growth

I completely agree with you and that is the only think I hate about the American system. 90-95% averages just help the least talented students. Looking at my transcript I got only two less than A- grades in hard classes. All my other B+ were in classes were the average was too high and I did a stupid mistake that brought my grade down. For instance my physics midterm had 12 multiple choice questions and the average was 11. Getting an A or a B is pure lottery at this stage. I'm a huge fan of courses with 60-70 averages. It is much easier to differentiate students that way. And as you cleverly put it, it benefits everyone but the mediocre students.

Johns Hopkins University! Any others?

Since we are on the topic. How do you guys learn a programing language? It suffices to say that I have limited exposure to programing, only stata, s-plus, e-views, the basic stuff. But that I would really like to learn more.

I agree with kipfilet. If it could help you get into a better school just do it. Worst case scenario it doesn't work and you go to Upenn.

In my opinion the flyout was great. The graduate students and the faculty were very receptive and open. Everyone seemed happy there. I will post here some information I gathered there. Size: The department is pretty small. There are 18 faculty in the department and Shore is leaving at the end of 2011. However they are following an expansion plan. I believe 5 years ago there were only 11 professors there. Harrington, the department chair, told us that they plan on having 20 faculty members in the near future. Strengths: The department is strong in applied Macro and applied Micro. They also have some goos people doing theory, like Kani and Eraslan, but they are more focused on applied stuff. On Macro they seem to be very focused on finance. On Micro the focus seem to be on I.O., as they recently hired many people in the area, and Labor just because of Moffitt, he seem to produce many graduate students. People: That seems to be the best part of Hopkins. The department is small so everybody seems to know everybody, including professors knowing students. Everybody seems to be willing to help each other, in fact the graduate students went out with some prospective students to a bar after the open house. Concerns: After visiting I left with only two concerns. There is a huge drawback on the department being small. They do not cover all areas of economics. For instance if you decide on your second year that you want to do Behavior economics there is no one there that seems to be doing it. They seems to lack professors in International Trade as well. They have Krishna, but he is at the D.C. campus. Another concern is the resources to students. The department is really small only 1 floor of a building. The students don't have offices, or share offices like in other schools. Moreover, they seem to lack computer capabilities, many students were complaining about it with the professors while I was there. This is my perception of the department from the Open House. I really liked everyone at Hopkins and felt very comfortable there. I think this is very important when deciding where you are going to spent your next five years. I will very likely attend the program next fall. If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me.

Does anyone knows what is the situation with UBC phd and Toronto doctoral stream?? I saw some acceptances and some rejections here but I haven't heard from them yet.

Top 10, top30, raking, raking, ranking,... Mit, Harvard, Yale, Chicago,... I'm kidding about the last ones...

Hahahaha The BU mass rejection list email exchange turns out to be hilarious. I hope they get the message and send an apology.

Rejected from Cornell in the morning and a mass email from BU a few minutes ago.

Institution: Cornell Program: Ph.D. in Economics Decision: Rejection FUnding: N/A Notification Date: 03/25/2011 Notified Through:Email Comments: Institution: Boston University Program: Ph.D. in Economics Decision: Rejection FUnding: N/A Notification Date: 03/25/2011 Notified Through:Email Comments:Mass email, I could see the address of other 100 students

I just saw on gradcafe that last year Cornell sent some notifications after the April 15th deadline. I hope they don't do the same thing this year. [Edit] Nevermind, it was for economics and management

Thanks, that means they are still reviewing applications. It should be a good sign to you. Good luck!

I'm sorry. Which program are you talking about?

I'm in the same boat. I just want to know so I can choose and go on with my life. We are one week away from April!

Still waiting on BU, Cornell, Ubc and Toronto MA.