frozenchip

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 10 University (Overall, Econ, Math) (top 5 depending on the ranking system) Undergrad GPA: 3.8 Math + Econ GRE: 780M/750V/5.5A Math Courses: Calculus (honors), Analysis (real and complex), Algebra (honors), ODE (mostly A's, couple A-/B+), some other logic type stuff Econ Courses: Micro (Intermediate), Macro (Intermediate and Advanced), Econometrics (Honors, Topics, Advanced), some random joke topic classes (Population economics, econ of crime, etc) (mostly A's, couple A-) Other Courses: Statistical Modeling, Probability Theory, Intermediate level CS courses Letters of Recommendation: 1 Stanford PhD, 1 Harvard PhD, 1 Berkeley PhD (All both supervisors and professors, 2 well known, the 3rd very very well known) Research Experience: Undergrad Thesis, 3 years as an U-Grad RA, 1.5 year econ consulting (I've heard others complain about this, but I actually run regressions, plan pricing surveys, etc...) Teaching Experience: Math TA (3 years) for Calculus Research Interests: IO/Micro/Dev SOP: Generic (was told to make it as bland as possible by my profs) Concerns: the couple B+ grades; spent waaay too much time on non-academic activities in college (but I did have a blast) Other: Facing the academic two-body problem. Applying to: Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Chicago, Chicago(Booth), Northwestern(Kellogg), Berkeley, NYU, UPenn(Wharton), NYU(Stern) RESULTS: Acceptances: Yale ($$$$), Northwestern Kellogg ($$$), NYU Stern ($$$), Chicago Booth (accepted off wait list) Waitlists: MIT (eventually rejected), Chicago (removed self from w/l), Columbia (removed self from w/l), UPenn Wharton (removed self from w/l) Rejections: Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley Attending: Yale What would I have done differently/recap: A 3.8 (including grad/honors sequences) is common among applicants to top 5 schools. However I had the benefit of going to a major research institution, a place where anyone who shows even an iota of interest immediately gets placed into a research assistant position with a professor. And not just any schmuck who is bound to be bounced when he or she is up for tenure. Rather an average position may entail working directly under a Bates Clark winner, Nobel prize winner or senior Obama appointee (or a combination of thereof). Thanks to this, my recommendations came from highly visible economics and business faculty. While my grades were sufficient to keep me in the running, my research and recommendation letters likely put me over the top. So I may have not been admitted to the top 2 (Harvard, MIT), but I clearly broke the ranks of the top 5 and top 10. How could I have broken the "super-elite" ceiling (yes, I'm calling MIT and Harvard the "super-elite" - I can already hear the whining of the "elite")? Now keep in mind my sample size is extremely small (it includes just me, the noise inherent in graduate admissions may have been what kept me out) I could have gotten better grades. For those coming from undergraduate studies at a top research school (e.g. Berkeley, Stanford, Chicago, Northwestern, MIT, or an Ivy) - I suggest spending more time on the books and less on non-economic extracurricular activities. I spent easily 40/hrs a week on such "useless in terms of econ PhD admission" activities (for me these included debate-style events in addition to student artistic productions); this meant there was less than 25-30 hrs/week for classes, studying and homework. I should have reversed the two. A grade range of 3.8-3.9 isn't too difficult to achieve. A 3.95 does however stand out. [Note: People talk about a gentleman's C; today it really is a gentleman's B+. Put in a couple more hours of work and that becomes a marginal A-. This is excluding some of my math and stat classes. I had a couple of "old school" bad-asses that stuck to a rigid grading scale that was both fair and had a C+/B- tendency.] However I have no regrets. Hell, I'm going to a top school. I had a great time as an undergrad, both doing econ research and running debate. If getting into a better grad school meant cutting out one of the things I really loved doing (and where I made some of my best friends and met my girlfriend), forget the grad school.

Chicago waitlists are being invited (and reimbursed) for the flyout day.

