Stuvok54

Anybody going to the Cornell flyout next Friday?

I can confirm the UCSD rejection on gradcafe, received an email 30 minutes ago.

I still haven't heard back from Brown.... if you don't mind me asking, when you say unfunded, do you mean you have to pay tuition like their masters program? Or is it just no fellowship but a tuition waiver?

Institution: Berkeley ARE Program: ARE PHD Decision: Rejected Funding: n/a Notification date: 02/25/14 Notified through: E-mail Posted on GC: No Comments: A little sad, but expected

I just got a wait list from them. Also got a request for fall grades from BU within 5 minutes of the waitlist. Apparently the Boston schools do their notifying in clusters!

Institution: Boston College Program: PhD Economics Decision: Waitlist Funding: Full funding if I get off waitlist Notification date: 02/25/14 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Unsure how I feel about this

Institution: UVA Program: PhD Economics Decision: rejected Funding: NA Notification date: 02/23/2014 Notified through: website Posted on GC: No Comments:

I heard back on the 21st via email. I just declined the offer as well.

Institution: University Maryland Program: ARE PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: 24k Notification date: 02/21/14 Notified through: email Posted on GC: Yes Comments:

Hi mandcrut237, you should totally go to Cornell. (this advice isn't at all biased by the fact that I'm 95% sure I am going to accept their offer and think it would be cool if we had two urch people in the AEM program). Now for the real reasons why I'd support cornell. I've talked with a faculty member there just recently and I took away a couple of cool things: 1. You build your degree around your concentrations, but only one concentration has to be in the AEM department, so if there are any general econ topics you want to also do while in grad school you can have committee members from the econ department (or other departments for that matter) to supervise your thesis (I think you mentioned that you wanted to do development at some point, Cornell's econ department has a lot of great people in development for example). You can also make your own concentration that isn't one of the big ones listed on their website, so you could do some kind of specialized urban econ for example. 2. The department has had a lot of excellent placements recently, and while there are many rumors about cornell's econ department having trouble placing people (I have no idea whether these rumors are founded, so do not in any way take this as me supporting those rumors as true) it seems that the AEM faculty are really committed to placing their students well. As a more personal note, I just visited the campus recently to see what it would be like (and if I would be able to survive the cold.) They just renovated their building and it is REALLY nice, so that's a bonus too. Anyway, I'll be really interested to hear what you end up deciding to do!

Institution: UCSB Program: PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Unknown Notification Date: 2/11/14 Posted on GradCafe: Yes Comments: Was a little concerned I hadn't heard anything, nice to hear back

Untrue I'm afraid, while I have a masters its not from Cornell. Edit: Sorry, didn't see your "a lot" there, although, my understanding is that most of the people who attend the program for their phd come from their masters program, so in that regard you are definitely correct

Institution: UC Davis Program:ARE Decision: Accepted Funding: Full Funding Notification date: 1/29/2014 Notified through: Email then phone call Posted on GC: Yes Comments: First admit, was very excited, the phone call was very nice too

Institution: Cornell AEM Program: Decision: Accepted Funding: Full Funding Notification date: 1/30/2014 Notified through: Email. Posted on GC: Yes Comments: Very excited, one of my top choices

Institution: UC Davis ARE Program: PHD Decision: Accepted Funding: full funding Notification date: 1/29/2014 Notified through: Phone call Posted on GC: No Comments: ​My first decision, yay!

That is a wonderful and completely horrifying development. Based on their past years I wasn't expecting any news until 2/15ish at the earliest. Well here goes nothing...

