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Econ2011

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Econ2011 last won the day on April 4 2013

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  1. I thought I would share this with folks - remember that this is a developing story and I have no basis to judge one way or the other. However, I think it is important for people interested in the program to know what is going on with the department. Huge Grievance---UT-Austin Economics Department terminates PhD candidates arbitr « Economics Job Market Rumors Yours, Old dude!
  2. I think it is very encouraging that hkke decided to join urch forum to help students make better decisions and to provide more information on where Rice is heading. However, I am surprised that hkke considers this to be a "classic risk-return trade off." In this instance, there is an alternative that is likely not inferior even with all the upside potential to Rice. One thing I will say though is that classmates will have a substantial influence in the learning experience. I am going to defer to hkke and others here to make a judgment as to which program attracts a better pool of candidates.
  3. Do not underestimate the difficulty of getting into top public policy programs. Most people applying to top policy schools do have good credentials - many would have taken PhD level (or have completed pure econ masters) courses during their masters program and excelled on those. One of the issues with some of the policy schools is that they only have a few slots every year and thus, it gets competitive. In addition, if you feel that you are qualified, you might be able to take econ courses from econ department (I know Harris used to allow it) although from policy perspective, I think you will get sufficient exposure to micro, political economy, and econometrics from policy school PhD courses and more theory is probably not necessary if you are into applied work. Finally, my worry with your qualifications is that you are from a MPP program - very different in strengths when compared to pure econ masters. So, you might be at a disadvantage for Econ Phd at top 20 schools.I would throw tons of applications in the 30-50 range if you still want to focus on Econ Phd. Also, get in touch with students from the top policy schools and get a sense of how the program is and what their strengths are.
  4. Wow....absolutely ridiculous series of posts. I haven't seen this in a long time in this forum. I just have one suggestion to the OP: this is a voluntary forum and take suggestions from people with a grain of salt. You cannot demand answers/suggestions from people - if they don't answer it, they probably either don't know enough or just don't want to answer it. Resorting to personal attacks is not going to help and I believe that you will regret it at some point and probably laugh about it down the years (if you still visit this site then). I have found this forum to be really helpful during my own application process and I managed to ride along the painful process by reading different stories here. Sometimes, criticisms are the most helpful of all comments. Hope you will also see the better side of this forum. And, please don't down-vote this - I have been here for far too long to get a down-vote. It is like giving your grandpa a kick on the b*** : )
  5. My intention is to help you succeed. As someone who went through a pretty good research experience but a few sketchy math grades, I can only offer you suggestions that I feel make sense. I could be very wrong on this but at the end of the day, higher spread will help you land a few funded offers (I hope). Its a human nature to feel good with positive feedback but be open to negative criticisms because they are likely to be helpful than positive ones which make you feel good but may not necessarily help you in the long run.
  6. Not sure if I am reading the same profile as everyone else here but I feel that they are being optimistic for you. A minor in math with a GPA of 3.4 is a red flag for me for a top 30 program. Although I see good grades for some higher level math courses, I would still be concerned. Add to it the quality of your school (I don't know)-have they sent people to econ Phd programs? If they have, how do they rate you? If they haven't, it will get even tougher. My suggestion would be a large number of schools in the 50-70 range with some in the 30-50 range. Also, evaluations based on past profiles are misleading - I see the quality of students going up every year.
  7. I wanted to say something but I gave up after the first paragraph. I think you need to think about two things: 1. How to write questions/experiences in 1/2 sentences - you definitely need this skill if you want a PhD. 2. Seek advice from your professors - then come up with 1/2 questions that are still on your mind.
  8. If I were you, I would not listen to much of the advice given earlier, except for one which mentioned about poor econ grades. You can make all sorts of excuses but if you are consistently getting grades less than an A in econ, there is something wrong and the programs are smart enough to notice that. I am not sure how your recommendation writer can defend those econ grades. I expect them to defend 1/2 grades- not the whole econ performance (I would question their credibility if they do it). Remember that math is only a tool that grad econ programs use - your econ intuition is very important. The ability to frame a problem is more important than actually solve a problem - you have all the tools in the world to solve once you write the problem. My advice is that you follow up with the programs and get some feedback (my hunch is that they will all point to your econ grades) - you may not always get it but when I applied, some faculty members provided me reasons for why I wasn't admitted. Of course, you should have been in their radar for that to happen. This means that if you were close to getting admission, the faculty in the admissions committee probably remember you. In addition, I would seriously consider taking some graduate econ courses to prove that you can actually do well in graduate econ programs - being good at math is simply not enough! I am not going to suggest you the range of schools because I just don't believe that you are ready for graduate econ program at this point. I hope that you will not take this post negatively because I genuinely want the best for you but some of the advice you are given here isn't going to help you much. Last, this is just my opinion - so, take it with a grain of salt.