Only difference is the 8th clone of john list isn't going to University of Wyoming (which by the way is a good program and near to some of the greatest snow in the world)

I now have 5 waitlists out of 10 schools, which seems very excessive. I've noticed a few others here have also been serially waitlisted. Is this common or does there seem to be more waitlists this year? For example my Chicago letter stated "In a normal year, I would be offering you admission and financial aid at this time. Due to the economic realities of the current year, however, we must place you on a short wait list." And the Columbia letter stated "We prefer to rank students according to the probability that they will come and their willingness to wait.".

Institution: Columbia Program: Economics PhD Decision: Wait list Funding: N/A Notification date: 3/9/2011 Notified through: E-mail, said it is an unofficial notification and the official one will come later. Posted on GC : no Comments: My fifth wait list too. Thank god Yale accepted me, otherwise I'd be on complete edge!

Does anybody know the size of the MIT wait list and the probability of admission?

I have a hard time believing that NYU and Columbia are done. And I'm exhausted from pressing F5; I'm going to be drained before any visit day. And when is Harvard going to send out rejections/waitlists? I HATE LIMBO.

Institution : Chicago Program : Economics PhD Decision : W/L Funding : Notification date : 3/8/2011 Notified through : E-mail Posted on GC : no Comments: I may take the WL cake.

Yup, that is exactly what I mean. 25K on top of tuition and health insurance. That is the standard package at NYU, however departments may choose to supplement it.

For the record NYU Stern's offer is 29K. I'd expect the NYU Econ offer to be around 25K.

I used two professors and one from my company (who also is a professor at a top 10 school). One piece of advice I received was to only use rec letters from professors and forget about those who may have a PhD from a top 10 school, but went into industry.

I've also been working at a "reasonably well known economic consulting firm". My profile has done quite well with Economic PhD programs affiliated with B-Schools. (Kellogg, Stern, Booth and Wharton all either accepted or waitlisted me) However I feel as if I've taken a hit with standard Economic PhD programs. While I was accepted by Yale and waitlisted at MIT- Stanford, Berkeley, and Harvard (implicit) rejected me. One of my recommended said that my work experience was positive and another said since I'd applied to PhD programs within a few years of undergrad it'd make no difference. To be honest, this is an extremely small sample size and I'd hesitate to draw any conclusions.

Institution: MIT Program: Economics PhD Decision: Waitlist Funding: N/A Notification date: 3/7/2011 Notified through: e-mail Posted on GC : no Comments: Is this one of those, "You are in if you get the NSF waitlists?"

Another person in MIT and Harvard limbo here... Can these schools just put me out of my misery?

A quick heads up, Booth is currently contacting Econ PhD applicants about a Quantitative Marketing PhD.

Technically aren't we talking about a three body problem? A school and two people? A standard two body problem can be solved. A three body body problem cannot always be solved (except in stupid corner cases). Since there are many schools/cities out there aren't we talking about some completely intractable crap shoot?

Institution: Chicago Booth Program: PhD Economics Decision: Waitlist Funding: N/A Notification date: 3/3/2011 Notified through: E-mail Posted on GC: No. Comments: "Please note that you are highly ranked on the Economics waitlist."

Institution: UC Berkeley Program: PhD Economics Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: 3/2/2011 Notified through: E-mail Posted on GC: No Comments: First Rejection.

They called a couple hours ago, total of 6 admits.

Institution: NYU Stern Program: Phd Economics Decision: Accepted Funding: $$$ Notification date: 3/2 Notified through: Call Posted on GC: No Comments: :) Institution: UPenn Wharton Program: Phd Applied Economics Decision: Waitlisted Funding: N/A Notification date: 3/2 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: :(

Good call. Just make sure you are around other people/pets. Personally, I've been working overtime to get my mind off grad school.

I'm nearly 100% sure Harvard has not sent out decisions yet.

Both the Kellogg and Wharton interviews were extremely informal. For Wharton I spent 10 minutes describing my undergrad thesis (about IO) and then the interviewer (a professor) spent 10 minutes answering my questions about the school and Philadelphia. Finally, I emphasized my desire to empirical IO research. The Kellogg interview was even shorter, 15 minutes at most. I asked a few questions about the program and Northwestern in general. The interviewer asked me only a few questions, mostly about my current job. Good luck!

[del]

Also while Wharton Health Econ is out, I don't think they've notified admits for Applied Economics.