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 20 university, top 10 economics and ARE, majored in environmental economics in the ARE dept. Undergrad GPA: 3.69 Type of Grad: Msc in Economics (program placed a couple students in top 15 programs last year) Grad GPA: 3.83 GRE: 167 Q 170V 5.0 AWA Math Courses:Calc 1-3 (B, B-, A-) Linear Algebra/Diffeq (A-) Math Stats (A) Real Analysis 1 (ongoing, A as of now, will also take RA 2 next semester) Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro Theory 1 (A-) Micro Theory 2 (A-) Macro Theory 1 (A) Macro Theory 2 (A-) Econometrics (A) Math Stats, same class as above (A) Applied Metrics (ongoing) Thesis (ongoing) Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intro EnvEcon (A-) Intermediate Micro (A) Intermediate Macro (A) Environmental Econ (A+) Econometrics (A+) Advanced Topics (A) Energy Econ (A) other general enviro/dev/econish courses. Other Courses: Letters of Recommendation: Should be good, but its hard to say. I am always suspicious when people say their letters will be great, but I suspect that is a suspicion shared by many. All seemed happy to write them for me when I asked and suggested the list of schools I had prepared was reasonable given my skills/record. All three from top 30, two from top 15. Two of them are advising my masters thesis and the other is on my thesis committee. Research Experience: Did a little RA work when I was an undergrad in my ARE dept., did a little work for one of my letter writers, and currently have a job at an education research center, although the work is quantitative in nature. For this job, I am currently coauthoring a paper with the head of the center. Teaching Experience: Third semester TAing for an intro econ class and will do so again next semester. Research Interests: My research interests are primarily ARE, specifically environmental, but also transportation which is the topic of my masters thesis. SOP: Nothing particular to report. Concerns: The B's in intro calc really jump out. Truth is I was a pretty bad student when I started undergrad, but I shaped up a bit. Obvious general lack in math courses overall. Not too concerned about the A-'s in Linear algebra and multivariable calc since my undergrad university is notoriously stingy with grades in general but particularly with math grades. The fact that I'm not taking RA until now is also upsetting, and while I am getting a lot out of my RA job, I imagine that since its not econ focused its use for me will be limited. Other: Applying to: Yale EnvEcon, Berkeley ARE, Cornell AEM, UCLA, UCSD, Brown, JHU, U Maryland ARE, UC Davis ARE, Boston College, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, UCSB, USC

I've gotten so much out of this site over the years but here I am asking for more nonetheless. I'm slightly concerned that my school list is a little too top heavy... PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 20 university, top 10 economics and ARE, majored in environmental economics in the ARE dept. Undergrad GPA: 3.69 Type of Grad: Msc in Economics (program placed a couple students in top 15 programs last year) Grad GPA: 3.83 GRE: 167 Q 170V 5.0 AWA Math Courses:Calc 1-3 (B, B-, A-) Linear Algebra/Diffeq (A-) Math Stats (A) Real Analysis 1 (ongoing, A as of now, will also take RA 2 next semester) Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro Theory 1 (A-) Micro Theory 2 (A-) Macro Theory 1 (A) Macro Theory 2 (A-) Econometrics (A) Math Stats, same class as above (A) Applied Metrics (ongoing) Thesis (ongoing) Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intro EnvEcon (A-) Intermediate Micro (A) Intermediate Macro (A) Environmental Econ (A+) Econometrics (A+) Advanced Topics (A) Energy Econ (A) other general enviro/dev/econish courses. Other Courses: Letters of Recommendation: Should be good, but its hard to say. I am always suspicious when people say their letters will be great, but I suspect that is a suspicion shared by many. All seemed happy to write them for me when I asked and suggested the list of schools I had prepared was reasonable given my skills/record. All three from top 30, two from top 15. Two of them are advising my masters thesis and the other is on my thesis committee. Research Experience: Did a little RA work when I was an undergrad in my ARE dept., did a little work for one of my letter writers, and currently have a job at an education research center, although the work is quantitative in nature. For this job, I am currently coauthoring a paper with the head of the center. Teaching Experience: Third semester TAing for an intro econ class and will do so again next semester. Research Interests: My research interests are primarily ARE, specifically environmental, but also transportation which is the topic of my masters thesis. SOP: Nothing particular to report. Concerns: The B's in intro calc really jump out. Truth is I was a pretty bad student when I started undergrad, but I shaped up a bit. Obvious general lack in math courses overall. Not too concerned about the A-'s in Linear algebra and multivariable calc since my undergrad university is notoriously stingy with grades in general but particularly with math grades. The fact that I'm not taking RA until now is also upsetting, and while I am getting a lot out of my RA job, I imagine that since its not econ focused its use for me will be limited. Other: Applying to: Yale EnvEcon, Berkeley ARE, Cornell AEM, UCLA, UCSD, Brown, JHU, U Maryland ARE, UC Davis ARE, Boston College, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, UCSB, USC. Any thoughts? Anyway, thank you all!

