SystemicRisk

Thank you!

Accepted my offer from Sloan and withdrew/declined the rest! Good luck everyone!

Welcome! As I am just planning to enter a program next year, too, I am by no means an expert. However, the advice I have been given is that you want to minimize outside commitments during your first year. You will be VERY busy with coursework, so I can imagine with any extra TA duties, it will be nightmarish. It's probably doable, but it depends on how badly you want Mich over UCLA. Enough to be close to miserable one year? Also... Michigan winters. I don't think I need to say much more than that! Both are great programs! If it was me, I'd do UCLA for the reason mentioned above. How do they match your research interests?

They hate us cause they ain't us

As someone likely going to Sloan... Ouch... Don't worry, I don't take it personally. :encouragement: In all seriousness, I looked back and saw you mentioned HBS as somewhere you got in, so presumably you ARE interested in finance/business economics. Therefore, I change what I said before: If you want to work in those fields go to the business school! Placement is almost always (you can check online yourself) an easier job coming from a B-school. I know I applied to both econ and b-schools, but I would only have gone econ if I got an offer that strictly dominated my b-school choices. Given that neither MIT econ/Harvard econ strictly dominate HBS.... Well you can guess my answer. ^^ All of that is conditional on you being interested/set on finance as a field.

I'm not impartial in my overall preference, but it is objectively true that MIT is physically closer to Boston, proper, if that is of any concern. I sent an email to friend at JPAL to ask about the program (MIT's), and she mentioned that there is a great deal of cross-pollination between the schools. You are, to my knowledge, allowed free reign to take courses at both programs and even get an adviser at the other school. She did mention (keep in mind she's at JPAL so also probably not impartial) that more Harvard kids take classes at MIT than vice versa, anecdotally. However, I think I would do the same as you if I had to make the choice: Visit and ask around, especially the grad students.

Danke schon!

In relation to my last post... Just withdrew my last 2 economics PhD applications. I'm off to become a financial economist. Maybe some of you will join the dark side and come over to my field someday. Go go finance!

If you had told me in January that I would have gotten into 1 econ program (with 9 rejections), but into one of my top 2 finance choices (and wait listed at the other top choice) along with some other great finance offers I was lucky to get.... I would have laughed you out of cyberspace. I would have said the reversal was much MORE likely. Just an interesting observation that I've made before: Programs really do match you up with fit. I'm not saying I deserved all those econ acceptances, but I did say in my SOP I was interested in financial economics (and my research is in that area). Just like that... BAM! My school selection is heavily skewed to finance. Perhaps the system works better than people give it credit for?

Institution: Berkeley Program: Economics PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: Notification Date: 3/4/15 Notified Through: Mass email Posted on GC: Yes Comments:

I struggled with this too. I will say all the professors/programs I emailed saying I wouldn't be able to attend responded very graciously. I like to think of two things to make it easier: 1) Do you think the schools that rejected YOU feel bad? No. And, even if you were hurt by a rejection, do bear ill will? Do you feel betrayed by that school? No. It's just part of the game. They know it, too. The schools you turn down will have turned down many applicants, themselves. 2) Think about the people on the wait lists of those schools? I always ended my emails with something about best of luck to the other applicants. You've seen all the posts on GC about "This is my dream school. If you have a better offer, please decline." Think about those people. At the end of the day, the tough decisions between schools are tough for a reason. Usually the schools are almost "equally good" in your eyes. Thus, I find it hard to believe that you would fail in Y but not in X, for example. And if X is ranked >>> than Y, well, as someone told me, "The kid at the bottom of his class at Stanford/MIT/Harvard/etc is not necessarily the top student at another school."

Institution: Cornell Program: Economics PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: Notification Date: 3/4/15 Notified Through: Email Posted on GC: Yes Comments:

Institution: Harvard Program: PhD Decision: Rejected Notification Date: 3/3/15 Notified Through: Checked site

Thank you!

Just withdrew my name from some schools. Good luck to those on the wait lists! Go get em!!! Feels good to be close to finalizing my decision. Though was lucky to have wonderful choices, I think we can all agree that this process is torture.

Institution: UPenn Program: Economics, PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: Notification Date: 3/2/15 Notified Through: Website Posted on GC: Yes Comments: I'm lucky enough that I can't say I care.... Good luck to everyone and don't lose hope! I'll have a few more rejections to post, I'm sure

Institution: MIT Sloan Program: Finance, PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Dunno Notification Date: 2/27/15 Notified Through: Email Posted on GC: Yes Comments: Dying of Happiness

Institution: University of Chicago Program: Economics, PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: Notification Date: 2/27/15 Notified Through: Email Posted on GC: Yes Comments:

Institution: Stanford University Program: Economics, PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: Notification Date: 2/27/15 Notified Through: website Posted on GC: Yes Comments:

Institution: Columbia GSB Program: Finance, Ph. D Decision: Wait listed Funding: Notification date: 26 Feb 2015 Notified through: email Posted on GC: Yes Comments:

I would ask them by when you need to respond. I would go to the visit day if you don't get accepted/hear back from your dream school by the deadline. If you get in to your dream school eventually, they're not going to rescind your acceptance because you couldn't make your visit day. Just explain you made a prior commitment but you're quite certain you plan to accept their offer.

I have yet to hear from UPenn, NWU, Chicago, or Harvard. I'm not a fan of the implicit rejection game, but I'll assume they are. As I said on the finance thread in the Business PhD section, I've been astounded with how much better I've been doing with finance programs vs. econ programs. Thus, I'm not holding out hope for any more of my econ applications, but I'll await my finance ones more anxiously!

Still nothing for me

Would really love to hear back from Stern and Sloan soon... And what's going on with Booth... All quiet on the northern front.

Institution: Princeton Program: Economics, PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: Notification Date: 2/24/15 Notified through: Email Comments: