Jump to content
Urch Forums

samtheham

Members
  • Posts

    46
  • Joined

Everything posted by samtheham

  1. I'm at brown right now. Feel free to PM with any questions.
  2. Haha seems like I've been put in my place. But to be fair, my last point about how to weigh advice was based on the assumption that only relatively uninformed undergrads and grad students post here.
  3. I've said this elsewhere on this board, but I'd always be careful with the "rising department" trope. These things take time, and the changes might not fully materialize before you go on the job market. Building a quality PhD program is a lot more than just hiring good people, it's got a lot to do with immeasurable things like advising culture -- which doesn't change overnight. Although the above post seems to indicate that Rice is willing to do what's necessary to improve their PhD program. At this point in time, BC dominates Rice in terms of placement. A decent rule of thumb when comparing departments is to see if one places at the other, since people tend to largely place downward in rank. And in 2016, BC placed someone at Rice. This might change in the future, but you'd be taking a gamble on that. As always, talk to your advisors/letter writers and see what they think. Weigh their advice like 95%, and ours like 5%. Good luck.
  4. Is it partial differential equations or ordinary differential equations? PDE isn't all that relevant to economics, but ODE is a good thing to take before a PhD program. And LizLemon, he's planning on working full-time as an RA after graduation. Given this plan of action, it would be very useful to be comfortable with coding (I'm not sure how important Python is, but knowing STATA and R well would be a big plus) to become more competitive for a good RA-ship.
  5. Edited, since you changed your post: What's untrue? That it's possible to do well in micro theory without analysis?
  6. OP please listen to the advice of your professor at a top 10 program over anonymous undergrads/grad students on a forum board when you're deciding whether to take this class. Voice your concerns with him, and ask him what he thinks. Then do whatever he suggests. As for answering your actual question, the math in Micro I/II isn't really that bad once you get started. I was also pretty intimidated before starting, but I promise it is manageable. As long as you have some sort of background in doing math proofs, you should be fine if you look at Appendix B of MWG this summer. Combined with math camp, you shouldn't have a problem. Believe it or not, there are a few incoming students (even at top 10 programs) who have never taken analysis, and they all seem to do fine. Good luck.
  7. I'd be wary of relying on the "trending upward department" trope. Not every department can be trending up at all times, and lots of departments outside the top 10 try to sell prospective students on them being "trending up." Case in point: WUSTL was supposed to rise significantly in rank after some strong hires a while back, and nothing materialized at all. Especially since you're interested in applied micro (labor, etc.), Michigan is a no brainer unless you have strong locational preferences. Their placements this year (according to EJMR, at least) were really impressive. Seem to be better than higher ranked departments like Columbia. Source: Michigan placements 2016 « Economics Job Market Rumors
  8. I'm not sure where you heard that. The newest cohort is quite large. I'd guess around 25 people. And to the OP -- strength of the department has gone up significantly with hires like Shapiro. But department quality and grad school quality aren't perfectly correlated. I'd say depending on your interests, I'd choose Michigan over Brown (then again, I might be biased because I have no intention to stay here for 10 years). If you're interested in macro growth/development stuff, Brown is one of the top places in the nation, though. Also feel free to PM me for more info on Brown if you want. I'm finishing up my undergrad here, so I can't say too much about the grad school, but I've taken a few of the PhD courses and am familiar with the department/atmosphere.
  9. I interviewed with the New York Fed and got an offer (but turned it down), so I'll try and answer what I can. Keep in mind this is information for the RA job after college, but I think a lot of it will translate over to summer internships. Hopefully someone else can fill in the gaps: 1) Jobs are fairly competitive. I think people here tend to overestimate just how competitive, but I come from a top university and all of the RAs that I spoke with came from top 15-20 programs or top LACs. I don't know if I saw anyone who was "top 100" -- but this was for the New York fed full time offer, which I believe is the most competitive. It might not be as hard to get an internship at, say, Philly or Boston. I did get rejected by the Richmond fed the summer after my freshman year, but they strongly indicated that it was because of my class year, and told me that I would get it if I applied again after sophomore year. 2) Yeah an internship at the Fed will look good. Any research looks fine. I spent the summer after my sophomore year at an economic think tank and people seemed to like that, and that isn't as good as one of the better feds. I'm not sure exactly how good, but fed economists are generally on par with a top 50 or so program (depends on branch), and some are really good. 3) Yeah apply widely. Internships can be a crapshoot, so apply to a lot. 4) Depends on the prestige of your home institution, really. I was actually in a position where I was better off RAing for professors at my university rather than at the Fed. But since you're at a top 100 university, it seems like your econ department might not be all that strong. In that case, I think the fed would be better. One thing that I've stressed before is that the Fed branches are generally in cool cities (Philly, Boston, NYC, DC, etc.). So even if it is marginally better to stay at your home university, that might be boring and your summer might not be that fun outside of work. I had so much more fun working in DC than staying in the small city where my school is located. Probably one of the funnest summers of my life. Another thing to keep in mind. Good luck.
  10. Finish the math minor. Math is valued very highly in the private sector -- for better or worse, people use it as a signal of intelligence. I think the range of places you've listed is good. Your profile might not be strong enough for an econ PhD, but trust me you will find a nice job in a good city. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up with a more enjoyable life than half of the people on this board who go on to do PhDs. I'm working at an economic consulting firm next year. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about that industry in particular. Good luck with whatever you choose.
