bholly

The autocorrect features on this forum are seriously awful. Changing 'p.p.l' into 'humanoids' or whatever it is annoying enough (does that do anything except confuse?), but now it's changing 'L.O.R.' into 'letter of recommendation' so I have 'an letter of recommendation' everywhere making me look like an idiot. Who does this stuff? Did the forum really have a problem with 'L.O.R.' being ambiguous or needing to be constantly explained? I certainly don't remember anyone having any non-trivial issue with it. Or is it just a matter of someone with autocorrect powers finding themselves with a hammer and going looking for anything to use as a nail? Edit: added dots into the things that were being autocorrected because I'm an idiot and didn't think about the fact that they'd be autocorrected out of this post, too.

I've been meaning to post about this at some point, so I guess this is as good a place as any. Firstly, I think just about every school I applied to requires you to note whether you'd applied before, and when, and requires at least one (in some cases more) new LOR writers. Many say they will keep your stuff on file for a year and consider it during your future applications. At least some actually do. In particular, I had an LOR from a prof at a top-10 that I was rejected at twice. The second time he was a little shocked and went to the adcom head and asked what the deal was. He was told that his letter lost a lot of weight because, while strong like the previous one, it didn't reference my previous application (nor his previous letter). They wanted to know not only that I was a good candidate, but that I was a better candidate than the one they'd rejected previously, and what I'd done to make myself a better candidate. He had just assumed that it'd make no difference that I'd applied before and didn't mention it, which they didn't like. I took that on board and made a point of differentiating my applications the third time around - mentioning very early in my SOP that I'd applied before but felt like I could get better results, and specifically saying what I'd done in the year since to improve my application, preparation, etc. I also used the same letter writer again (along with three others, two of them new - again to help differentiate from the previous applications). I also genuinely improved my profile a bunch, so I don't know how much was that and how much was the different SOP/LOR approach, but I was accepted to three top-10 schools that I'd been rejected from twice before, including my prof's. It's one case, and not certain evidence of anything, but I think I'd be pretty comfortable advising people not to just outright ignore the fact that they've applied in the past, especially at schools that state that they keep your records.

Actually, yeah, if you aren't getting financial support from the T30 then maybe they/you aren't bound by the CGS agreement - the wording is a little hazy, but that's probably the way it is.

Are the schools signatories to the CGS agreement? The list of schools is here: http://www.cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGS_Resolution.pdf If they are, and you accepted a funded offer from the Top 50, then according the the rules of that agreement your Top 30 offer has to be conditional on you getting a written letter of release from the Top 50. So if you get the govt scholarship and want to go to the Top 30, the only option I see is to be honest with the Top 50 and hope that they're either really nice and understanding, or turned off enough by you that they decide they'd rather not have you and let you go. I have no idea how likely either is in practice.

Just how much money is ND offering? Are we talking Yale levels or something?

I don't know anything about immigration issues - sorry!

I don't know anything about the specifics, so take this with a grain of salt, but in theory, if B is a signatory to the CGS resolution then you should be able to withdraw in writing before April 15th. It might not be the best scenario for B, but that's sort of what they get for requiring your response earlier than the 15th. Maybe there are more details I'm unaware of, though, so I'll leave it to others who're more clued in to verify this.

Institution: Northwestern Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Waitlist Notification date: Feb 21 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Columbia Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Full, 5 years Notification date: Mar 1 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Tinbergen Institute Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Standard package Notification date: Mar 2 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Berkeley Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Full, 5 years Notification date: Mar 7 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: UBC Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Full, 5 years Notification date: Mar 8 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Toronto Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Full, 5 years Notification date: Mar 8 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Yale Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: Feb 27 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Princeton Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: Feb 28 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: LSE Program: MRes/PhD Track 1 (first choice), MSc EME (second choice) Decision: Rejected from both Funding: N/A Notification date: Mar 1, Mar 9 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Chicago Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: Feb 27 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Stanford Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: Mar 5 Notified through: Email to check website Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: MIT Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: Mar 9 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Boston U Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: Mar 15 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: Harvard Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: Mar 22 Notified through: Postal Mail Posted on GC: No Comments: Institution: NYU Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: Apr 5 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments:

^^Yup. I was thinking about this award the other day, thinking it was more of a poster quality and helpfulness award, almost a forum MVP type of thing, and chateauheart was my runaway don't-even-think-twice winner. I was disappointed when I saw the criteria, because I don't really know exactly what 'team spirit' is in this context, and not being mindlessly positive and rah-rah-rah encouraging is a big part of chateauheart's contribution (and people being those things is a big problem on this board). If the forum was full of people like him it would be a far more valuable resource. If there's an award for that (and there should be, if there are going to be awards for anything), then we shouldn't even need to vote. As for the actual criteria, hedgequant is a good choice, so he gets my vote too, on account of being up there with chateauheart in terms of criteria 1, while probably having enough of whatever 2 and 3 are to be eligible.

really?

