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Odysseus56

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  1. Odysseus56
    Now this is a bummer. Can one forget about an IMF or any other internship then? How does it work for the grad students who are RA'ing at the local Feds? To my knowledge some have even offices there. Looking for a part-time job off campus would be silly. But what would be the best use for summer? What I had in mind was an internship at IMF or similar institutions - ones which would be potentially interesting for me to work at after graduation.
  2. Odysseus56
    Minneapolis to be precise. Obviously nobody is doing a PhD for money, but if there is a possibility to apply your skills and training and raise yourself above poverty level - why not?
  3. Odysseus56
    Hey guys, I am wondering if anyone has any useful advice how to optimize one's financial situation as a grad student. As an international student I am really clueless about it. I got a fellowship for the first year with 22k stipend, tuition and insurance covered. In the 2nd year and after I will have to teach for ca. 19k and tuition and insurance covered. I guess the money are OK for Midwest, but still I am not very thrilled. I know my department has a few fellowships for the best student, best public policy paper etc. that I could aim for too. So my questions are: 1) How much is actually 20k in Midwest? 2) Can one combine fellowships and teaching? Seems like one could reach above 30k with both. 3) How common is it to work in summer and how much one could aim for? I am thinking about IMF, central banks internship, maybe some consulting. 4) What are other streams of income? Best paper competitions, journal articles etc.?
  4. Odysseus56
    OP, if you are so stressed about grades, I think you could benefit from taking a gap year between college and PhD and just work for a while. You'll see a lot of other things and will realize that grades while important are not the things that should put you in a panic mode. And maybe your preferences will shift and you will decide that you don't need a grad school at all.
  5. Odysseus56
    Neither. From a non-EU European country. Why?
  6. Odysseus56
    Hey guys, I heard on econjobmarketrumors that three of the senior faculty of Minnesota (V.V. Chari, Rios-Rull and Patrick Kehoe) are leaving the university. While ejmr is a garbage dump in terms of quality of people, they seem to know something. Given that I want to start my program there in September, this seems very concerning. Any one knows about it?
  7. Odysseus56
    During and after my application process I thought a lot about what I would like to do after I finish my PhD. I realized that while I enjoy research and am good at it, I really do not want to be a professor. I would much rather employ the knowledge to contribute to real world problems, policy work etc. This is why IMF, WB, similar international institutions, think-tanks and some consultancy firms seem like a perfect fit for me. Now some people say that PhD is generally worth it only if someone wants to pursue academic career afterwards; that it is a bad fit/useless for someone wanting to work in policy-related job afterwards. And I see these comments quite often. Yet I see many, many people with PhD's in IMF, WB and other institutions. And usually at least half of senior staff in economic consultancies have PhD's too; the share of PhD's in serious economic policy think-tanks is even larger. While I admit that one can be successful in this field without a PhD, the degree seems like the more "standard" and easier way in. What do you guys think?
  8. Odysseus56
    Btw, has anyone ever finished Minnesota's program in 4 years?
  9. Odysseus56
    From what I heard from other members and my advisors, the professional experience counts little for PhD admissions in general (unless it is on a specific academic (!) paper). But if you can show that during it you acquired skills that will be useful for PhD (Stata e.g.) that could be a plus. Anyway, I would suggest to do those internships - they may help you significantly later on when applying for jobs. I am not sure why some people keep insisting on it. If he wants to work in WB/IMF/Fed/think-tank/central bank and has an ability to do a PhD (i.e. good math skills), then getting an econ PhD is a very solid way to get in and build his career. Many people have mentioned on this forum that without a PhD it is possible to hit a glass ceiling in all of these organizations fairly soon, apart from the fact that getting in is easier done with PhD anyway.
  10. Odysseus56
    You can check out this thread: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/154324-so-how-hard-exactly-grad-students-life.html
  11. Odysseus56
    That's nice. How common is it to pack the summers with internships? I don't remember seeing many people do it. I guess, working on own research represents quite an opportunity cost.
  12. Odysseus56
    Guys, as I am from Europe, I am just wondering how the yearly schedule for grad students looks like in the US. Are there summer/winter holidays? Any chance to do some internships in summer?
  13. Odysseus56
    Isn't it a bit silly that PhD works mostly as a "signalling" rather than an actual preparation in this case? I get an impression that tasks of many jobs could be well-done by a smart MPP graduate, yet almost necessitate a PhD to break in.
  14. Odysseus56
    Hey guys, I just read the whole thread and found quite a few useful comments (apart from the PAny's debate, but oh well...). Thanks. Sorry to leave the thread unattended - was very busy with personal life and being sick. Examining my interests very closely I realized that a public policy degree would probably be a bit more fun for me. Yet almost all people (profs, think-tank people) that I talked to mentioned that an econ PhD dominates a public policy PhD and that it can open many more doors than any PP PhD. How true is it? Personally I would have no problem crunching through a few more extra equations, but I feel I would kinda miss all those discussions on the theory of a government and implementation of reforms. (Especially if I want to come back to my developing country one day.)
  15. Odysseus56
    Guys, I only recently found out about this school and its program seems wicked nice for someone who wants to do policy-oriented research related to development and macro (and has a strong preference for Europe). Yet all the threads around here are at least 5 years old. I didn't apply to it and already have some offers which will probably accept, but this program seems really really nice (almost makes me want to wait another year and go there). Do you know how it compares to the US top 10-20 and how competitive it is? And how is the quality? I assume you won't enter academia in the US with that degree, but for Europe and intl. organizations it should be top pretty good.
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