morito14

Hey, Does anyone has the material of EC 2140 Spring 2012? I am particulary interested in lectures notes from GMM and Empirical likelihood and beyond. Help will be greatly appreciated.

Romer is the standard book for growth theory (ie, just the first chapters). I am agree that the rest of the book is not that used.

None, take Prob or Stat THEORY (those ones have usually a lot of multivariate calculus and a flavor of measure theory)

Yes, in the US football is different than in UK. Just kidding. I guess the main differences are funding, classmates and TAships. Also, maybe the size of the Econ Dept too.

I would ask you a question Natalia, do you really want to do a PhD in Econ? For what I can infer from your GRE math score, it looks like you don't want to study math. Econ PhD is a lot of math, are you willing to study crazy math? If so, study for the GRE, retake it, do some research in the meanwhile, and apply again next cycle.

Dido in both points

One thing that it might be important is the grade scale. In ITAM is 0-10 with one decimal, i.e., you can have 9.4. So you have to be aware that you will be more likely competing with top latinoamerican guys, most (all?) of them looking for a good PhD. In the US you usually have A or B, the ITAM grade scale is harder. So, if CEMFI is less competitive and you can be better ranked over there (specially between those looking for a PhD), that is something to consider.

I will consider CERGE-EI , beautiful city! How you can argue with that when you see the building and city where you might be studying

Of course I don't mind (after all, that is the spirit of TM, to share information). I am kind of a mix, latinamerican student with a BS degree from my home country and now I am doing a MS in the US. You are probably aware of Melissa Dell's opinion (the link is somewhere here in TM). On the other hand, I have a very good American friend (he was on my university last year) that is currently in Oxford doing a MS (not Econ). About the university, he has not but great words about it. He told me that he just misses basketball (especially college basketball, we did it kind of good this year). Also, he is not that comfortable with people not taking care of poo dog. Besides that, he is extremely happy with Oxford and the intellectual atmosphere. The last point is something that it would probably be hard to find in my university (top 20ish, top 30ish in econ). In my own experience, it is hard to find that kind of atmosphere here. I have found some econ grad students in the US very mathematically brilliant, but not that aware of international problems, or some other topic besides math/econ. Probably that is because Econ is becoming more and more math and less psychology, philosophy. In some degree, I am a statistician but sometimes that much math sophistication just bores me. Anyway, long way to say, that perhaps I am waiting from something different in Oxford. Getting back to your point, lots of US friends (even Econ's) are very exiting (maybe more than me) about Oxford. They already ask me for a Oxford hoodie. Also paraphrasing my American friend in Oxford, the degree of amazement is greater for Oxford than for Harvard in the US. Of course, I will never say that econ departments are even comparable. But the name and the reputation is just something huge here.

All mexicans students in top universities comes from ITAM (either the undergrads or the M.S. in econ theory). You want to make sure that the master you are pursuing is the econ theory, not just the econ. By what you are saying I think you are admitted into the econ theory. This master is highly competitive but if you do well you can be in a well-known PhD program. Good luck

Yeap, you are right on that. However, I think it is important in the sense of living experience (which I am guessing is excellent in Oxford). The college is the place in which probably we will live 2 years (4 maybe?), so not worried but intrigued about it. So, it was a tough choice between UVA and Oxford, right? I guess I was in a similar situation as you. Have you been in Oxford? It is really a shame that they don't have an open day.

Congrats! Do you already have a college? It seems that it may take forever...

I think it would be great to get to know other TM'ers who are going to Oxford. So we can share information, we can worry together about how late the college decisions are made, and so on. :grad:

VT applied econ department has great people. You must consider yourself lucky if you get into that program.

Interesting point. I would like to notice two points: *the article was written in Melissa Dell's last MPhil semester. *looking at her CV, she has a American Economic Review paper in 2009 (most likely a version of her MPhil thesis, unless she had so much sparse time during her first year on MIT -which is possible since the 2 coautors are both MIT guys) It would be interesting to know what is her current opinion. When she wrote the article, she compare Harvard undergrad experience (mostly life style) to Oxford grad experience. How she would compare MIT grad experience vs Oxford grad experience? She is brilliant, and I am sure she would been accepted in MIT directly from undergrad. But, did she get and edge from being in Oxford? Definitely something to consider, especially for me since I am now in the American system and I got an admission to Oxford. If I decide to move towards Oxford, I promise to give my opinion in 2 years (which maybe interesting since I am an international student with a MS in USA).