QED

I don't know what the size is, but the coordinator said she would be creating a mailing list for the cohort over that next couple of weeks, so we should find out soon enough!

This is way too early (and I'm avoiding studying for my analysis final next week lol), but would anyone who was admitted this year be interested in getting together to study for math camp/get to know the town/get to know each other during the month of August? I'll be moving August 1st and it would be nice to start getting into the groove of things before the 22nd. Anywho, if anyone is interested (or sees this months later at a more appropriate time to plan such things), let me know! :)

I accepted Michigan's offer fairly early in the game (right after the visit day actually), so I've got my housing set up in Northwood. Any experience living up there with other grad students? Also, I'll be in Michigan on August 1st; what do you all think I should do for those 2 or 3 weeks until the term starts? Right now, I plan on checking out the town day by day, but mostly starting to crack open my old math books. I think I'll be ok as I'm just getting done with undergrad and my math courses are pretty recent, but the earlier, the better right? EDIT: I should clarify, I'll be living among other grad students; got a single apartment in Northwood I. Surprised by how easy it was to get everything sorted, actually.

Hey folks, So I've got two (comparable) funded offers from Michigan and OSU. My mentor, as well as some other insiders, have told me that Michigan is a no-brainer. After talking to some Michigan folks on here, I'm pretty much 90% confident that I will end up at Michigan. However, I've still got a lingering feeling that I shouldn't be dismissing OSU so quickly. I know that their placements aren't even in the same league, but one thing that keeps coming to mind is the "star" issue. That is, my odds of being a top student at OSU (and receiving more attention from advisers) is much higher because of program rank (and maybe also cohort size?). I'm also a little concerned about the prelim structure at Michigan (once a year, only in August, gotta wait till next year if you fail first time). What do you guys think? Is it really a no-brainer or... a little brainer? Thanks! EDIT: I should say that I will be attending Michigan's open house this week. If I still don't have a final decision, then I will visit OSU later this month.

Hey folks, So the financial offer from Michigan says that in years 2 through 5, funding can range from 0.25 appointments (stipend My question is whether they expect other types of funding to come into play for students with quarter-time duties since you can't really live on that stipend. Any input is welcome, and I would really appreciate if any current or past Michigan students could chime in with their experiences. Thanks!

Thanks a lot! Priority questions: 1) Who would you recommend for Metrics or Labor? 2) What is the culture like among the students, and among the students and faculty? I know this is vague, I'll try to be more specific. I want to know how an average OSU econ phd spends his/her time in the nth year of the program. I want to know how much they interact with potential advisors. I want to know how much they collaborate with faculty on research, or collaborate with one another. I want to know if there is a spirit of competition, or more cooperation. 3) For non-fellowsip funding years, do grad students primary get assigned to TA, teach, or do research (or some combination of the three)?

As the title says, if you have any experience with the OSU phd program, please give us your inside information! In particular, if there are any current or past OSU students, I'd love to hear about your experience there. What are the profs like? Who would you reccomend for specialization X? What is the culture like? What are the undergrads like? How many grad students teach vs ta vs research during their time there? Anything is appreciated; thanks!

1) If it is not guaranteed, what are your options for making money to live over the summer? 2) If you do end up taking such classes outside of econ, are they paid for by the fellowship/TA/RA money that pays for econ classes?

Things I was wondering, that I didn't see in other threads (feel free to direct me if I'm wrong): 1) How does funding work? Does an RA, TA, Fellowship always cover it, or no? If not, do you just have to "figure it out" on your own during the school year? If you are on your own about making money over the summer, how have you done it? (I know there is a sticky thread related to funding, but it doesn't really answer this question, which is why I added it.) 2) Do you still take classes? If there aren't required classes, can you choose to take classes (possibly outside of econ, like in the math dept)? If you can, does your tuition waiver cover the costs? 3) I've seen stuff about going to conferences, and I don't really know what to ask. If anyone could share their experience with this, that'd be great! 4) If you are a TA or have taught a class during the academic term, are you guaranteed to have the same or similar duties over the summer? Thanks in advanced!

Institution: OSU Program: Economics Phd Decision: Accepted Funding: TBD by February Notification date: January 21 Notified through: Email Comments: Unexpected! Hoping for funding!

Type of Undergrad: Large state school, with Phd program (not ranked though) Undergrad GPA: 4.0 GRE: Q (167) - V (163) - AW (5.0) Math Courses: Calculus I,II,III, Linear Algebra, Intro DEs, Discrete Math, Foundations of Analysis I, II, Real Analysis, Probability (calc-based), Mathematical Stats I, II; all As Econ Courses (grad-level): Phd-Level Metrics I and II, Masters Micro, Masters Development Economics; all As Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intro Metrics, intermediate micro/macro, principles micro/macro, econ stats, probably others I can't recall; all As Other Courses: Phd level quant methods courses in Poli-Sci Letters of Recommendation: Two from econ guys in the department, they're both fairly reputable. One is my mentor who I've done a lot of work with, other is one I took Phd metrics from a wrote a pretty good paper for. Third guy is from math dept, took foundations of analysis from him; said he could vouch for my mathematical maturity. Research Experience: Senior thesis with mentor, wrote a paper for the development class that got published in an undergrad journal at my school (no biggie, I know), research assistant for my mentor (see above), mostly programming/data cleaning work so far (hopefully we'll start some statistical analysis soon!) Teaching Experience: Math tutor during my entire undergrad, private math tutoring Research Interests: (In order of preference) Econometrics, Development Econ, Labor Econ. SOP: Pretty standard, probably more emphasis on actual research I've done/findings than standard letter (or not, I guess I don't really know), longer than most allow, but I don't think it will count against me, didn't say anything that didn't need to be said. Concerns: Getting funded offers, will not attend without funding. Also concerned about summer funding. Applying to: UCD, UCSB, MSU, UM, UIUC, UIC, NIU, IU, UND, UK, OSU, PU.