EconForeThought

Who's going to Berkeley ARE this year? Welcome!

Crazy good deal on a Refurb Dell XPS Go here and click on check prices. Click on the $549 option which is a Dell XPS loaded with Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 processor (6MB Cache, 2.8GHz) Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium XPS 8300 1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM) 6 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz, (2X2G/2X1G) 16X DVD +/- RW Drive $549 is a good price, but enter the code 309R05JS4FVV3Z to get $100 off and make it $449!!!

Getting back to the original parameters of the problem, the OP asked for a quality laptop. Maybe s/he does not have a desk to plunk a PC on, or maybe s/he prefers the "carry-it-all-with-you" aspect of having a portable PC (though Dropbox and probably iCloud save the day on this). We could get into it all day about AMD v Intel, but I think the latter is beginning to run away with it in the CPU department, though I am glad AMD is around to keep them honest. Also, there was a deal a few months ago for the older generation i7s for $180. Here is a benchmark rundown: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html#

Yep. But be warned: the STATA interface in Mac is funky in my opinion. It puts the command prompt, output window, do file window all separate so sometimes it is hard to find what you are looking for. I prefer the windows UI for STATA.

Well this is my personal #1

#1 law of slickdeals: Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Right now I have a 3 year old macbook and a 6 month old lenovo thinkpad edge. Anyways, if you think a windows PC is the way to go, I would get a toshiba satellite or a lenovo thinkpad. These are fairly heavy (~5lb). If you get a higher end model, it will last you four years. There's a back to school promo where if you spend >=699 on a laptop, you get a free xbox 360, which you can sell on ebay if you want. Buy a PC and Get a Free Xbox 360 If you want a mac, I think you cannot go wrong with the Macbook pro. If you hold off until september/october, they are going to release a sandybridge i5 macbook air, which will be an ultraportable (~2.5lb) heavyweight (SSD, newest gen, low wattage processor). If you don't want to wait, you can get $100 at the app store in addition to student savings on the air. Buy a mac, get $100 at app store SLICKDEALS (http://slickdeals.net/deals/) is always a good place to find tech deals.

Bruce Hansen's Econometrics is an amazing book for first year PhD metrics.

But Berkeley IS on the semester system; they are the only UC that is.

Well, it's not what got me interested at first, but it really has driven my interest lately: "resolving" Solow's sustainability-poverty paradox From Sustainability: an Economist's Perspective

Some schools have SHAZAM servers you can use. We have: RUNSHAZAM HOME PAGE

Interesting. UC Davis Econ Dept has a policy of just above C+ averages in their core courses, B- in their other upper division courses: "To ensure fairness and consistency in grading, the Department expects that the GPA in Economics 1A, 1B, 100, 101, and 102 will average 2.4. For example, a distribution with 20% A's, 30% B's, 30% C's, 10% D's, and 10% F's could be consistent with an overall GPA of 2.4. In more advanced courses the GPA is typically somewhat higher (2.7)." Department of Economics In my program, pretty much every class was curved to make B- the average.

Davis summer isn't a picnic either, but East Coast humidity is probably worse.:yuck:

^Good choice. I'll be an hour away :D Any lurkers out there going to UCB, give me a shout!

UC Berkeley ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That should not be a problem ikt.

Congratulations!!! As for Davis housing, I'll just say it is nice to live within a mile of campus because it makes for a short bike commute. If I had to choose, I would say that east Davis would probably be the optimal location. Prices are about 1800 for a 3BR, so if you are willing to share a place with two others, it is well do-able within the grad student stipend.

Dan Phaneuf is coming to UC Davis tomorrow to talk about the effect of water quality on recreational activity. Should be interesting! P.S. Congrats to Valelee

I would agree on UW given the funding is there.

A big congrats to SubEffect on NSF and Berkeley!

"We regret to inform you..." I can't access the reviewer comments as it was directed by the e-mail. There is no "View/Print Application Reviews" link. Anyone have luck finding the reviews?

Type of Undergrad: B.S. in Managerial Economics and an Ag/Bio subject from a UC school Undergrad GPA: 3.35, 3.65 in econ Type of Grad: M.S. Agricultural and Resource Economics from a UC School Grad GPA: 3.8 GRE: 780Q, 560V, 4.5AWA Math Courses: Calculus I-III, Linear Algebra, Adv Calc (RA I), RAII, 3 Stats courses Econ Courses (PhD-level): Probability Theory, Metrics I (IP at application) Econ Courses (masters-level): Micro Theory I, Micro II (IP at application) Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intro to Micro/Macro, Inter Macro/Micro, Marketing, Metrics, Optimization, Production Management, Real Estate Econ, Econ Sustainability, Finance I,II, Accounting I,II Other Courses: Many agricultural, biosci, chem, etc. classes Letters of Recommendation: 1UC Davis ARE, 1 U Minn, 1 NCSU Research Experience: Geology research, Wine sensory RA, ARE GSR for two qtrs now Teaching Experience: None Research Interests: Ag econ, Resource/energy Econ, Sustainability, IO, Micro ... SOP: Rewriting from last year Concerns: Not as much math as many, low overall UG GPA, applying with only a quarter's of M.S. grades in Other: Applied to and got into 3 PhD programs and 1 M.S. program last cycle. One year M.S. and reapplying this cycle. RESULTS: Attending: UC Berkeley ARE Acceptances: UC Berkeley ARE, U Colorado Econ, U Minn Applied Econ Rejections: U Wash Econ, U Maryland AREc, Cornell AEM, UCSD (implied) Withdrawn: UC Davis ARE What would you have done differently? Not be pre-med starting college and know I wanted to do econ from the beginning, but hindsight is 20/20. I got into my dream school (this year with funding) so that regret isn't really a big deal for me in terms of acceptances, more in terms of that I wish I had more math and statistics in my core curriculum. I believe getting my masters really helped me this cycle in terms of securing funding and getting a better math foundation.

Not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this, guys. This is the grad school admissions forum, and this thread has devolved into red v blue. Maybe you should take it up at the podium?

Institution: UMD AREc Program: PhD Ag and Resource Economics Decision: Rejected Funding: n/a Notification date: 4/1 Notified through: email Posted on GC: No Comments: Do not care one ounce :)

Government "shutdown" might have an impact. I hope it doesn't, though :(