Math2Econ

Board insider here. The hiring freeze never affected RA positions --- only permanent staff positions. We have been interviewing RA candidates since mid-March (which is always the time of year we interview). All the people being interviewed applied for the January deadline. Still some spots to fill, but those will be filled by people who have already applied. Not sure about the banks, but I imagine they are doing something similar.

One person said they got off the waitlist back in March, but that seems really early to me.

Hopefully, I can answer some of your questions, but, to your big question, some people might have different opinions to me. Yes, you will. It not like undergrad: there isn't really an established method of graduate transfer. While that might be possible, you already have to take a set of first year classes in public policy which were intended to be for a full time student. Taking more might lower your grades and reduce your preparation for comps (if they are a thing in public policy). Although, I am not exactly sure how public policy PhDs classes scheduling is, so maybe you can take an Econ class as part of your standard first year set. So I know there are some transfers between econ programs, but they are kind of rare. I don't know how likely a transfer is from a public policy program or if such a request would be be looked down upon. I would like to give one thing you to think about: What substantive factor is going change in this year to make your application more competitive with the schools you desire? To me, a semester of classes in a public policy PhD doesn't seem like it is going to make you more desirable to top programs. I may be wrong about that, but I think there might be things you can do to improve your application. I don't know anything about your research background, but maybe a full-time RA position might fill in some research holes. I am not sure, but, if you forced me to answer, I would say no. That being said, there is a lot of empirical work in public policy and a lot of work that intersects with economics. So you should really consider Harris. See if any of the facility there are doing work you find interesting.

I got an acceptance from them about 10 mins ago.

I feel like this was an accident on Duke's part. I bet they were uploading their list of admissions decisions to be released later and accidentally didn't hit the box to delay release when they got to their WLs.

That is actually not that surprising. There is a lot of randomness in admissions among the top 20.

It's not necessarily an implicit rejection; however, looking at the number of self reports of acceptances, the chance of an acceptance is slim. You will know for sure tomorrow if there are no future admissions. Also, there is a chance you might still get on the wait list. The thing I never understand about Minnesota is why they send out a wave a rejections before acceptances, then spend a couple of days sending acceptances, and then send out all of the remaining rejections the day after acceptances. Why not send all the rejections out at the same time? It gets peoples hopes up when they see they survived the first round of rejection.

There are significantly less self-reports than normal on GC, so my guess is that they are still sending on notices and will probably be sending out more tomorrow. Though that analysis is contingent on there not a different reason why people aren't posting on GC.

I would imagine not. You did have to state your country of citizenship on your application, so they know you aren't Canadian.

Also, has there been any American's accepted to Brown yet? The GCs from last week seemed to all be international.

I would imagine that the rest of Minnesota comes out this week since they already had their first wave of rejections. If it is the same as years past, they do a first wave of rejections then acceptances a few days later and then a second wave of rejections.

Has there been an American admit to Brown yet? All the ones on GC seem to be international. Could it be they are out so early to make sure that these students can actually get visas?

Can confirm that Ohio State given out, at least some, admission decisions. Haven't gotten an email yet but their appstatus.osu.edu site shows the decision.

I think it is going to depend on your overall profile. If your profile is otherwise stellar, an adcom can easily overlook a bad verbal score. If you are on the edge of an admission decision, it is a pretty tempting tiebreaker. You should post a profile for evaluation.

I am going to join the chorus and say that you should take both. As chateauheart says, that will still be easier than your 1st year. As general advice, without knowing anything about your profile besides your weak math background, I would recommend holding off on going to grad school right away. I know your heart is set on applying this fall, but instead I think you should try to become an RA for a year or two. Being an RA, you will have an opportunity to get your hands dirty with Econ research and given the time to take more than just these two math classes and improve your math ability. It will make you more competitive to better Econ programs than you are now. Plus, if you never done actual research before, it is a good way to see if this is what you want to dedicate your professional life to before starting a PhD.

What is your end goal? Do you want to be an academic economist? If so, you should be considering placements, potential people you would like to work for, and grad student life. Also, Columbia, Michigan, and NYU are all really good econ schools. Not knowing you as well as you she does, maybe that is where she feels that you would be the most successful. And you might want to think about the fact that she could be right. Also, why can't you only use one of the math letters and use both of theirs?

Given that your situation is unusual, I think the best thing you can do is to try and get a research assistant position with an economist for after you graduate undergrad and before grad school. I know you want to start on your PhD right away, but being an RA for a year or two will both increase your likelihood of getting into a better graduate program and give a longer term experience with economic research that will help prepare you for grad school. Also, I agree with Catrina that you should really take real analysis.

S&B is fine place to start. After that I would pick up a copy of Abbot's understanding analysis (it is a more gentle introduction to analysis than the beloved baby Rudin) and Dixit's optimization book. While you are still in your master's program, I would recommend taking a couple of basic, proofs based classes such a linear algebra class or a basic analysis class (sometimes titled "Advance Calculus"). Building up your mathematical maturity will help a lot in your future work in a PhD program.

To be honest, I think you might want to think about a different career path than an Econ PhD. Econ grad school is a lot more math intense than your skill set seems suited for (much more so than undergrad). I also need to correct you, when you say your math grades are average at best, you are incorrect. They are well bellow average to the point where I would call them fatal for your application. If you are really intent on grad school, then you need to take and get an A in a full year of Reals this fall. Additionally, you will need to take and get an A in several advance statistics classes (I don't feel like you will have the mathematical maturity to accomplish either of these). At this point, you probably also need to get an RA or an equivalent research position with a strong letter of recommendation for any grad schools not to automatically throw out your application. Even then I am not sure you will be able to get in a top 50. I am not trying to be mean, but I think you over estimate the chance of you getting into an Econ PhD. You may want to consider something different. If you are interested in the policy side, maybe consider public policy instead.