vanbasten

does anyone have any information regarding PhD in econ at HEC Lausanne. they seem to have a few very good professors in international macro but they do not post any of their placements.

north carolina-econometrics bgse-dsge macro cemfi-phd security:) bocconi- not as good as other three :) it is your choice:)

bgse is much better as a stepping stone to usa but there is fierce competition. however if you only want an academic career at a good university then definitely phd from usa would be much better for you. if i were you i would try bgse =>usa path if it does not you can still apply to tilburg and tinbergen in the future

thanks for the answer. yes i realized that. there is almost nobody in macro. how can they just ignore this field completely.

Hi, I am in a bit of dilemma. I have acceptance from Barcelona Graduate School and Tilburg both without stipend. I am interested in macro, and clearly BGSE=>UPF path dominates Tilburg in that field.(i am not sure even if there are any guys who do DSGEs in Tilburg) However the BGSE tuition is extremely high, 16000 euros vs 2000 in tilburg. So i am not sure what to do at this point. accepting bgse would mean that i would use all my savings for the tuition plus the living expenses during first year there and then hope that i will be able to get GOOD(!) financial support during my second Mres and then hope to be admitted to the phd program. in tilburg the tuition is much lower however they again do not guarantee admission to the phd program and given the rumors of the financial difficulties they have been experiencing recently, i assume the phd admissions to be more limited in the future. plus i am not sure the strength of tilburg in macro. so i am not really sure what to do. does anyone have any idea whether bgse or tilburg is more student friendly in terms of providing financial assistance to students in second and third year? Thanks a lot and wish everyone good luck

thanks for all the replies. i would appreciate if there is someone who is now studying in tilburg or at least has some insider information about whether the department is keen on keeping the students for the phd program or they use cut throat competition tactics. i have heard boston university, chicago and upenn were like this. but not much information about the european schools:(

thanks for that. well they provide funding as in reducing the tuition. but not providing stipend for living expenses

thanks for the reply. do you have any idea whether they provide funding during second year? i got in economics. so what are they strong in? i mean there is nobody doing macro related stuff?

Hello, i got a tuition waiver from tilburg. in their letter they say that the tuition waiver will go on during second year but nothing about whether there will be funding:( plus even at PhD stage, they write the salary of a phd student but stress that they can not guarantee it. and after reading the forum i was a little scared. they had financial troubles in 2011-2012 and had problems admitting students to their phd program. so i would appreciate if anyone with more information about Tilburg could help me with 1-do they try to provide some form of financial assistance to students in second year or Mres program? 2-is the attrition rate during phd admissions high? 3-what is on average monthly living costs in tilburg 4- are there any good people in macro? thanks a lot and wish everyone good luck during this stressful process:))

i believe in zurich you could also get courses from graduate institute of geneva. also attend macro-mini courses organized by swiss central bank. not sure but please check. i think the two programs have their own strengths. if i were you i would think. do i want to live in europe i.e switzerland or in canada. european schools at least in phd tend to prefer european econ phd i think

economics tilburg ? thegradcafe.com you can look at people who have been admitted before and get a sense of the requirements:) good luck

barista do you know that u of western ontaria will release admission in two weeks? how did you learn? any news on u of toronto ubc and queens? on grad cafe saw 2 toronto econ phds already :(

you may contact tim conley, he is no longer in the admission committee however he is super friendly and helpful in anyway he can

i think being in a top 40 school is a big advantage, can you get rec letters from profs. who have personal connections with some of the phd programs you wish to apply for. trust me this is more important than taking math classes. a prof with a good connection could send you just with a phone call to a decent place.

i know a friend who withdrew from math classes and was accepted to top 25 usa phd program. so dont worry. he also emailed minnesota admission committee before withdrawing from the class and they kindly told him, better to withdraw than get a bad grade. good luck

but being a canadian gives you upperhand for canadian schools. i would say try the best ones. british columbia, toronto, western ontaria and queens.

Hello all, it seems i will only be admitted to BGSE this year. I was wondering whether in their second year they provide funding to everyone. As far as i could understand, BGSE is a one year program, and then you continue to Mres after which you transfer to UPF or others. but, given that i do well on courses, is this transfer to phd program guaranteed? and what about funding? i would really appreciate if you could help me with this. when i look at the BGSE site it is very ambiguous

on grad cafe i saw that university of copanhagen offers financial assistance to only one student in their cohort. any idea if this is true?

I am curious if it is worth to pay 16000 euros to bgse. I am starting to think that i will not get accepted to anywhere funded. If i get reasonable grades from bgse is it guaranteed that i would be automatically accepted to pompeu fabra? I know 16000+ loving expenses is a lot though I really want to pursue phd in econ bit would feel bitter if i am stuck after paying this amout of money to bgse and then being accepted to nowhere for phd. Bu the way bgse is one year program right?

I saw on gradcafe that VGSE might have sent out the first round of acceptances to their phd program in economics. does anyone have more info on this? I have not received anything and considering the few number of students they admit, i think i might be out. not sure if they have a waiting list procedure. good luck to everyone:)

i share the same opinion. i think it is time to say goodbye to mannheim :(

I would say that the most important part of your application to phd program (usa is my benchmark) is whether your profs who are writing the letters of recommendation have a close connect with that university. because grad schools are flooded with tons of applications every year, candidates who have great gre scores, great gpa, great letters of rec (in some letters some profs even write that the candidate might get nobel in the future)... there is considerable inflation in these aspects, what could help you stand out is if your proffessor has a close connection with a university abroad or if your undergraduate uni sent other applicants to that university before also taking one class in abstract math and showing you can follow the proof logic in micro is defiantly a big plus considering you passed the first two stages above. sometimes in this forum,i read about how gre quant and gpa and your sop are so important in applications. it mostly comes down to connections and network in the end.

thanks a lot for the info:) do these programs generally require applicants to have a strong german language skills?

i am also interested in learning more about this program. do they have a bias in accepting students from germany vs international students?

how do you apply to munich? they seem to have this complicated system of applying first to institutes first, getting acceptances from them and later being accepted by Munich university