kalyea

FWIW I got into multiple T-50 programs with a 161 quant score. If you feel like you can do better next time by all means take it again, but if you can't improve your score its not the end of the world. I know it certainly didn't help me to have such a low quant score, but it wasn't bad enough to keep me out of some pretty decent programs.

Publishing is a long process. It can often take well over a year of submitting, waiting for review, editing, and resubmitting. Unless you have something ready to go right now (and probably even if you do), the odds are very slim that it will have been accepted by a journal by the time it's time to apply to schools for 2014.

MIT and other Boston schools are probably going to not have anything out for the rest of the day given what is happening there.

I have some pretty significant health issues that have affected my profile pretty substantially. Instead of talk about them in my SOP, my letter writers wrote about them. I think this is a good way to go about it (and it worked out well for me), because it allows you to concentrate on the positive in your SOP but also allows the issue to be addressed. If you talk about it can come off as making excuses, even if they are valid.

Profile: Type of Undergrad: Decent private school, BA Econ and Math Undergrad GPA: 3.75 Type of Grad: Grad GPA: GRE: 161Q 158V 5.0AW Math Courses: Calc I-III (A, B+, A), General Stats (A), Linear Algebra (A), Math Reasoning (A), Probability Theory (A), Diff eq( taking now) Econ Courses (grad-level): Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Principles (B+), Intermediate Micro (A), International Trade and Finance (B+), Intermediate Macro (A-), Pricing Policies (A), The Spanish Economy (took abroad, A), Urban Development (A-), Econometrics (A), Senior Sem (A) Other Courses: a couple of accounting and finance classes Letters of Recommendation: All should be excellent, and two that publish pretty frequently Research Experience: Research assistant, thesis, independent research in the math department Teaching Experience: none Research Interests: Macro, labor SOP: Probably above average Concerns: no analysis, relatively unknown school Other: I spent 2 summers at the fed Applying to: UT Austin, Vanderbilt, UVA, UNC, Indiana, UC Davis, U of Washington, Georgetown, UC Irvine (Accepted with $), Clemson (Accepted with $) Results: Acceptances: Clemson ($$), UC Irvine ($$), Indiana (waitlisted $), UNC ($$) Waitlists:U of Washington Rejections:Vanderbilt, UVA, UC Davis, Georgetown, UT Attending: UNC Comments: I think I have done as well as I could have hoped for. Coming from a pretty unknown school with no graduate program, I am extremely happy. I think this is a good representation of what you can do without coming from a known school. Overall I think this is as good as I could have hoped for. What would I have done differently:I would have started talking math classes a lot earlier than I did. I fit a whole major into essentially three semesters. I also would have studied more for the GRE and made sure that I was going to get atleast a 165. I know that I am capable of that, and I know that it affected my results. Other than that I worked very hard for a long time, and I'm thrilled that it has paid off and culminated into this.

Women wear yoga pants because they're comfortable! Or you know, to actually do yoga. The whole reason yoga pants are made is so that when women exercise they don't have to wear shorts and risk them riding up (which happens when you do yoga). Is it so incomprehensible that when women dress down to exercise or just be comfortable that they dont really want to be leered at? You would be amazed (though I hope not) at how many girls (women) hate being checked out by random men and are made uncomfortable by it. When you check out women in yoga pants its typically from behind, so you can't exactly see their facial expressions. You're educated and intelligent, do I really have to explain to you why equating women to scenery for you to enjoy is problematic?

I definitely agree with this. Im 22 but still get asked for my ID at rated R movies sometimes. If one more person condescendingly calls me "sweetie" or "honey" Im going to flip. Also, objectifying young women because they wear yoga pants is not cool.

I was way more busy in high school than I ever was in undergrad. Left every day for school by 7:00, went straight from school to dance, which ended at 10 every night (It was a pre-professional program), then went home and ate, did homework, and crashed around 2, only to wake up and do it all again 4.5 hours later. I think its easy to lose track of how difficult things used to be when you're immersed in something else. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

This is going to sound a little harsh, but if you want to have a hope of breaking the top 30 you have got to find a way to take more math classes and probably econometrics. Differential equations, probability theory, and RA II are all good options. As far as schools go both UC Davis and UC Irvine have pretty good econ history programs. Gary Richardson at UC Irvine was recently named the economic historian for the Federal Reserve, which he does as well as teach and advise students. He also is very open to coauthoring with students.

Dil, did you end up emailing the DGS at UW or did the rejection come randomly? I think I will probably email tomorrow if I still haven't heard anything.

Anyone know whats happening the University of Washington? I realize that I probably won't receive a funded offer at this point, but it is my last school left and I would like some cclosure.

I'm also from a small private school without a graduate program. I would start by looking to see if your school offers any scholarships or grants for undergraduate research. Mine offers quite a few, some of which are quite substantial. If no one in the econ department can offer you an RA position, you might want to check with other departments. I coauthored a paper with a professor in the math department that is going to be published, which I think helped me in the admissions process. Also, I think you have the right idea with your summers. Use them wisely. The World Bank sounds good, and you can also look at the Federal Reserve internships at both the board and the regional feds. The internships in the research and statistics department as well as monetary affairs are usually pretty research heavy. Finally, take your thesis (if you have one) seriously. Start early and make it something that you want to talk about and continue later.

Not that this is of much use to you, but I am deciding between the same two schools (and UC Irvine). Even though my interests are different (growth and development), I am very interested about what people have to say here.

Institution: UNC Chapel Hill Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Yes Notification date: 4/01/2013 Notified through: Email, phone call, then follow up official email Posted on GC: no Comments: Happy birthday to me :). Very excited.

I received an email from UNC last night asking if I'm still interested. They asked for a phone number so that we could discuss funding, so I'm assuming that there is still some funding left.

FWIW I'm from an unknown school without a graduate program and have been accepted to multiple top 50 programs. It's not top 10, but its something. With the way everyone is talking now it would seem like I had no hope, but where you (and your letters) are from isn't everything. At least it wasn't in my case.

I haven't heard from UNC either. Im not very hopeful that it means anything good. That being said Im fairly sure I wasn't in the auto reject pile because they emailed and asked for my fall grades awhile back. Probably the pile that was rejected after some consideration.

Institution: Indiana Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Waitlisted Notification date: 3/22/2013 Notified through: email Posted on GC: No Comments: Email made it seem like you could get funding if you really wanted to go there. This is going to make for a tough decision.

Yeah, they did

I just got impatient and called UVA. A very nice woman told me that she is putting in the last of the decisions now, and told me I was "very close to being waitlisted." Better than eliminating me based on GRE scores, I guess.

I still haven't heard from UVA (ugh) but others have said when you scroll down on apply yourself it's there.

Institution: Vanderbilt Program: PhD in Economics Decision: Rejection Notification date: 03/08/2013 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: expected but sad :(

Still nothing from UVA. These schools are toying with my emotions. I've only heard from 3/10, and all have made moves except for Indiana.

You got an offer from UW Seattle? I was under the impression that UW hadn't moved at all yet.

If that's the case then: Dear UVA, please put me out of my misery.