Full disclosure: I'm a masters student at Tufts graduating this spring. Regarding the funding issues, you pretty much have to eat the 20k not covered by the tuition scholarship, but the rest of the financial picture isn't as bleak. the cost of living in medford/somerville is much lower than in boston proper, eg, you can get a good room close to campus for ~600/month. Also, if you are a top 4 student, there are research scholarships for second year. I know starting next year students will have access to funds for summer research, and most second years get a ta-ship for the second year as well (which is only 4500 in tuition.) Finally, most people find jobs during the summer that pay well, and some of these jobs go into the following year. If anyone ever has questions about the Tufts program, please feel free to PM me. As a more general comment, I agree that your apps should include programs outside the US, I've heard particularly good things about the Canadian programs mentioned, as well as Barcelona GSE which offers some funding as well. Finally, regarding the OP comment about Tufts being the best masters program in the country, I'm not sure if thats the case. (I think the Duke MA has an excellent reputation and placement, albeit with a higher price tag.) I will say though, the economics MA at Tufts was reformed a few years back by a dean and several very involved faculty who treat it like their baby, and imo, its on a general upward trajectory.

I'm retaking the gre in 30ish days, and consistently getting 167Q/167V on practice tests. I'm shooting for top 40-15ish schools this fall, and am wondering if its worth my time to increase the expected Q score by a couple points. I know the general opinion about the old gre was that so long as you were above a certain score ad coms were generally indifferent between 790-800 for example, but now that there is more variation in scores within the higher percentiles it occurs to me that a couple of points might be a larger factor in decisions. I'm thinking about the schools in the 25-40ish range, where they probably see a more varied applicant pool with a wider range of scores. Any thoughts?

I'm a current student in the Tufts MA program, so I can give some info. Most people get a 50% tuition waiver for the first year, and get either a TAship (about 10k) or a grader job (about 6k.) The first year includes a micro macro sequence. The first semester of Micro goes through all of Varian, the second focuses on game theory. For Macro, the first semester focuses on Romer, and the second is more eclectic, covering a broad range of topics under the umbrella of dynamic programming. There is also a Stat/Metrics sequence, the Stat course is roughly equivalent to a year long Math Stats course condensed into a semester, and the Econometrics is roughly a more advanced version of a yearlong undergrad course condensed into a semester. People who are eventually applying to Phd's also take real analysis. The second year costs about 4500, with research scholarships for the highest students to bring the cost down further. It includes a thesis, an applied metrics course and a seminar course. As an example, for the two years, including a taship and half tuition, as well as a research job I got by contacts through the department, I will graduate with less than 20k in loans. Not a bad deal, IMO. As for placements, this year one student got into UCLA, U Wisconsin Madison, Brown, waitlisted at U Chicago (unclear how the waitlist turned out.) Another student got into U Minnesota. Another is going to U Penn in Poli Sci, and someone else is going to USC with a more Urban focus. As far as private placements, one of the second year students got a very lucrative job at an I-Bank, mid 6 figures I believe. Next year will be a big test for the program, with 4-5 people all shooting for top 20s. As a more general thought, the program was reformed a couple years back to give it a more quantitative focus and, imo, make it compete with Duke. I believe Duke has better placements, but it is also much more expensive. If you believe you can be a top student, and are set on Phd, I think Tufts is a good place to go. Hope this helps.

Hey everyone, long time viewer, first time poster. Im applying to LSE for next year, but am having trouble deciding when to apply. On the one hand, I want to apply as early as possible because of the rolling admissions and I am afraid the applications for the masters program will fill up. On the other hand, I am kinda a late starter, and while I have intermediate micro, stats, multi-calc and linear algebra ready to go, I am taking intermediate macro and econometrics this semester. Finally, I won't get my GRE scores until December 1st, so that is the earliest I can apply. So, my options are wait until the beginning of January, when all my grades are in and my GRE scores as well, or apply as soon as I get my scores to make sure I still have a spot. A little about my profile, I have a 3.7 (will be 3.78-3.8 at end of this semester) at a Tier 1 school in the US, straight A's since my junior year, but a 3.5 before that. My school has top ten econ department, and has one of the best ARE departments in the world. My major is Environmental Economics, not standard Economics. Any advice or input from previous LSE students or applicants who have a good idea about how long the apps are usually open for would be very helpful, Thanks