ExclamationMarx

I agree with Econhead. While the star placement won't differ much, the median placement from BU and a school ranked significantly better will. A few years ago I was in a similar situation. I wasn't happy with my placement, so I chose the MA route before reapplying. It worked out, but in retrospect it was risky. I'd only advise it if you're confident that you can be at the top of your Master's class. Also be sure that your Master's program places into the PhD programs you're targeting. To be honest, I wish that the economics job market wasn't so reliant on pedigree. But, it is, and so it may be worthwhile to delay starting a program if you're confident that it can significantly bump you up the pedigree ladder. Otherwise, BU is still a good program.

An A is definitely going to be viewed more favorably than an A-. It's difficult to say by how much. The main difference is that an A- shows that you've hit a ceiling in the class, at least grade-wise, whereas the performance of someone who received an A can range from just good enough to receive an A to so exceptional that an A was effortless.

Sure. But you should know that most of the students at your target schools have this or similar experience along with excellent grades. Like mentioned above, those with subpar grades who are accepted into the programs you're considering usually have something else that helps them stand out. But, this something else is probably more difficult to acquire than just getting good grades in your undergraduate math and economics classes.

There is a wealth of information on here regarding profile results. The best way to answer your question is to look at how other applicants have faired. That being said, your GPA does matter beyond whatever floor a program imposes. To take the obvious example, a student with a 3.6 will be disadvantaged compared to a student with a 3.9+, especially if the difference in grades is in math and economics classes. If you're planning on applying to PhD programs directly out of undergrad your target schools should be your reach schools, and even then they'll likely only be a possibility if you have mostly A's or A-'s in your remaining classes. A B- and a couple A-'s in the early calculus and statistics classes do not send a strong signal, so you need to overcome this as much as possible, especially as even at your target schools most successful applicants will have much higher GPA's than you currently have. Just take a look at the results on this forum. Fortunately, it looks like you're already thinking about this early on as an undergrad, which means you still have a chance to turn it around and improve your profile enough to get into those target schools, or even a reach school if you do exceptionally well across the board with your future grades, research, GRE scores, letters of recommendation, applications writing, etc.

While it's right to heavily weight placements in your decision, when looking at placements there are three points to keep in mind: 1. Focus on median placements. 2. Focus on placements in your desired fields. For example, I imagine macro students at WUSTL place especially well. 3. Students who speak English as a native language have an advantage on the job market. So, focus on the placements of those who do/don't speak English as their native language as it applies to you. I'd first filter the placements of both schools through these three considerations before analyzing how they apply to you.

Wisconsin by a substantial margin.

Hey now, them be fightin' words! Hopkins and Baltimore are both great. I'd go back just for Miss Shirley's Cafe.

In which field is the "would plow" comment common?

While the advice is normally to ignore field strengths, it's essential when considering Minnesota. Minnesota specializes in macro and IO. If you're comfortable being limited to those two fields, I would go to Minnesota. Otherwise, I would go to Duke.

Aren't there only a couple professors at Minnesota who do micro theory? If you have a strict preference for it, it might be rough to try to tough it out at Minnesota, even though their department is ranked higher than Penn State (though, like kmilo said, their ranking is based on their success in macro and IO.)

I'm sure you know this already, but both programs are strong in development. I wouldn't worry about differences in stipend. If you're funded, it will be enough to live on. More significant are the job prospects of graduates. As long as you're confident you'll pass the prelims, I would go with Brown. The median placement at Brown is much better than at BU--to the point that it should make up for the cost of that first year. Their placements are only equal at the very top, but that's an unreliable method to choose a school. Another consideration might be whether you'd prefer a smaller (Brown) or larger department (BU.)

No problem! Best of luck with the choice. You can't go wrong with any of them. This forum also seems to undervalue a lot of the non-anglophone schools. In addition, imagine as an international student you have the following choice: 1. a good US research school not located in a major city (this is a placement job market candidates are still supposed to kill for.) 2. a lower ranked school that is one of the best in your home country, and is most likely located in a major international city. It's not uncommon for international students to choose the latter, especially if they have family considerations.

Absolutely. I can't imagine any professor having a problem with honestly talking about attrition rates.