  9. I haven't been active here in a while. However, your situation reminds me of my own days from the past and I thought I would give my honest opinion here. 1. Check the comment by tm_member about the history of sending students to phd programs - I believe it is the key information for international students. 2. Some of the things you mentioned make me shake my head a bit: 2a. You mentioned that you are 22 and yet you have 3 years of consulting experience. I would question your experience out there. Was it any substantial work? 2b. I would question the Professor of intro to econ for your teaching experience - if they are letting you teach undergrad econ, even if it is an intro class - I have doubts on the program credibility. 3. Sometimes, the recommendations may not be what they meant to write, especially if they aren't proficient in English language. They may not realize the difference between saying "he is one of the best I have seen in my 10 years of teaching" vs "he is an excellent student". Trust me, even those graduating from US programs regularly make these mistakes. Comparing you to students in the program they went to or others they have sent in the past (more relevant) would give a basis for comparison. 4. Math background may not be clear to the people at the admissions. Perhaps, you should have your LORs shed some light on that. You may be a genius but when all programs reject, it is not random (although a theoretical possibility, it is unlikely to happen in reality). Do not listen to people who sympathize because the people at the admissions certainly won't. If I were you, I would certainly expand the range. If you get into the top 20/30 programs and end up being the best student in those programs, you will get a better placement vs. getting into a top 10 program and being average or below average in class ranking. In any case, do not lose hope. Wish you the best! Life is tough when you have to adjust plans but that is exactly how you grow. At least, I have!
  10. Always give them an opportunity to say NO. One person I worked with for 6 months said s/he does not believe s/he has enough information to write a good letter. Instead, offered me an hour long meeting to discuss my options, and way to approach PhD admissions. S/he also asked me to get strong letters from unknown people than lukewarm letters from people like him/her. Getting someone to write could be a mistake if they are not honest to you and agree to write so as not to sound rude. Note, s/he is a big name professor at a big name school.
  11. The reputation of your school and your recommendation writers will be the key since your background is excellent. If the school is not known to send students to graduate programs, then it is likely your recommendation writers will be unknown. Plus, if you were coming from a competitive school with As, it makes a whole lot difference. If you know your recommendation writers have been sending students to PhD programs, you have an excellent chance. I know many who went to lower ranked schools but considered feeder schools (and professors had a basis to evaluate applicants) resulting in excellent PhD program admissions. "Teaching Experience: I have taught Math 101 (introductory algebra) at my school for the past two semesters. " Your school actually allows students to teach math courses (like in you run the classes, prepare exams, and grade students?)? Or did you mean tutor? Have you already graduated with a bachelors degree and now taking graduate courses?
  12. Two things: a) It is common to not have publications when you go to job market. b) UG publications will not hurt but if you talk too much about them, your focus on it could. If you think some of your empirical papers (which is a common thing for UG publications, unless you are a genius and work on a new method early in your age) are so great that you deserve a place in a graduate program, it could hurt - it shows that you do not understand all that much about PhDs. This is weird in the sense that many PhDs go on to do similar things but still it is better not to emphasize too much on publications. One should talk a bit about investing time to do honors thesis, what you learned in the process etc etc. and move on. Of course, disclaimer - this is just my opinion and based on my own experience.
  13. Have you published it as a working paper somewhere? While my own experience was that there is very little in feedback you receive from such a process, you never know. If there are people interested in your area of research, they might have valuable suggestions. Often, people not working with you have the best of suggestions as they look at it from a totally different perspective. In either case, good luck!
  14. I am not sure what makes you think the private sector would be that easy, especially with the way supply of economists has increased. Case in point, at my econ consulting firm, we've rejected PhDs from Stanford, Princeton, Cornell, JHU and so forth. It is extremely competitive at top consulting firms. My own experience is that the rigor of the analysis has increased substantially as well with so many consulting firms trying to pick the latest methods to look into outcomes. Many professors who are affiliates of these firms are also big names from top econ/business econ programs.
  15. Agree with this. Mistakes can happen. Having worked with a few professors, I have to say that the process of auditing results/methods in academia may not be rigorous (of course, this could be my experience, and only my experience). In the industry, there is a high degree of accountability required (I am leaving the ethics behind) because of corporate money and legal repercussions. Perhaps, some of the current graduate students can shed some lights on how their programs are audited and or results reviewed?
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