yougotaparabola

Institution: BC Program:PhD, Economics Funding: typical package Declination date: 4/15/2010- Email

UT-Austin has a strong labor field that they are planning on further strengthening.

Thank you for your well thought out and considered opinion. I think you hit my position exactly and my impression of the departments. I like the smaller department at Rochester. The faculty seemed very open in their interactions with students and it seemed like even the more prominent guys there were available to their students. This contrasts with my impression of the larger class at UVA. There are, as you illustrated, a good group of theoreticians at Rochester. I also like the option of concentrating in political economy is not offered at all that many places. I think you provided another opinion that has served to solidify my impression that Rochester would likely work out well for me. Even though there isn't a direct match with my current interests, I wouldn't be remotely surprised to see those change. (Someone told me around 85-90% change what they want to study once they are in school.) Thanks again for your comments.

To be honest, the students seemed kind of depressed when I was down there and I am still not entirely confident that the department has its act together. I think they are hoping to move towards a more cohesive department but I don't think they are there yet. The student faculty interactions seemed stronger at other departments and I got the sense that at other schools, the environment seemed more nurturing.

I've been struggling between UVA (which would be better for development and other applied micro) and Rochester (which has the reputation and the placements history). Its a really tough decision. Also, most people change what they are likely going to study and i'm mildly concerned that I would ultimately want to do macro which would be Rochester. What are your thoughts on it?

The original intention of the post might have not been entirely clear. I understand that pure theoretical training is not necessarily the best training for applied work. I am currently in the process of deciding between a few schools. The highest ranked school was also the visit i enjoyed the most however I do not believe that it is a good fit for my interests as they stand right now. The intention of the post was thus to see what peoples thoughts were on doing micro theory in preparation of an applied micro career. It seems that most people are rather skeptical of the idea.

Thanks for the response. That makes sense, but I would also postulate that "If you do *** with a strong skillset in econometrics, you will never want for employment opportunities outside of academia" would likely be true...

I've decided I have a lot of questions that I don't really know the answer to. What do the majority of economics phds that work at either the WB or IMF focus on? I would imagine that the IMF recruits international finance or macro people while I could see the WB recruiting a diverse group of micro (micro credit individuals) and macro (infrastructure etc.) to work on a variety of projects. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

Hi All, I was curious if someone could enlighten me as to the advantage of studying applied micro as opposed to studying theoretical micro and then applying it to various situations. It seems like you would come out with a larger skill set that you can apply to multiple situations. Any thoughts? This might not be the most eloquently phrased question, but lets be serious, its two days to D-Day (decision day) and I've been up late thinking.

I am an American student and am likely to turn down the offer.

ignore my vote, i was just testing the voting thing, didn't mean to click vote.

I want to hear. No one has any news from them?

This is econ isn't it? Can't we just assume that we won't get sick?

Institution: UVA Program: Economics PhD Decision: Admit Funding: No information on the letter Notification date: 03/24 Notified through: randomly checked website Comments: Nice to have another option

I really appreciate having another perspective from UT. Thanks! I was, however, under the impression that Sandra Black was only visiting the department from UCLA?