philipcheesy

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Regional, mid-ranked liberal arts / year abroad at LSE Undergrad GPA: 3.9 Type of Grad: Analysis course at top 10 econ Grad GPA: B+ GRE: 170Q/170V/6.0AW Math Courses: (liberal arts, As) Calc II/III, Linear Algebra, Probability, Math Stats, Diff Eq, Topology, Analysis I, Big Data Analysis; (LSE, As) Game Theory, Discrete Math; (NYU Grad, B+) Analysis II Econ Courses: standard econ major route at undergrad, nothing very advanced; (LSE, A) Principles of Econometrics Other Courses: little bit of CS, little bit of economic history Letters of Recommendation: (1) undergrad senior thesis advisor, excellent; (2) main economist at Fed, very good; (3) function head economist at Fed, good (probably) Research Experience: 2 years as RA at Federal Reserve working in financial economics, following summer internship there; senior thesis (honors); student-led research group (sophomore summer); volunteer RA with development research startup (freshmen and sophomore summer) Teaching Experience: TA for probability, calc III, and real analysis Research Interests: Maybe financial economics, maybe experimental/behavioral, maybe education, maybe labor. Honestly, I'm very open to anything SOP: Standard, and maybe I should have spent more time on this. RESULTS: Acceptances: Minnesota, Wisconsin, UCSD, BU, Cornell (off waitlist), Wharton Applied Economics (off waitlist) Waitlists: Michigan, Penn Rejections: Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Chicago, Stanford, Booth, HBS, Sloan, Berkeley, Yale, NYU, Stern, Columbia, Columbia GSB, Northwestern, UCLA, Caltech, Brown, Duke Attending: Wharton Applied Economics Comments: It was a tough season emotionally (I'm coordinating with a partner headed to law school), but things turned out great. I'm thrilled to be headed to Wharton - I think that as a small, research focused program that invests in its students, it'll be a very good fit for me. What would you have done differently? I made some sloppy mistakes in my application that probably made me look unprofessional. These would have been the easiest to fix. Getting an A in Analysis would have been nice (obviously). General advice: apply for the NSF and apply to lots of programs. If you had told me one year ago that I would be attending Wharton Applied Economics, I would have said "what?" The expected value of an extra application is pretty high if you don't have a slam dunk application. Advice to applicants from lower ranked liberal arts schools: you are dealing with some disadvantages, but they are completely surmountable. Don't fall into complacency if things are easy for you in undergrad. Push yourself into places where you will be challenged and uncomfortable and definitely not the smartest person in the room. Admission committees will be hesitant to trust your letters and grades because they're unfamiliar with your program and, if you're honest with yourself, because you were not being challenged as much as students at more selective places. Use your program as a stepping stone to take more challenging courses and enter a rigorous RA program where you can prove yourself and become affiliated with a trusted name.

Ah, I see. Thank you!

I know that for many of us the application season won't be over until that April 15th deadline (or later), but I just wanted to know if there's going to be a profiles and results thread this year. I think there wasn't one in 2016 (or maybe it didn't get linked to the sticky post of old results). For me, these old results were very useful data points as I planned my courses and research to prepare for graduate school. I'd like to be able to contribute my experiences to future prospective economists.

Nope! Here's hoping I get the next one

In my opinion, that would be crazy. You have a long, and given your top 10 admit, likely successful career ahead of you. The sooner you get that PhD, the sooner you can start establishing yourself in the field. There's no reason to believe that a top program can't train any eager student into a solid theorist. In addition, who knows if theory / structural modeling will still be what you want to do in 3 - 5 years! Maybe you'd do the masters, get through your first two years, and realize you want to run RCTs and feel silly for wasting a year. Basically, high opportunity cost and uncertain, unlikely payoff. That having been said, if the offer you're thinking of deferring is Penn or Wharton Applied Econ, then by all means please do and free up a spot for me from the waitlist :)

Anyone have movement on any waitlists to report? I'm WL at Cornell, Penn, and Wharton Applied Econ, and would choose any of them over my current top choice (Minnesota, maybe Wisconsin). I know most of this action will probably start after visit days...

Has anyone heard anything about the Columbia GSB Business Economics program? That's the last of my applications I haven't heard from or seen anything about on GC.

In my opinion, you can't go wrong with 1) expressing how excited you are about the program and how happy you'd be to receive an offer to attend; 2) sending some sort of updated material e.g. an updated resume or grades (if good); 3) attending the open house as a way to signal your interest, hobnob with faculty, and learn more about the program so if you do end up being able to choose it at the last minute, you can make an informed decision. These things might work better at some places than others, but I feel like they can only help. As someone who's waitlisted at Penn, Wharton Applied Econ, and Cornell, I share your frustration!

Duke's apparent policy of releasing 1 - 2 acceptances is really starting to get on my nerves...I'd rather they just release a big wave so that I can see it's over.

Institution: Stanford GSB Program: PhD in Economics Decision: Rejected Notification date: 2/17/17 Notified via: email to check website

Institution: Wisconsin Madison Program: PhD Economics Decision: Accepted Funding: 1st year fellowship - $23K Notification date: 2/14/2017 Notified via: email

Institution: Minnesota, Twin Cities Program: PhD Economics Decision: Accepted Funding: 17.5K TA + 5K Stipend, Notification date: 2/7/2017 Notified via: email

Some acceptances for Minnesota econ went up today. Anyone here get any news? Do you think today is going to be their main round of acceptances?

The core math courses mentioned on most econ/policy program websites as the minimum are multivariable calculus, linear algebra, probability, and math stats. Make sure to take these in the math department as opposed to econ department equivalents. Good luck!

I work with a recently graduated Wharton PhD who told me that at his program, and finance programs in general, they don't necessarily interview everyone they extend offers to. He himself was never interviewed before being accepted. Plus, I'm sure that as with regular admissions, schools focus on a first tier of candidates and see how many seem like probable admits/attending before sending out more waves of interviews.