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You said there aren't as many professors doing Political Economics at HBS, so if someone at the BusEc program wants to work on Political Economics, can he choose a professor at the Econ Dept as his advisor?

^ Thanks for your answer, LazyStudent. This thread is about HBS, so your answer is most appropriate and very helpful. You mentioned a little bit about 'theory' vs. 'finance'. That reminds me that I heard somewhere the BizEc is strong in Finance and Industrial Organization, compared to the normal Econ Dept? I would imagine someone who wants to do Political Economy for example would more likely to choose Econ Dept? In general, how do you compare the 2 programs, based on each field? When you said 'theory', did you mean things like Micro and Econometrics theory? How about applied Micro and applied Econometrics? Thanks much for all your inputs.

Since we are comparing the Harvard Econ dept w/ the HBS BizEc program - I would like to ask about this difference in the admissions process: the interview. I think interviews are unique to business schools and not to econ departments in general? Anyone can share what exactly is the business school interview all about? Is it for only finalists, or are there people who are admitted without an interview? What is the nature of an interview - deep? casual? technical? fit? The content? And the general ratio of admittance coming out of an interview?

By the way, you said you didn't go to a top school, yet already got recs from famous, and well-known profs. I think you should be all set then, even without further RAing?

OutOfGame asked the perfect question I think. If you want to do things related to policy and macro, the Fed might be a good option. However, if everything else the same, the top 5 RA position stands out for sure. The Fed economists are respectable, but in the academic world, the professors at a top 5 are surely more 'in the game'. People know them more, and they do work that is more similar to what you might do during grad school, and after if you stay in academia. Those things give much better signals to a potential school. I would go on to say too, that it is harder to land a top 5 RA position (especially if you come from a lower / different school) than a Fed position.

I actually have 2 questions: 1) In general, do you know if doing a full-time Research Assistant position, say for a professor under some grant, or in a program like NBER is ok for international people who need H1-B sponsorship? 2) If you are already on H1-b at a cooperation, is it ok to move to a lower paid RA position and transfer the H1-b?

Hi John, if you are still around - do you happen to have similar openings this year?

Bumping this thread. It was so great to have John List around here... I hope he'd still come back.

You can always submit everything first, then submit the updated transcript when you get it, right? It'll help but probably only marginally, so you still want to be early if possible, shouldn't hurt.

I think your school range is good. Within the range, I guess you'll have to decide to apply to how many schools, which ones... Maybe on location? Environment factors? Also, of course application fees as well... If you can tell your story to others, I think they'll listen. It's not like once something goes wrong you can never fix it. You have indicated that you have tried hard and are doing just fine, and it's meaningful.

If you are interested in derivatives and hedging, would you consider a Master in Finance too? I feel like PhD is a bit broader and less... practical than your topics of choice, most of the time.

On the other hand, a lot of CS departments (top ones, too, if that's what you are concerned about) do application works, and a lot of the applications are in business. That is probably more likely to be a good fit.

I think you answered your own question - it's a matter of match, too and not just ranking. If the top schools you apply for don't have anyone who shares your research interest then it's hard for them to admit you, and it'll be hard for you to choose the school later too.

May I ask why you went to a Stats Master after undergrad instead of applying straight to Finance/Econ? You were already a Math major in undergrad, so I assumed you were already well-prepared there. And Stats isn't exactly related to Finance / Econ unless you want to do Econometrics. A master takes time, and most likely costs money.

I thought Game Theory is more pure Econ than Finance? And what is IO?