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2013applicant

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Everything posted by 2013applicant

  1. That's a tough question. Part of the issue is that many foreign students are exposed to this material through their econ classes whereas most Americans will gain exposure to these classes through their math departments. Off the top of my head, I can only think a handful, maybe 3-4, who have taken measure theory. As for analysis, I'm pretty sure everyone in our class has either taken it directly or has been exposed to it in some form or fashion with the exception of one person. Topology is pretty common as well. I would say at least half of the class probably has taken it. Some even went on to algebraic topology in undergrad, and some people have master's degrees in math. If you've taken topology and two analysis classes and have done well in them, I would say that you're going to be a competitive applicant.
  2. There's no quota for letting people through to 2nd year. Penn has enough money to fund everyone starting in the 2nd year so they can take as many students as they would like. That being said, traditionally around 18-20 of a cohort of 25 make it to 2nd year. Last year was an exception; they actually took 24 to the 2nd year from a cohort of 29. From what many of the older years have told me, Penn is trying to reverse its reputation of failing out many after the first year. If you look through some past threads, there should be some statistics somewhere on Penn's first year attrition. If I can dig it up, I'll be sure to post it. There's one other thing I would like to note about our attrition. Penn's belief is that it's better to fail you out the first year than for you to waste an additional one or two years of your life working on a phd if it really isn't for you. So if they don't think this is what you really want to do (which more times than not is reflected in your grades), they're going to let you go. This is pretty consistent with the attrition rates here: conditional on you passing the prelims, there's approximately an 80-90 percent chance that you'll finish your phd. I would say that this is probably much higher than many schools.
  3. Hey guys! It's been awhile since I've been on here, but I just wanted to reach out to everyone who is interested in going to UPenn this fall to see if anyone has any questions, concerns, etc. I'm currently a first year in the program so while I may not be able to answer much about later years, I can hopefully give some insight into what to expect going in to the program as well as answer some general questions. Good luck this application season! 2013applicant
  4. Acceptances with funding: JHU(22k), Penn(24.4k), OSU(23k), Texas(18k), Pitt(19k) Waitlists: UCLA(declined), Maryland(declined), Vandy(declined) Rejections: MIT, Columbia, NYU, Caltech, Chicago, Northwestern,BU
  5. Is anyone attending penn this fall? If so, feel free to PM me.
  6. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 100 US news , Top 100 Econ PhD Undergrad GPA: 3.91 (4.00 Math, 4.00 Econ) Type of Grad: NA Grad GPA: NA GRE: Q 167 V 160 AWA 5.5 (1st try) Math Courses: Calc I-III (A,A,A), Linear Algebra (A), Diff Eq. (A), Probability (A), Mathematical Statistics (A), Intro. to Proofs (A), Real Analysis 1 (A), Algebra 1 (A), Topology (A), Matrix Theory (A), Stochastic Processes (A), Info Theory (A) Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro 1 (A), Micro 2 (A), Macro 1 (A), Math Econ (A) Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intro Micro (A) Intro Macro (A), Econometrics (A), Inter. Micro (A), Inter. Macro (A), Advanced Micro (A), Advanced Macro (A), International (A) Other Courses: N/A Letters of Recommendation: 1 excellent (Top 100 PhD), 1 very good (Top 50 PhD), 1 above average (Top 30 PhD) Research Experience: 1 Year RA for Professor Teaching Experience: N/A Research Interests: Labor, Experimental, Micro Theory SOP: Standard, customized for maybe 5 schools or so, approximately 500 words Concerns: School rank Other: Applying to: MIT, Columbia, NYU, Caltech, Chicago, Northwestern, OSU, Vandy, Pitt, Texas, Maryland, Penn, BU, JHU, UCLA RESULTS: Acceptances: JHU(22k), Penn(24.4k), OSU(23k), Texas(18k), Pitt(19k) Waitlists: UCLA(declined), Maryland(declined), Vandy(declined) Rejections: MIT, Columbia, NYU, Caltech, Chicago, Northwestern,BU Attending: Penn Comments: I'm honestly extremely thrilled to be heading to Penn this fall. If you come from a low ranked school, it is possible to break the top ten. Just make sure to take all of the math that you can stomach and to get to know your professors really well. I felt like my letters must have been fantastic for me to get into some of these schools. Also, a huge thank goes out to the TM community. They've been helping me along for over 2 years now and there's no way I would be heading to an Ivy League school this fall without them. Thanks guys! What would you have done differently? 1. I would have nixed the UCLA, Vandy, and Texas apps...not because they aren't good schools, but because I knew I wanted to be in the northeast. I would advise other applicants to really think where they want to spend the next 5 years. 2. I would have tried to only apply to large departments. I think I want to work on micro theory right now, but a bigger department could offer me more options in case I went in a fundamentally different direction. Going to the JHU visit made me realize this. 3. I should have customized my SOP more. I only customized it for 5 schools or so, which frankly isn't enough. I also shouldn't have applied to Pitt since they required less than a 500 word SOP while Maryland required a minimum of 1000 words. That made writing it a pain. 4. I keep saying that I wouldn't have applied to certain schools, but if I hadn't, I would have applied to others instead. Overall, I would recommend that applicants apply to a bare minimum of 10 with a max of 20. 5. I should've applied to the NSF. It can open tons of doors if you receive it. (Just check the results of some of the TM members who received it this application season.)
