%) Econometrics Principles (75%) Advanced Econometrics (90%) Mathematics in Economics (90%) [These courses are not semester courses - they are all one year long, and we only take 4-5 courses a year. Real analysis for example, covers a broad selection of topics beyond the level of Rubin, and includes Topology & Metric Spaces, Measure theory etc.] My econ grades are not quite at the level of my maths grades, but at the lowest level A- equivalent. I've taken Econ Foundations, Micro, Macro, Corporate Finance, Quant Finance etc. GRE: 800-560-5.5 RA/TA experience: I have some RA experience for an engineering prof, where I did some statistical modelling for his work, and some econometrics experience. I also worked as a quant for a small hedge fund that does stat arb. In terms of teaching, we can't really do that at my uni, but I've done some tutoring for final year school students in maths, further maths, and econ and have conducted seminars for the maths society. I would be grateful for any advice, as it will help me decide on what to do next.