I just grabbed these NYU placements from econjobrumors. After cross-checking some of the placements, it looks legitimate. 2013-2014 Students on the market: 16 Minnesota (Assistant Professor Economics) Brown (Assistant Professor of Economics) 2x Federal Reserve Board (Economist) Universidad de los Andes in Bogota (Assistant Professor of Economics) NYU Abu Dhabi (post-doctoral fellowship) IMF (Research Economist) Cornell (Assistant Professor of Economics) Virginia (Assistant Professor of Economics) Universidad Di Tella in Argentina (Assistant Professor of Economics) NYU Law School (Assistant Professor of Law) HEC/Ecole Polytechnique, Paris (post-doctoral fellowship, 2 years) WorldBank research department (Research Economist) UBC (Assistant Professor Economics) UCSD (Assistant Professor Economics) LSE (Assistant Professor Economics) 2012-2013 Students on the market: 14 Korean Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (Assistant Professor Economics) Peking University (Assistant Professor of Economics) Analysis Group, Boston (Associate) York University (Assistant Professor of Economics) Paris School of Economics (Assistant Professor of Economics) University of California/Riverside (Assistant Professor Economics) IMF (Research Economist) Wharton School of Finance (Assistant Professor of Finance) University British Columbia (Assistant Professor of Economics) University of Cambridge (Assistant Professor of Economics) Washington University, Olin B. School (Assistant Professor of Economics) Stanford GSB (Assistant Professor of Economics) University of Vienna (Assistant Professor of Economics) Bilkent University (Assistant Professor of Economics) 2011-2012 Students on the market: 23 Columbia University Business School (Assistant Professor Economics) University of Oklahoma (Assistant Professor Economics and International and Areas Studies) Analysis Group, Boston (Associate) Shanghai U Finance and Economics (Assistant Professor of Economics) Rochester Institute of Technology (Assistant Professor Economics) Analysis Group, Chicago (Associate) CarnegieMellon University (post-doctoral fellowship, 2 years) UniversitySouthern California (Assistant Professor Economics) European Central Bank (Economist) University of Vienna (Assistant Professor of Economics) 3 x Federal Reserve Board (Economist) HEC, Paris (Assistant Professor of Economics) University of Oslo (Assistant Professor of Economics) Yeshiva University (Assistant Professor of Economics) University College London (Assistant Professor of Economics) Analysis Group, Boston (Associate Economist) Norwegian Business School, Finance Department (Assistant Professor of Finance andEconomics) Bank of Mexico (Economist) University of California at Santa Barbara (Assistant Professor Economics) Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Assistant Professor Finance) IMF (Research Economist) 2010-2011 Students on the market: 20 McGill University, Canada (Assistant Professor of Economics) Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (Research Economist and Assistant Policy Advisor) National Taiwan University (Assistant Professor Economics) Universidad Diego Portales, Chile (Assistant Professor Economics) New Economic School, Moscow (Assistant Professor Economics) Harvard Business School (Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit) Barnard College (Assistant Professor Economics) Xiamen University (Assistant Professor of Economics) Ozyegin University, Turkey (Assistant Professor Economics) Universityof Essex, England (Assistant Professor Economics) University of Southern California (Assistant Professor Economics) Cornerstone Research (Research Economist) Credit Suisse (Trading Strategist) Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (Economist) Bergen Business School (Assistant Professor of Economics) Federal Reserve Board (Economist) University of Sydney Business School (Assistant Professor Finance) Tsinghua University (Assistant Professor Economics) University of Pittsburgh (Assistant Professor of Economics) PUC-Rio, Brazil (Assistant Professor of Economics)

I agree with the above poster. While the location might not be the best, I'd make sure to take a look at Penn State's placements. Their recent placements include Northwestern, University of Chicago (x2), University of Toronto (x3), Carnegie Mellon (x3), UT-Austin, Penn State, NYU, UNC and Iowa, almost all of which are tenure track placements. I'd take a look at the CVs of these placements and see if they match your field or worked with your potential advisors. You also can't go wrong with BU and Davis (the former places better than the latter), but it's tough to match PSU's placement history.

Those are all great programs, but Michigan is definitely the strongest program out of the three. Maryland would come in a strong second behind Michigan, and although Penn State would be ranked last out of the three, they still have some fabulous placements at the top of their graduating classes.

My brain just exploded with the absolutely brilliant insights of this post.

In terms of their overall programs, Wisconsin is a tier ahead of both BU and Cornell. The difference has become more pronounced in recent years due to Wisconsin's good hires and an uptick in placements. I'd give a nod to BU for not having to TA in the first year and location, although Madison is nice as well. I visited Cornell, and while it's a fine program, I'd fear turning into a depressed mess if I spent too much time in Ithaca, especially over the winter. I would advocate for choosing a program based on overall ranking rather than strengths in specific fields as interests frequently change over the first couple of years. However, in applied micro Wisconsin still comes out ahead of both BU and Cornell to a significant degree.

I'm interested in this as well. Any insights would be much appreciated.