claphands

I wonder if i met any of you yesterday anyone sit in on the trade seminar?

According to my finance professor (a penn econ grad), you know someone is from penn if they turn everything into a bellman.

just want to add that colorado is bringing in a junior development faculty: http://siepr.stanford.edu/peopleprofile/3151 and a senior or junior energy/environment economist of some sort (not sure who has been hired for the later)

I am at Colorado and I would concur that we outperform relative to our ranking in trade, environmental, and to a lesser extent development.

Nice, thanks for the link. Always surprising when there are quality EJMR threads

At the end of your PHD, the econ job market Reflects from an Emory PHD placed at San Diego State (2006) http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~hfoad/memoirs.pdf Michigan PHD to Stony Brook (2012) Noahpinion: How I survived the Economics Job Market AEA Job market advice: http://www.aeaweb.org/joe/articles/2011/job_market_guide.pdf Economists who want to enter the polisci market Economics PhDs and the political science job market | Chris Blattman

I would say it seriously narrows down the departments where would consider spending your time downloading faculty CVs. There aren't really any great field rankings though, so we are stuck with what we have. Alternatively, one could play with https://econtop.uvt.nl/rankingsandbox.php . See which schools publish the most in the journals that most interest you.

Field Rankings at IDEAS: International Trade (9th in US, 13th worldwide) Rankings: Trade & Development (20th worldwide) http://openeconomicsnd.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/grijalva-nowell.pdf (12th in US) but field rankings are a crapshoot

A fun way to learn Python to do economics. Computational Economics I used this to get down the basics

Did not like this textbook. While learning probability from it was somewhat helpful for heading into the first year curriculum, I assume a math stats course would have been better prep

whether or not the programs are different, dphil = phd

Just a quick comment about your LORs: letter from non economists/mathematicians are basically worthless as a third letter. I specifically asked a grad secretary at a top 25 about getting one from a policy phd who was a thesis advisor for my personal "soft major" (an MA as well) and she said that given I studied my "soft major" it would signify that I didn't really know what I was getting into edit: also if this is helpful to you, here is my profile and results from last year, coming from a non-econ "soft major" background http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/130345-profiles-results-2011-a-5.html#post857437

To echo the rest: First year micro/macro use optimization theory heavily. so at least for preparation, I assume that course would be the best.

2/3 my first semester at a top50ish, exhausted and performing barely above the median. so so exhausted

at my top 50ish school those with analysis were in the minority

Colorado

Yeah they are. Before he handed back our first midterms today he gave a drawn out lecture about how grades don't matter too much making everyone's stomachs lurch uncontrollably

Boileau also has a "child's guide to optimal control theory." Fits with his attitude, but I like him a lot as a prof

fixed

This thread is particularly funny considering the user's first post: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/135383-transfer-program-ranked-40ish-northwestern-u-c.html

two points: 1) I am very theoretically sympathetic to heterodox theory/methods/approach to research. When I started on my path down the road to the phd my goal was to go to UMass and I figured I would go there if accepted over all but the best mainstream programs. However, I was accepted there and I ended up deciding to go to a mainstream program that is borderline top 50. While the reasons I chose this were complicated, the academic reason was this: keeping doors open and the belief that I could make a mainstream program fit my interests more easily than I could make a heterodox phd marketable. I am realizing now that I was probably very wrong in thinking that I could find ways to be trained in broader methods even at a mainstream school: there is shockingly little pluralism in my modern macro theory training and it is likely that will not change. this is much more stark than I had expected. However I am learning the methods and language used by the discipline, and - as in all disciplines - you must speak and read that code in order to participate in the academic discussions and to be taken seriously. Most heterodox programs don't train you that way and even if they do, most departments assume that they don't, seriously limiting your post-PHD job prospects. I spoke to two UMass grads who said that was a very real concern even though they did not regret going to UMass. I think in retrospect (though I'm only a brutal month or so in) I would have still made the same choice to go to the mainstream program. What you chose will depend ultimately on your own priorities. 2) Even at heterodox programs you need formal math. Linear algebra, calculus, and statistics will be very helpful and likely necessary for you in your training at any school. Linear algebra is especially important. What is usually less important is analysis, as your average heterodox economist isn't striving to emulate pure math in such a way that you would need to be adept at proofs. Fred Lee at UMKC specifically recommends: "Finally, a student should have at the minimum two courses in calculus and more importantly a course in linear algebra, but an additional course in linear algebra or numerical analysis would also be highly desirable" in addition to a background in history and methodology. I don't know the mechanics of MMT, but reading other "heterodox" macro theory (if one considers the so-called 'post-walrasian' movement heterodox) one certainly needs strong math maturity (to read and write theory) and a very strong foundation in differential calculus.

1) yes, insofar as it makes it easier to offer you funding at certain places (especially TA funding) 2) also yes

SOAS is probably considered the gold standard The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) - University of London

Muphry's law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In terms of age, fyi, the majority of my 15 person incoming cohort at a top 50ish school is 25+ and there are at least three over 30