jofujino

I gotta agree with you. I'm not the most knowledgable but considering past cycles records on TM I don't think you have a shot at top 10 and only a very slim shot at 10-15. Still considering you went to a pretty good undergrad it seems reasonable to try for Duke Michigan and some UCs. I don't know much but it has been mentioned that for some schools you aren't allowed to apply to more than one graduate school program. Is UCLA cool with that? Also what are your spouse's areas of interest? It might help us make some suggestions. For example for IO, game theory and applied micro I think there are better safeties than UC Irvine, such as Iowa or ASU, which I think are strong in those.

Mankiw's recently wrote something I'd like to call economist's irony that I found so good I thought I'd share it here for people who normally don't read Mankiw's blog: Friday, September 10, 2010 A Dastardly Clever Scheme At a faculty lunch yesterday, I heard about an ingenious scheme used by some universities in New York, where much rental housing is rent controlled. Here are the three key elements, as it was described to me by one of my colleagues: 1. The university buys a rent-controlled building. The purchase price is low, because the existing landlord cannot make much money renting it. 2. The university then rents the apartments to its own senior faculty, who view this as a great perk. In essence, the difference between the free-market rent and the controlled rent is a form of compensation for the professor. As a result, the university can reduce the professor's cash compensation by an equivalent amount. The university is effectively earning the market rent for the apartment. 3. But it gets even better. The implicit rental subsidy is a form of non-taxed compensation. Normally, if an employer gives an employee a perk like this, the subsidy is taxable income (unless the perk is deemed a working condition required to do the job, like a hotel manager living in a hotel). But here, the university can claim there is no subsidy: It is only charging what the rent-control law requires. Because of this tax treatment, the implicit subsidy is worth even more to the professor than the equivalent cash compensation. This fact allows the university to reduce the professor's cash compensation by an even greater amount. Thus, the university effectively earns even more than the free-market rent on a real estate investment purchased much lower than the free-market price would have been. In the end, the goal of the rent control laws is thwarted (the low rents are enjoyed by well-paid tenured faculty rather than the needy), the income tax laws are thwarted (a sizable part of compensation is untaxed), and all this is done by a nonprofit institution (the university) whose ostensible purpose is to serve the public interest. Seems like a pretty cool idea for getting around funding graduate students as well...

burp!

mankiw (no idea who Klinsmann is but this came to mind)

Your reasons for not wanting to retake it (i.e. laziness) may seem normal at the undergrad level, but if you're shooting for graduate studies, even MA, you need to quickly know how to switch into a higher gear as often as six times a week. Considering the workload you'll shoulder once you hit grad school, don't kid yourself, and consider your study time to retake the GRE as practice giving up your social life, which you are essentially doing by applying for Grad school.

One shortcoming I noticed at my university with using Stats to substitute for Undergraduate metrics is that my stats class was entirely theoretical. However, my metrics class involved some computer work (they used excel and E-views). Admittedly, if you take the Stats and do undergrad research and end up familiarizing yourself with something like Stata then you'll be much better off in the long run anyway.

Hi, just wondering how common is it to take a gap year, and what do you think are options that would make it worth it? For example, what work experiences might or might not provide enough benefit and in what ways (+ for apps or + in personal guidance on what to do in the future).

bengali

Thanks everyone for your feedback.:D

Hi, I have a choice between a class next semester in partial differential equations and statistical inference (already have one rigorous statistics course and ODE course). Initially I thought another stats course would be better but I'm wondering if certain areas of specialization would heavily use PDE's. Also, in your opinion do you think it would be easier to self-study the statistics (Sampling and parameter estimation, tests of hypotheses, correlation, regression, analysis of variance, sequential analysis, rank order statistics) or the PDE (Integral surfaces and characteristics of first and second order partial differential equations. Applications to the equations of mathematical physics). Also, I do realize the best choice would be to take both, but if all goes well I'll be a little busy tackling Advanced Calculus (it's what my school calls Real Analysis II) and Advanced Micro and Econometrics. I figure part of being smart is knowing my limit which I'm probably stretching as it is.

I go to UH as an undergrad and I find the faculty are never hard to see and helpful but busy. However, all their placements tend to be to the asian pacific region. A lot of the graduate students in fact are international students who go back to their home countries in Asia or the pacific region and get, it seems to me, an even split of those who work in universities and in business. Also, I would watch out because it seems to me that UH has a longer time to completion than most other universities (although that may be because they are more generous about giving time off??). Still, there are plenty of pros when it comes to lifestyle because nothing can beat the weather and even though you're too busy to go to the beach I think the people here have a welcoming spirit (aloha spirit?) that extends from the hotels all the way up to the classrooms and offices of my professors. P.S. If your research interest is related to Asian economies one resource that people usually don't take into account is the East-West Center, which is right next door. Many of my professors are hired to do research by them occasionally and they also seem to fund a number of fellowships for graduate students. Not sure if this improves their networking, but I imagine it can't hurt.