finninja

Congratulations Dak

The point is almost all applicants have great packages. Working on a PhD is a job. There is passion involved but in the end it is a job and there are so many who can do it. It becomes very difficult to pick a candidate from the application pool. This is where the recommendation comes in. I'm not passing a judgement of whether it's good or not. However there is a problem of access. To have access to a good research professor one has to have studied in a good institute. That means so many applicants have a serious disadvantage in getting such access. As far as I have seen grades and test scores really don't matter in research. A person with a good test score might cruise through coursework. However when it comes to research, it's a whole new ball game. Great academics does help, but without creativity, independent thinking and perseverance, getting through a PhD program is difficult. Not impossible but difficult.

From what I saw, all that mattered was recommendations. Not the official ones but the phone calls and personal mails. To those who made it without that a big salute.

Any news about Emory finance?

The Emory spring break is from 6th to 10th March. I doubt they will work in this period. Probably offers will be sent out next week.

PM me. I'll try to help you out.

Join ISB. Make sure you build good contacts with the professors. Start applying early whenever you do.

Congratulations 🎊

Any news from Purdue?

Thanks Silviatx