Perturbed

Yeah I don't want the reputation of being a spoiled brat, especially if I'll be on these forums in the future. I do concede that people who have a careerist attitude are generally unpleasant to be around and they seem as though they have no ideals and so on. I used to be very idealistic and used to believe strongly in the 'life of the mind' sort of thing. I still do, which is why being an academic appeals to me. Unfortunately for me, the respect of my peers is also something that I put a high price. I suffer some disutility when 'careerist' folks who don't believe in anything succeed and gain respect from everyone. This is my attempt at trying to satisfy both of these preferences. That being said, I think I like yankee's suggestion. I'll probably take both internship opportunities and research opportunities hoping that both will be viewed favorably.

Haha, PhD students must be insensible? Basically 3 things: 1. Freedom to study topics I enjoy 2. decent earnings/ middle class life 3. Respect garnered by having a PhD 2 and 3 would go down if I don't go to a top school. Number 1 may not ever be actualized. There are a lot of PhDs and not a lot of job openings for researchers.

To be sure, being an academic economist is very appealing to me, and I wouldn't draw the bright line using just rankings. However, being an unemployed PhD or putting in so much work to get a PhD and having a considerably tough time having the rest of academia respect your opinion is not a lifestyle I want to live. Perhaps that is a "careerist" attitude. I know that once you are in a top 20 school, you still have to work very hard. For that matter, even if you are at a school ranked 50th, you still have to work very hard. However, from what I've learned, people who don't attend a top school have a considerably tougher time in getting their research recognized and find less appealing jobs outside of academia. This may not be true of the field of economics, but this is what people claim to be true of nearly every academic field.

For example, there may be instances where I get a research opportunity and a chance to intern at an insurance company. I may not be able to choose both, and I want to make the decision that will make me happiest overall.

Good question. If the consensus is that the Bs would make me uncompetitive for econ grad school, I'll stop focusing my attention on doing research as an undergrad and focus on my other chosen career path--actuarial science. If they say that it won't exclude me from top schools, then I still have a hard choice to make between whether I should focus my energy on a job I'm more likely to get or grad school.

I just received a B in both Linear Algebra and Differential Equations. Does this exclude me from being competitive at some of the top schools? I'm still a freshman so I can work hard and get As in my future math courses. But I want to know if I'm not at all competitive at this point for top20 econ programs. I looked at the profiles and results and it seems that anyone who made it into top 10 had a 4.0gpa for math. Be brutally honest.

I'm a Maryland undergrad, and I was wondering how I'd actually know which of my professors are well-connected, better recommenders etc... Are these things I must just find out through rumors from fellow students or is there a place to find this stuff out. I know the title matters somewhat... like Professor is better than Associate Professor. Where they got their degree matters somewhat. Anything else?

Does Affirmative Action Benefit White People? | The Record It's about affirmative action in undergraduate admissions. I think the evidence suggests that white males benefit from affirmative action. If there isn't enough gripe from the white community to get rid of affirmative action, it's because they have actually gained from affirmative action. An Asian has to get +130 points on the SAT than a white applicant and the white applicant has to get +300 points than the black applicant all else being equal. Being an Asian-American with nearly perfect SAT scores, I've sort of accepted the idea that people less qualified in every measure will be selected over me. It's still difficult for me to understand how people can deal with the cognitive dissonance of simultaneously advocating for both racial discrimination and a color-blind society. I started this thread because I wanted to know if I should ditch the idea of a career in academia and go for the private sector instead. I'm guessing the answer is: no, affirmative action is not that prevalent in grad school.

Does it exist in econ grad programs? If so, who benefits and who loses? Is it near the amount of affirmative action done in undergraduate admissions?

Thanks for asking this question. I was wondering this myself.

Hey guys I've been reading some of the profiles and results of previous years, and there's this one part that still confuses me. When there is a school name and x number of dollar signs, what does it mean? Example Duke ($$$), Maryland ($$) Does this mean that you have to pay relatively more money to attend Duke or that Duke has given you relatively a lot of money?

I appreciate all the advice to go get laid. I assure you, it has always been my number one priority. My girlfriend lives about 10 hours away at the moment. I'm not trying to get 'ahead of the curve' or anything like that. I'm not even sure I want to attend graduate school (much less the subject I want to study). I just wanted to get a feel for different subjects as I was initially an engineering student and didn't like the feel. OneArmedEcon: You're actually dead-on. I don't know how to make the leap from computational math to proof-based math. I might go borrow it from my university library or buy a used copy, thanks. Also, thanks for the JEP suggestion. The problem I often run into is that I understand the point they're trying to make, but I don't understand any of their evidence. Although I'm an economics student, I don't really know if economics is legit. I seriously don't respect most of the other social sciences or liberal arts (except philosophy, I love me some philosophy). They generally don't have much evidence to back up their claims, and every concept has 5 alternative propositions. If I can understand the evidence, I'll be able to adjudicate whether or not economics is legit. Nevertheless, I still like the subject, and feel like like I have a comparative advantage in it.

I'm interested in understanding economics papers a little more deeply. I'm a freshman undergraduate student, and most econ papers I try to read seem like jargon concatenated with Greek symbols. I'm guessing that academia does some of this on purpose, but I'm sure there is still some significant portion that is meaningful and insightful. I can learn the jargon with econ courses, and I will eventually learn the Greek through math courses. However, I can't just sit around for the rest of my UG experience for people to teach it to me. In your experience, what mathematical concepts have come up the most in economics papers and what standard undergraduate course/textbook would they be contained in? For example, if you've seen Lagrange multipliers used a lot, you might say, roughly paraphrasing: "yo, learn some of dat Lagrange **** from Calc3 cuz it useful" Thanks for your advice!

Thank you all for the excellent replies. I found behavingmyself's reply to be most satisfying. I guess my problem at this point is to figure out how exactly I'd do research. I haven't done anything noteworthy to the point that some professor should take me along with him/herself.

I'm currently studying engineering at the university of maryland, college park. I'm contemplating switching to econ/math as my majors. I would presumably get some research experience, and perhaps publish something. I have a keen interest in economics currently, and I think it's substantially more than my interest for engineering/science. I read economics papers and books in my free time and listen to economics podcasts in the car. I do want to attend a top 20 economics grad school if I do make the switch over to economics/math. 1. How important is undergrad reputation when applying to econ grad school? Will HYPS kids always beat me out? 2. How valuable is having a 4.0? I believe I can achieve that, but I'm not sure if it will really matter all that much considering my undergrad reputation. 3. How much research is necessary to get into a top 20 econ program? 4. Are there many jobs outside of academia?