  11. Probability theory and analysis are most pertinent to grad school so make sure you take those first. Also make sure you take some sort of mathematical statistics class. Then I suppose ordinary diff eq is useful. Partial isn't very relevant.
  12. You won't be able to take more than one course a semester, but I don't think you'll need to. Get an A in a Micro theory sequence somewhere and admissions committees won't give a rat's *** if you got a B in some intro stats class as a freshman.
  13. Who has told you this? Your professors know your situation best, so if they say you should do a masters then do it. But if you're getting information from this board, people tend to overvalue a masters a bit. They're very expensive, and if a top masters like Duke is only sending 1-2 kids a year to top programs, it means only the very top performers are getting value from it. Seems like its only worth it if you want to repair a very bad undergrad, but you go to a decent (top 40 is good) university in the U.S. with good grades (3 B's isn't the end of the world). I'd say working as an RA after undergrad has the added benefit of helping you mature and really determine you research interests. I find that the PhD students around me who worked as an RA/at a central bank before starting their PhD are much more driven, motivated, and mature than those who went straight from undergrad or a masters.
  14. Where did you do your undergrad (relative strength & country)? Do you have letters from good economists? Getting a masters to override 3 B's is a total waste of tens of thousands of dollars, and it most likely won't have a huge impact if you're coming from the U.S. You'd be better served working as an RA. As an added benefit, at most places, you will be able to take grad classes as local universities for free (e.g. Columbia/Hunter if at the Fed, etc.).
  15. I'm not very familiar with international applications, so I can't offer you much advice. But how small is the country that you're from? If it's small enough that only a handful of reasonably successful, American-taught economists came from it, you might want to enlist your professors' help to reach out to those people (or do it yourself) and explain your situation to them. Presuming you go to one of the top universities in your country, they'd probably recognize the university and might be able to offer suggestions to your relatively unique situation. You have a strong profile, but I wouldn't be surprised if you got shut out of top universities. Rather than going to a lower ranked program, I would try to RA with one of those professors (or any reasonably successful American professor) so that they could write you a letter that signals your ability.
  16. Even though you're an international, you were educated in a US school so I'm not sure what value added a masters program would have. They're also expensive to boot. Why not work as a research assistant instead, make some money, and get a good letter out of the deal?
  17. Ask your professors if they can recommend you to someone. I would try to avoid a masters in econ.
  18. I don't disagree with you folks, but some counterpoints: 1) You will get a decent academic job that pays above $100k with almost prob = 1 if you go to a top 20-30 school, that's for sure. But you have ultimately very little control over where you end up unless you're at a top program. People at top 10 programs can exercise a lot more flexibility over location. It might suck to be living in a college town in the middle of nowhere in your early 30s, especially if you're still looking for a spouse. 2) If you come from a strong undergrad program (above top 15 us news-ish), the opportunity cost of a PhD is very large. Of course everyone has different preferences, but coming from experience, talented undergrads where I'm at are already making >$90k coming straight from senior year. By the time you would be hitting the job market if you had gone straight to a PhD program, it's not unreasonable to expect a salary 2x to 3x of what you could get coming from a lower ranked program. Starting salary is good at the non-PhD granting programs you mentioned, but it doesn't really grow once you hit tenure.
  19. FWIW, my professors at a top 10 undergrad/top 15 econ have all unequivocally said that I should not do a PhD unless I get into a top 10 (my advisor even went as far to say that he wouldn't let me get my PhD at my current school). Some have even said not to bother unless it's a top 5. Obviously, it depends on what you want to do with the PhD and where you did your undergrad. But they all seem to agree that the job market is vicious for lower ranked PhD students, especially if you aren't a star. Just food for thought.
  20. I'd retake. It's not very difficult to get >=168Q and low ranked programs actually tend to place greater emphasis on GRE scores than higher ranked ones.
  21. If the professors at his top 5 are telling him he doesn't need to apply anywhere else, then he doesn't need to apply anywhere else. Period. OP, you need to take everything said on this forum with a huge grain of salt. Just listen to your professors, not us.
  22. I might have been overly optimistic about a top 5 admit, but I stand by my assessment of getting into a top 7-10ish program. All it will take for OP to be admitted is a phone call from his nobel laureate adviser to get him into a program. There is a lot of nepotism and elitism in this profession that starts with grad school admits and continues to the job market. Here's an example of a profile very similar to OP's: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/150538-please-evaluate-my-profile-tell-me-where-i-should-expect-get.html This person had a similar GPA and undergrad reputation, only "okay" letters, and no masters, and still got a top 10 admit. OP should fare better.
  23. Depends on what you want out of the summer. If you go to a good school, you're probably better off spending the summer RAing for one of your professors. But some of the fed internships are in really cool places like NYC or DC, which are super fun cities to spend a summer. Based off of that, I'd try to get a fed internship at a cool city. For comparison, I spend a summer doing research for a decent think tank in DC and another RAing for the best professor in my borderline top 10 department. I enjoyed my time in DC a lot more -- the city is a great place to be as an intern.
  24. Haha you've got to be joking. Get off this forum, man. You're going to get into a top 5 program with 99% probability. I would be surprised if you didn't get into MIT/Harvard.
  25. You're fine with what you have. Going to a top school heavily outweighs grades, despite what people on this board may tell you. Good luck.
×
×
  • Create New...