Jump to content
Urch Forums

superduper

1st Level
  • Posts

    163
  • Joined

Converted

  • My Tests
    Yes

superduper's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

7

Reputation

  1. Congrats on getting in fully funded. I went to their visit day and I was pleased. To answer your questions, I don't think there will be any major changes in the department over the next few years. They have some young faculty who seem to be well integrated with the department, and they didn't mention wanting to hire anyone new. I spoke briefly with the macro professors and I think you'll be well-served. Make sure to learn Julia programming, because that's what they're starting to use for macroeconomics, and one of the more senior professors actually mentioned he's recoding all of his Matlab routines into Julia because it runs a lot faster (in addition to being open source and not needing to be connected to the internet all the time). Summer funding might be a problem in the first couple of years, since they usually give any opportunities to upper-year students. However, there are plenty of internships and other projects going on in the research triangle (NCSU, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke). And by the way, you can take any classes you want at UNC and Duke, so if I were you I'd look up some professors at those schools whom you may be interested in working with. They could actually sit in your dissertation committee. Finally, Raleigh is a very cheap city, so even though the stipent at NCSU is not very high, you should be fine. On-campus housing is fairly affordable for graduate students, so I would advise you to live on campus in the first year or two. That will make things easier for you in terms of adapting to the city and not spending too much time commuting. In case you don't know, the housing website is housing.ncsu.edu. You will need a bike, though. The campus is massive, and the Poole building is not very close to the graduate apartments. Hope this helps!
  2. Last night I wrote a lengthy post answering a lot of question people raised, only to have my browser crash and lose everything I meant to post. By now it seems that a lot of the other posters already said what I was going to say, but I still have some things I want to point out. From visiting Rice and speaking with professors, it was very clear to me that their commitment to making the program great is real. The department head, who was recently appointed Dean of social sciences, was given carte blanche (and virtually a blank check) to make things happen at Rice, and that's what he's doing. With regards to the "rising department trope", I really don't think you can get Kenneth Wolpin and all of the other great economists that recently joined the department to move from their top tenured jobs just by saying that you want to move up the US News ranks. There must be significant structural changes and a deep commitment from the school to really make those professors drop everything (step out of the HRM bubble, if I may), and move to a new department. And just as they are all convinced that the changes at Rice are real and will result in great outcomes soon, so am I (and everyone who visited last week). With regards to the stipend, I can say that after living for two years in a very expensive area (DC/Baltimore) with a very low graduate stipend, every dollar makes a difference. Also, it's not just about having a better lifestyle, eating out, etc, but mainly having the peace of mind and knowing that the money you get will be enough. This allows you to focus solely on your studies and do well. This is particularly true in the first two years. Finally, since each incoming class is small compared to other departments, the level of attention students get from professors is really high. This can make a huge difference during the dissertation phase and in preparing a great job market paper. Hope this helps!
  3. As it turns out, I really am doing whatever Catrina is doing. I just accepted a fully funded offer from Rice.
  4. Institution: Rice University Program: Economics PhD Decision: Admitted Funding: $25k for 5 years Notification date: 4/13 Notified through: email Comments: off the waitlist. Extremely happy.
  5. The admission email from NCSU said all financial aid decisions would be made by April 1, so my guess is that if you don't receive an email from Xiaoyong by tonight it probably means no funding. However, it was mentioned in open house that sometimes the process can extend itself way past April 15, depending on how many people decline offers and when they do it.
  6. Learning Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis well should give you a solid background. A course in measure-theoretic probability would also help, both in terms of learning/maturing proof techniques and also learning important content that is used in theory. Beyond that, learning optimization won't hurt. If you want to get a feel for it, look for the pdf of Guler's Foundations of Optimization. It is very theoretical and crude. If you can get past that book you are likely to do well in theory. To answer your last question, recent theory research builds on old theory research, so you have no reason to start with the most recent stuff. Plus, I think only a trivial number of papers would be accessible to an undergrad without at least a first-year PhD course in microeconomics.
  7. Still haven't heard from TAMU, UNC and Davis. I'm tempted to send them a cat picture subtitled "Can I pls has admitcha pls?"
  8. I don't know, there may not even be a waitlist yet. I think they're waiting for the first batch of students to respond before they move on to the rest of the applications.
  9. I contacted both departments last week and they said they're still reviewing applications and not all admission offers have been sent out.
  10. Just a little update for everyone. I contacted U. of Washington, TAMU, and Davis to ask if they were done with admissions, and Rice about the open house. Got the following responses: U. of Washington: Not all acceptances sent out, doing it on a rolling basis, emailing them other competing offers might speedup the process. Davis: exactly same as above. TAMU: Not all acceptances sent out. Rice: open house schedule not yet known, but there will be a dinner/happy hour, so if you need to fly out of Houston on Monday you have to book your flight for late in the night. Hope this helps.
  11. I'm dying here. I'm pretty sure I was the first, or one of the first candidates, to be interviewed (2/27) and now I feel like I'll be the last to get the result.
  12. I had no idea Penn State AREC was so low ranked. It comes in dead last at Repec's ranking of Agricultural Economics departments. That being said, if you're allowed to take classes in the econ department and they're giving you more money for longer, then PSU seems like a good choice. You can use your fifth year to polish your job market paper and make sure you're prepared for the market. This is an opportunity you won't have at NCSU. I haven't looked at past placements, but you should definitely take that into account before making your decision. On the other hand, housing in Raleigh is cheaper and you get to live in a real city, as opposed to a college town in the middle of the mountains. You have plenty of time to decide, though. I'm not sure how things work at NCSU, but maybe if you call them saying you have a sweet 5-year offer from PSU they might give you a fellowship or something.
×
×
  • Create New...