jlb2016

Ok, I found out that I made it off the waitlist at Maryland today with full funding. I am also in at Michigan State with slightly higher funding and no work requirements for my first and final year. I have a strong preference for placing in academia when I finish my PhD, but not much preference for the "prestige" of that placement (i.e. I just want to be a professor somewhere!). Main pro's for MSU: 1. More interested in the research being done by MSU's labor economics group than Maryland's 2. No work requirements in two of my years 3. Cheaper living; slightly more funding Main pro for Maryland 1. Better placement, especially in the past year or two Would it be crazy to let that one pro at Maryland prevent me from choosing Michigan State? Thanks for any feedback!

Institution: Michigan State University Program: Economics PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: 18.5K TA for 5 years Notification date: 2/11/16 Notified through: Email Comments: First acceptance!

The Honors Analysis course typically uses Rudin, but this semester it's using "A Course in Real Analysis" by Junghenn. It's not really true that I have no "prior background in analysis whatsoever." The Advanced Calculus course I took used Gaughan's "Intro to Analysis" and Kenneth Ross' "Elementary Analysis". That course covered sequences/series, continuity, differentiation, and integration.

Thanks for the response. My concern with a Policy PhD is that I want to go into academia (or possibly Federal Reserve), and my understanding is that placement with an Econ PhD is going to be much better than a Policy PhD (unless it's from Harvard, of course).

Type of Undergrad: BS in Economics (with Honors) and Political Science at US News Top 20 Public School Undergrad GPA: 3.78 (3.92 in Economics) Type of Grad: MPP at Top 20 Public Policy Program (in progress) Grad GPA: 3.96 GRE: 770Q / 580V / 4.5 AW (expired scores from old test, will retake) Undergrad Math Courses: Calc I/II/III (A/B/B+), Honors Diff Eq (A), Linear Alg & Matrices (A), Advanced Calculus (A) Grad Math courses: Stochastic Processes (A-), Theory of Statistics I/II (A/A), Honors Analysis (Pending), Honors Topology (Pending) Undergrad Econ Courses: Honors Intro Micro (B+), Honors Intro Macro (A+), Intermediate Micro (A), Intermediate Macro (A+), Econometrics (A), Labor (A+), International (A+), Development (A+), Monetary (A) Grad Econ courses: Applied Micro (A) Other Courses: Undergrad Statistics minor (6 A/1 A-/1 B+) Letters of Recommendation: One from independent research project. He wanted to help me publish my paper, so he should be strongly supportive. Two others from classes that involved writing a few research papers. I received an A in both classes, participated, and presented research to the class. Two of the references received PhD from Top-5 programs and one received from Top-60 program. Research Experience (undergrad): 2 semesters as non-Econ RA; summer independent research fellowship (economics topic) through Honors College; finalist in undergraduate research symposium on global political economy Research Experience (postgrad): 2 years as research analyst for consulting firm (building forecasting models, etc.); 2 years as quantitative research assistant for well-known policy think tank; 2 years as graduate research assistant Teaching Experience: N/A Research Interests: Labor (e.g. Search and Matching Theory) SOP: N/A Applying: Schools ranging from the Top 5 to the Top 50 with strengths in Labor Concerns: Lower grades in the calc sequence, but that was several years ago and I have received A's in more-advanced math classes taken recently. Relatively low number of math classes compared to Math majors, but I believe I have all the essential ones as well as some grad-level math/stats courses with A's. Other: 6 years of using SAS on the job daily, as well as a year using STATA frequently I would appreciate any advice on a realistic target for schools.