bodwiser

Hi All, (Not sure if the is the right forum for this sort of a question. Please excuse me if not) Here is my background: I was enrolled in a decent PhD economics program (top 30) back in 2018. Soon after I started out in August, my personal life took a a turbulent turn and pretty early on (circa Dec'18 - Jan'19) I decided to drop out of the program and return to my home country, due to urgent family+personal reasons. Now that things are returning to normal slowly but surely, I want to pick up the pieces and get back on track. So I am planning to apply for next year's cycle. But I have a ton of questions that are making me pretty concerned. Could you guys please share your thoughts on these ? 1) Whether I should talk about these developments in my personal letter, in detail? (emphasis on "detail") 2) I am skeptical about whether the schools I am applying to will buy this. (For understandable reasons) the schools might suspect that I dropped out because I failed my prelims (truth is, my aim was only to graduate with the Master's degree and come back ASAP) 3) Don't know if my previous letter writers will consent to writing a letter again. 3.1) Since nothing has changed between the last time they wrote it (2017) and this year I wonder if the same letter can be reused? 4) Will the fact that I was once enrolled in a PhD program, in general, hurt my chances of re-entry into another? Thanks a lot, all!

Hi All, Requesting views, experiences, opinions on below dilemma: I'm currently in my first year (and first semester) at a top-30 PhD program in the US, but now needing to relocate to Europe for (entirely) personal, and unavoidable reasons. Most EU schools have a cap on the number of letters I can submit and I have to optimize on which letters I choose: do I choose a letter from my current university, so that the admissions committee do not think that I am quitting because of any bad experiences or due to failing my exams here? (Such a letter will reduce information asymmetry but it will not be as strong as my other letters because it will be built off of just 2 months of interaction with my professor, and grade A-, on his subject. OR Do I submit letters from my old professors who know me better, and can write a relatively more detailed letter. Also, I know those letters are not bad because they got me into this T-30 program in the first place!. The drawback with this strategy is that reviewers will not have any faculty's validation/assessment about my performance at current phd program. They will have my transcript though, and my SOP, where I shall clearly state my reasons for moving. Thanks a lot !

Anymore, folks ??

Hi all, I am faced with a dilemma and need valuable comments. Any help would be appreciated. So, I am in my first year at a top 30 US program. However, due to personal reasons I must have to move to Europe. So I am considering applying to EU programs again. My interest is in behavioral economics. I've some questions: 1) I've been hearing things like the "ideology" or the "philosophy" of US phd and EU phd are very different. What does that translate into when it comes to brass tacks ? 2) I'm not keen on working strictly in the US post PhD and would likely go back to my country. So does my US or EU degree really matter ? 3) Also heard that EU looks at the whole admission process as "hiring a researcher" as opposed to "admitting a grad student" in the US. True ? If yes, what exactly do they look for/expect in my application 4) For a moment, ignoring the commonly believed notion that there is an unsaid "bias" against EU degrees when it comes to US job market, is a European degree really at a disadvantage ? 5) How is the research atmosphere in EU. student-advisor relations ? (of course cannot generalize this one but still.. vague idea) 6) Reapplying from a top 30 US program might help or hinder my chances ? 7) Funding outlook at EU ? 8) For behavioral econ, I am considering U of Zurich, TSE, Stockholm. Any more ? Thanks a lot ,friends! :D

Thanks for the advice guys! I am wait-listed at a top 10 university and my dream school! I feel no shame in admitting that these days are pretty stressful and I am rattled by the thought that someone is unlikely to reject their offer so it falls into my lap! To make things worse the email from the program said forthrightly that the "waitlist was not ranked and was quite small". I'd be foolish to infer from that statement that I am the only one on their waitlist. So that rules out the option of going back to the school and asking for my rank. Can someone please suggest an alternative to extract more information ? Thanks!

Anybody here planning to decline their Booth quant marketing offer ? Thanks!

I have admits from these places. I am interested in behavioral/experimental economics. UCSC has one big name in this field (Dan Friendman) and even in my interview it looked like the professor was trying to hard-sell his program to me. I even got an email from Dan about UCSC's experimental lab and its strenghts etc. Wisconsin on the other hand (mind you, it's the business school, not econ department) has some nice work going on in behavioral economics in the context of health insurance choices (and possibly applied to asset allocation in general). My interest is also in household finance. Santa Cruz is a great place and Wisconsin winters are dreadful. Also, attrition at UW business is almost non-existent and their prelims do not have the traditional macro/micro/metrics requirement. UCSC has good record of corporate placements but not many academic placements. I am really confused between them. Requesting any guidance please !

Anyone please ?