I've been tired of it since day 1, but by now I'm reeeeally tired of the GTFO/GTFI meme.

Just last week a poster here negotiated to remove a year of work requirement at Berkeley. I was told directly by a prof at a top 10 that they have (or at least had) a 'better than X' rule, in which they would match funding (or at least increase it - they aren't bumping you up to a Yale level or anything) if it was enticing you from a school better than their pre-determined School X. I didn't get any impression at all that they cared about you wanting to negotiate a better deal. Finally, last year a top Canadian school made it clear right from the start that they could potentially improve my offer, and did so happily when it became clear I was making a tough decision. So it definitely happens. OP, my guess is that if you're an ******* about it, and try and play hardball and give ultimatums and everything then it might not look that good, but it's highly unlikely to have any effect on your future - even if it goes beyond the small group of people who'd be involved in that decision, the people who it got to are unlikely to even remember it, let alone care. If you're polite and reasonable about it I'd be very very surprised if there was any sort of negative reaction at all.

Well maybe some additional punctuation would help: It's OP's question. The 'I' refers to OP.

I think it was a response to the OP essentially agreeing with yankeefan - that bloominglate is in the wrong field (their opinion, not mine), and thus is asking for help doing something he doesn't want to do. I don't see how it makes any sense at all as a response to yankeefan.

The way people talk about EJMR on here is pretty silly, imo - indeed not much better than the way they talk about most things over there (and def worse than they way they talk about us - which is usually to say we're naive undergrads and then leave it at that). There's too much trolling and racism and sexism and whatever else, for sure. No denying that (and I'm sure many many of them would agree). But let's not pretend it's because EJMR posters are all bad people (and whatever other easy and hyperbolic insults everyone here throws at them) and TM posters are an entirely different breed of great people. Not only are the groups probably not that different in their qualities, I'm sure to a large extent they're the exact same people - many TM posters are no doubt future EJMR posters, and many EJMR posters are for sure past TM posters. Not to mention the many who read and post at both concurrently (including many of the more prominent posters here). I'm sure to some extent the differing surface cultures of the two forums helps select user bases that fits into those cultures, sure, but I think it's naive to ignore the extent to which the difference is a result of entirely similar people acting differently under different structure and rules. This. Could you elaborate? Price of what? Supply of what?

Maybe I'm not seeing some deleted posts or something, but what has either said that would suggest that?

Wow, I hadn't seen that before. enginecon's system of adding up + and - signs seems silly, sure, but the responses to it and the other predictions are a pretty damning indictment of some of the advice on this board - particularly the overly optimistic and "I predict everything will work out great for you!" aspects of it. It isn't even just optimistic predictions, it's assurances - "you'll get at least x acceptances" and "you'll crack the top y easily". Painful to read.

From the little I've seen, the facebook format is far less useful than the forum format used here, which allows for threads and quoting and stickies and everything else. To be honest, I don't really see any advantage to using facebook, and one huge disadvantage - specifically the use of real names, which would presumably make people less likely to post.

^Nice!

Well you could call them and ask, as others have done.

Me. Also just about everyone else who didn't get in. Someone in the know (kipfilet?) said a week or two ago that they were all done, and only rejections to go, which fits with the data. Someone a few days ago said they contacted NYU and were told rejections would be out later this week. I haven't been paying overly close attention, but I think the only rejections I've seen on here have been people who contacted the dept themselves, and so I assume the rest will hear shortly.

I was this year accepted to three T10s that had rejected me twice (one of them rejected me from the waitlist last year). I was also accepted at two schools that accepted me last year only for me to turn them down. I was also rejected from BU having been accepted last year, and from LSE EME having been accepted to the MSc Econ (Research) last year. Worth noting that I had clear deficiencies in my profile (namely a lack of math) that made for a simple, if time consuming, fix.

Just to confirm, University of Houston are a part of the Council of Graduate Schools resolution - http://www.cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGS_Resolution.pdf I'm certainly no expert, so have others corroborate before acting upon it, but my reading of that agreement is that they're obliged to give you until April 15th, and if they don't then you're within your rights to accept and then pull out any time before April 15th without any trouble.

I've had the opposite experience. My T7 has had two adcom guys send info and say hi, and two pretty big names in my field email to say hi and encourage me to go there and ask if there's anything I want to know to help me decide. No other T10 or below has sent any more than the basic info emails, I don't think.

lol. someone vote on this post so I can see my votes. or tell me how to get to it without a notification. thanks!