economaster

If I'm being honest, it's going to be hard for you to crack the top 50. Competition is really tough. (American) Masters are generally not set up to get you above that bar either. Take a look are their placements and you'll see what I mean. Maybe one or two make it into the top 50 out of an American masters

The board and NY are definitely the best. After that probably Boston. Then Chicago and SF and Minneapolis. Then philly. Then the rest.

Couple questions. 1) In assessing the prestige of an article, what's more important, number of citations or rank of journal (ceteris paribas)? Perhaps when an article is first published (and less well known) rank of journal is more important, and later (after it has been out for a while) number of citations matters more? Thoughts? I'd love to hear opinions. 2) By extension, how do you assess the prestige of an author? Total citations? Citations in the last 5 years? H-index? H-index in the last 5 years? Number of articles in journals above rank x? Number of articles in journals above rank x in the last 5 years? Who they co-author with? School graduated from? Clearly all of these matter (and perhaps others) but I'm asking for a nuanced discussion of what people look to first, second, etc to assess prestige (particularly when thinking about potential LOR writers)

I believe you, since in the department's faqs they have the question and response which I copied below, but how does that make any sense at all? And do you declare someplace that your actually applying for the econ PhD rather than political economy ma/phd? What if I have only a BA (or other undergraduate) degree? Can I still apply for the PhD program? Yes. Apply for the post-bachelor’s PhD program (called MAPE/PhD).

Anyone else having this problem with the BU application: it says if you only have a BA and not a MA apply for the post-BA PhD (says this on the econ website and the general application website), however, this is not a selectable option when you try to "add a program" from the applications drop down page. I tried emailing the general bu application people twice with no response. any ideas? anybody called the department about this?

There's probably other threads about this but I'm too lazy to troll through them all... I have heard that certain departments are more theory/pure math - oriented and others are more empirically/applied - oriented. For example, its my understanding that Minnesota is much more of a theory/pure math department. Could people post their opinions of where schools fall on this spectrum? Schools in the Top 30 would be great. Thanks! Also if anybody thinks this spectrum is too narrow please post relevant thoughts. For example, I've heard that some departments teach their students to construct models with the approach that every little thing needs to be in the model in order to avoid bias, while others go with the approach that the marginal benefit of being so persnickety does not warrant the requisite marginal cost and that the best models capture the essence of things without overcomplicating things. Thoughts? Anyways, any thoughts about where departments fall on either of these spectra (or others?) would be great.

Hey people, few questions. do certain fields use more math than other fields? Like, if I say I'm interested in Micro are they gonna be looking for different math background and or more or less math than if I say I'm interested in Macro, for example? Basically, beyond the standard calc 1, calc 2, calc 3, linear, diffeq, RA, are there certain math classes that are going to help more for certain fields? I'm most interested in Micro, Macro, Labor, IO and Behavioral. So info on those fields would be particularly helpful. Also, im thinking about a couple classes for next semester, probability and numerical analysis. Any thoughts on which one is more helpful? Take them both?

Just received my Official GRE scores: Q 170 V 157 AWA 4.5 What do you think? Are these scores good enough to get me into a top 20 program or should I retake it and try to up my AWA at least? (Yes, I know Q is by far most important but it seems like lots of the people who get accepted to the top 20 get at least a 5 on their AWA and im not sure about verbal avg.)

I know. People don't get PhDs to make money. If you get a PhD you forgo current income in order to forgo future income. But, I want to get a clearer picture on salaries. Of course its easy to look up the average assistant, associate and full economics professor salaries, and the average average assistant, associate and full professor salaries at many schools. But what I what to know is more detailed, what the average salary (for economics profs only) for the following: Top 10 University Asst: Top 10 University Asso: Top 10 University Full: Top 25 University Asst: Top 25 University Asso: Top 25 University Full: Top 50 University Asst: Top 50 University Asso: Top 50 University Full: Top 10 LAC Asst: Top 10 LAC Asso: Top 10 LAC Full: Top 25 LAC Asst: Top 25 LAC Asso: Top 25 LAC Full: Top 50 LAC Asst: Top 50 LAC Asso: Top 50 LAC Full: Basically, I know that econ profs tent to get paid more than average profs, but how much more? and how much do they get paid at top places? Ok, so then you got your salaries, so is that a figure for "9-months" or 12-months". And how exactly does grant money work? when you receive a grant is it just like income or can you only spend it to conduct surveys, experiments etc? Also, I know a lot of econ profs do consulting too--how much can you pull in from these gigs? Finally, how much can a prof expect to pull in from a textbook he/she authored? Basically I want to know all the way econ profs pull in money, and how people these prof actually make after all "extracurricular" activities. So if anybody can answer any of these questions that would be great.

Partial diffeq vs vector calculus. Can only take one, which one is more useful?

Ok, I'm guessing nobody actually knows for sure since this year's admissions rounds are still ongoing, but I'm wondering how to interpret my NEW GRE score in terms of how schools are going to look at it. For example, lets say I score a 166 on the NEW GRE. This equates to the 94th percentile. On the old GRE the 94th percentile would have scored an 800. So, will schools look at this like they looked at an 800? Or should I retake the test? I'm trying to get into top 15 schools. Not applying to anything outside of top 25.

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 25 LAC, good econ dept Undergrad GPA: 3.75 (3.93 excluding freshman year, 3.95 in Math and Econ since freshman year) Type of Grad: None Grad GPA: None GRE: 800Q 650V 4.5A Math Courses: AP AB Calc: 5, Multi Var Calc: A-, Stats: A, Linear: A-, DiffEQ: A, Real: A, Probability: A Econ Courses: International Econ: B- (Freshman yr), Intermediate Micro/Macro A/A, Math-Econ: A, Metrics A-, Game Theory: A, Labor: A, IO: A, Money & Banking: A, International Econ Seminar: A Other Courses: Some, nothing special just LAC distribution requirements Letters of Recommendation: 1. Recent PHD from top 25 phd program, did research under, two classes, should be strong 2. Full time, well known and well connected professor (but not from top phd program), did sr honors project under, two classes, should be strong, 3. Well known, well connected math professor. only took real analysis from him Research Experience: Sr honors project (expecting honors), ra for prof over 1 summer Teaching Experience: TA for a couple classes nothing special Research Interests: Micro/Macro theory, game theory, edu econ, labor Concerns: Low GPA because of bad freshman year, not enough math??, Econ Recommenders did not go to top, top programs (however, I do feel as though they know me very well), coming from an LAC, no grad classes on record, econ recommenders are both macro people, but my research interests are mostly micro (i know this is strange, but the micro profs at my school were either visiting profs, on sabbatical during my jr/sr year or not lined up with my interests at all (trade and public finance which im not interested in at all) i.e. there weren't good micro recommenders for me in my department), Math Recommender only knows me from taking one class with, but i was told that having a math rec is good so...lots of concerns (probably over thinking/worrying), but honestly I have no idea where i stand...please help me out!

I'm wondering what the best thing to do during the summer after my junior year of undergrad if I want to apply to grad school in the fall. Obviously research is the top priority, but because I go to a small (top 25) lac, the opportunities in the department will likely not be aligned with my interests. Would it be best to do research over the summer even if its not in an area that is my top research interest, or something else? Broadly I think my interests (in order~ish) are Micro Theory, Game Theory, Edu econ, labor and macro theory (i know thats a lot, but I guess im saying that I dont think I'm really interested in development or trade.) If I work in a Fed Bank is that a good choice even though my primary interests are micro? What about in the private sector but doing macro research / forecasting or like commodity / equity forecasting ? Any suggestions would be great...