Firstly, apologies for the format of presentation. If there is a standard template, I am not aware of it. Moving on.... Profile overview: Interest 1: Behavioral Economics Interest 2: Macro/Finance M.S. Economics (top 15 US university) 3.83/4.00 MBA - Finance (top 10 university in India) 5.53/10.00 B.Tech - Civil Engineering (Top 10 university in India) 7.87/10.00 GARP-awarded Certification of "Financial Risk Management" Corporate experience: 3 yrs. with Citibank India Math courses: Graduate level Real Analysis - A grade. Graduate level Math for Economists - A grade Undergrad Linear Algebra & Calculus, Probability & Stats.: AB and A GRE: QA - 166. VA - 161. Taking it again to crack 170 (hopefully) RA experience: Worked for a well-known/well connected Behavioral Economist at current university. Not a very long working assignment- hardly 2 months. But prof. seemed happy with my work. Letters of Recommendation (in order of expected usefulness) 1) Above mentioned behavioral economist (seemed happy with my work. very open about letter. "You do my work; I write your letter" kind of a policy. he is from UC-Berkeley) 2) Math professor who taught Real Analysis (he might have decent things to say about me. got his PhD from one of the best places for Math in Europe) 3) A Micro-theorist from my university who is from Stanford (he will probably say I got an A in his class. I don't expect him to say anything more than that) 4) Tentative: An international macroeconomist who will probably just say about my A grade in her class. 5) Tentative: A well-known labour economist who will probably just say about my A grade in his class. 6) Tentative: A Yale macroeconomist who will probably just say about my A grade in his class. My no. 1 recommender told me flatout to not apply to Harvard and MIT (Not that I was going to anyway) But, should I apply to other top places like UC-Berkeley (dream college), Booth for behavioral, Yale SOM for behavioral Finance ? (No. 1 recommender has research papers with people at both places) Can someone please suggest some "safety" schools. That said, I don't think there exist "safety" schools for behavioral Econ because most of the research happens in the top 15-25 colleges. Perhaps some colleges that can speak to my second interest - macro ? Thank you very much for any help that is extended!:encouragement:

Hi , I will be applying to PhD programs this year but I have a major confusion in my head right at the onset. I call it the trilemma "PhD Finance vs. PhD Economics (Business School" vs. PhD Economics (Dept. of Economics) For ex: How can I know the difference between say Northwestern Dept. of Economics PhD Economics vs. Kellogg PhD. Finance vs. Kellogg PhD Managerial Economics (Yes, more choices do mess with our preferences! :disgust: ) First, a bit about my background: I am studying MS Economics at a top 15 US university. I am an Engineer + an MBA (finance concentration) (both from well ranked universities back in my home-country. (Does it matter?)) + 3 yrs. of corporate experience in a reputed multinational bank + FRM certification (does it matter ?) So the following issues perplex me: 1) The said trilemma 2) Given my background, what should I bank on more? PhD econ or PhD finance ? (Both have their pros and cons like finance having generous funding but a more brutal selection process, absence of Corp. finance/ asset pricing in economics but relatively easy to get into etc.) So this just adds to the indecisiveness ! I am interested in the intersection of Finance/Macro. 3) I am also interested in Behavioral Finance. Since it is not a mainstream area yet, I am a bit skeptical about mentioning this in my SOP - I have been told to stick to more run-of-the-mill topics. Would request thoughts on this please. 4) How important is GRE ? I have 166/170 (92 percentile) in quant, 161/170 is VA but 3.5 in AWA. Should I take the exam again? 5) How can I make a stronger profile for Finance? Thanks a lot guys ! :encouragement:

Hi Friends! Firstly, I am pretty sure that similar threads exist somewhere in this forum but instead of posting my question on those and hoping for them to revive, I am starting to a new one since I desperately need some advice! So I will be applying to PhD programs this year but I have the captioned confusion in my head. For ex: How can I know the difference between say Northwestern Dept. of Economics - PhD Economics vs. Kellogg PhD. Finance vs. Kellogg PhD Managerial Economics (Yes, more choices do mess with our preferences! :disgust: ) A bit about my profile First, a bit about my background: I am studying MS Economics at a top 15 US university. I am an Engineer + an MBA (finance concentration) (both from well ranked universities back in my home-country. (Does it matter?)) + 3 yrs. of corporate experience in a reputed multinational bank + FRM certification (does it matter ?) So the following issues perplex me: 1) The captioned question. 2) Given my background, what should I bank on more? PhD econ or PhD finance ? (Both have their pros and cons like finance having generous funding but a more brutal selection process, absence of Corp. finance/ asset pricing in economics but relatively easy to get into etc.) So this just adds to the indecisiveness ! I am interested in the intersection of Finance/Macro. 3) I am also interested in Behavioral Finance. Since it is not a mainstream area yet, I am a bit skeptical about mentioning this in my SOP - I have been told to stick to the more run of the mill topics. Would request thoughts on this please. 4) How important is GRE ? I have 166/170 (92 percentile) in quant, 161/170 is VA but 3.5 in AWA. Should I take the exam again? 5) How can I make a stronger profile for Finance? Thanks a lot guys ! :encouragement:

@pqhai, Thanks! So do they offer tuition reduction in some cases ? I was not aware of that because they mention on their webpage, no financial assistance of any sort.

@pqhai: Did you say you got admitted to UT's MA Econ with $ ?? Last I heard the MA at Austin does not offer financial assistance of any sort. Please correct me if I am wrong. Incidentally, I have also been admitted to Austin's Econ MA. I will most likely accept the offer.

Hi All, I have the same question as the original poster. There is a dearth of information about this program out there because it is new (2015, first cohort I guess). I have an offer from Wisconsin for their master's course. I was not really enthused about this offer until I saw anotehreconguy mentioning that Wisoncin might be better than UT-Austin, because the Wisconsin MS is just so painfully expensive !!:upset: (especially so when your home-currency is so weak compared to the $) Anyway, If I get an admit from UT-Austin for the 10-month MA, I plan on ditching UW for this one. Do you guys think it would be the right move ? To make matters worse, I am not clear about wanting to do a job after the masters or PhD. Considering either alternative, can someone please give me some (Desperately needed) advice. Thanks !

Come on guys... 300+ views and no replies. Deadline for accepting this offer is just round the corner and I desperately need valuable inputs on this. Thanks!