nontrivial

Hello, I have offers from Chicago's PhD program in economics and Harvard's public policy PhD at HKS. My interests are mainly in development and applied micro broadly (including health, labor, environmental, empirical IO). Chicago attracts me because of its prestige in academia and its training and strength in economics. However, I heard the program is brutal and mentoring by faculty is lackluster. Recently its faculty seem to be macro/finance/theory focused, which is not my area of interest. Harvard attracts because of its strengths in development, connections to Harvard/MIT econ faculty, and a smaller cohort with more flexibility in coursework. There's also a certain prestige of Harvard broadly, and for any non-academic jobs. However, it is not as prestigious in the economics job market, making it tough to market a Public Policy PhD as opposed to economics. Is there anything (other than quality of life and financials) that I am not considering? Is there a clear (or weakly dominant) winner here? Any thoughts are much appreciated!

Hi all, I have a list of around 20 solid programs across economics, b-schools, and pub. pol. I am torn about adding some more econ programs in the latter part of the T20 range. I am interested in empirical work in applied micro, be it in health, labor, public, environmental, PE, IO, or development. Fit-wise, the less structural the better. I'm trying to gauge reputations/faculty-quality in this arena for: UCLA UCSD Wisconsin Minnesota Michigan E.g. I heard that Minnesota is great for structural macro -- the farthest away from my cup of tea. What's its reputation in applied micro? Thanks!!