  7. When I called the other day (before I received first year funding) they had 23 outstanding offers and only 3 accepted offers. Considering that I got funding the next day, it must have meant that someone else declined their offer. Therefore, considering they took 30 in their class last year, I imagine that they will be making some moves on their waitlist if they haven't already. If you guys have any specific questions about the flyout or Philadelphia, feel free to PM me. I hope this helps.
  8. I definitely benefited from it. Thank you so much!
  9. Just declined offers from Johns Hopkins and Ohio State. I hope one of you guys get it!
  10. Institution: UPenn Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Yes, just got off of funding waitlist Notification date: 04/11/2013 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Can't believe it! I'm so excited!
  11. My biggest concern would be the placement difference between the two. It seems like Maryland places better on average.
  12. I'm curious about this as well. I emailed the other day to ask about funding and received this email. Hi Applicant To be frank, a waitlisted applicant who is admitted would be very unlikely to receive funding. Best, Graduate Advisor
  13. I figured more interaction would be the case, but when you consider the ratio of grad students to faculty, the difference isn't that huge. Therefore, I can't imagine that you get that much more interaction with faculty. Also, JHU has only had 2-3 theory students in the past five years and they haven't placed particularly well. Penn on the other hand has placed many theory students in good jobs, with one applied theory student going to Chapel Hill next year.
  14. Well, I have enough saved that I can cover approximately 80% of the first year costs at Penn. Also, I'm fairly confident that I can get through first year due to my advanced math background (17 courses) and my 4 masters level econ courses. I guess when it all comes down to it, I'm not sure how satisfied I would be with a median JHU placement versus a median Penn placement.
  15. I'm in this same predicament and am wondering what I should do. I'm choosing between Penn with an unfunded first year and JHU with full funding. If anyone else could comment with advice, I would really appreciate it.
  16. Institution: NYU Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: 04/02/2013 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments:
  17. I don't think they have a date set for this year yet, but it started in mid July last year. Hopefully this helps some.
  18. I just wanted to post my flyout impressions for any people who couldn't make it to Ohio State for the visit. Also, it was nice to meet BlaineRick and kinzaman at the flyout. Good luck with your decisions! Ohio State really seems to be on the uptrend to me. I came in not expecting much from the program, but the professors and graduate students all seem pretty excited about the program as a whole. Most of them were very engaging, and they all tried their best to get to know our interests, who we were interested in working with, etc. As a whole, I was really impressed with how much time and effort they put into the visit. I believe they said the attrition rate used to be around 40 percent over 10 years ago. Now, they said it stands around 20-25 percent, which is clearly a huge drop. More than anything, I was shocked to hear that last year's cohort (or maybe the year before) had a 90 percent pass rate on the qualifying exams. It seems to me that as long as you're willing to put in the 50+ hours a week of class/studying, passing the prelims shouldn't be an issue. From my discussions with the professors, it seems like coauthoring with professors is very common. I even recall one professor saying that he had coauthored 3 papers with one previous student. So, needless to say, the professors seem very willing to invest in students, especially those who stand out. Columbus isn't a huge city, but I imagine it is big enough to satisfy most peoples' interests. It seems to have a pretty solid bus system, at least according to the graduate students, but I imagine it would still be best to have a car for running errands and other things. As a whole, it was an excellent visit. If you were at the visit, feel free to add anything. These are just the few things that came to mind when I typed this up.
  19. Just arrived for the visit day at Ohio State! Is anyone else here? If so, PM me.
  20. Edit: Just saw that you were awarded a fellowship. Disregard my former post.
  21. Institution: Columbia Program: Econ PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: Notification date: 3/19/13 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Took them long enough...
  22. Institution: Boston University Program: Ph.D. Economics Decision: Rejected Notification date: 03/14/13 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: It's looking more and more like Penn is my best option
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