kqtqhd

Looks like I'm late to the party. Better late than never, right? PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Finance major at non-ranked state university Undergrad GPA: 3.8 Type of Grad: MA economics, same as undergraduate institution Grad GPA: 3.8 GRE: 168/159/4 -- Q/V/AW Math Courses: (All A's) Calculus 1-3, Linear Algebra 1-2, Mathematical Statistics 1-2, Intro to Real Analysis, Combinatorics, and Intro Differential Eqns Undergrad Econ Courses: Principles of Macro (B), Principles of Micro (A-), Intermediate Micro (A-), Intermediate Macro (A), International Trade (A), Math Econ (A), and Intro Econometrics (A) Grad Econ Courses: Labor (A-), Urban (A), Micro (A-), Macro (A), Time Series (B), Applied Econometrics (A-), Advanced Topics in Econometrics (A-), Topics in Business and Economic Forecasting (A), and Monetary Theory (A) Other Courses: Letters of Recommendation: Probably one of the weaker aspects of my application. One was from a professor with whom I've taken most of my econometrics courses with. Outside of a niche topic, I don't think that he is very well known. Another is from my graduate micro prof. whom I've also done a direct readings with. He's very active in his work and has many books published. Last one is from a Transportation professor who is also my research director at a transportation research center at my university. I am confident that they all spoke highly of me but the intensity of their kind words is uncertain, though I've gotten A's or A-'s in all of their courses and my research director thinks I'm awesome. Research Experience: 2 years experience as a graduate research assistant at a transportation research center. One paper is pseudo-published and I've won an award from the U.S. D.O.T. for my work done there. Teaching Experience: None. Research Interests: Environmental and Natural Resource Economcis; this is probably a bit of a curve ball to adcoms since I've had zero formal experience and exposure on this topic outside of a directed readings course. SOP: Had multiple professors look at this and they all spoke highly of it. Covered the usual, brief background, interests, motivation for PhD, preparation for PhD, and motivation for choosing that particular school. I also made an effort to briefly mention the work done by professors of interest for each school. Other: RESULTS: $ = partial funding, $$ = standard full funding, $$$ = higher than average Acceptances: U of Oregon $$ , UMD College Park AREC $$, Georgia State $$, NCSU (requested to be removed), University of Arizona $, U of Colorado Boulder $$, UC Santa Barbara $$, U of Wyoming $$, Arizona State $$$ Waitlists: I was briefly on the waitlist at ASUand I was apparently on Georgetown's waitlist unbeknownst to me. Rejections: U of British Columbia, Queen's University, University of Washington, UC San Diego, UC Davis, Columbia, Duke, and Georgetown Pending: Attending: UC Santa Barbara Comments:It took me a long time to decide on a major and to decide whether or not to pursue a PhD. This played into my unorthodox profile as well as any weaknesses in my application since it is hard to be proactive about one's application profile without a serious commitment. What would you have done differently? I should have interacted with my professors a lot more. Instead, I was the quiet kid in the class and at departmental gatherings. Not that I completely avoided my professors, I just did not utilize them as much as I could have. Also, if I had prepared for my current trajectory at a much earlier time in life I believe that my profile would have benefited enormously. How accurate were others' predictions of your range of admissions? I think that the results panned out as expected except for a few surprising rejections which are likely due to the "match" element.

Can anyone confirm UBC rejections? I haven't heard anything from them so far.

UCSB definitely has a high cost of living. I would argue that it's more costly to live in Santa Barbara than Vancouver, all else equal. In my opinion, UBC is stronger in economic structural methods which, to me, has a higher pedagogical value. However, UCSB is considered a top 5 environmental economics program by many. It is also part of the UC system which means that you'll be exposed to a lot of students from the other UC schools like UCSD, UCLA, and Berkeley. Think human capital spillovers! Either way though, I don't think that you can go wrong.

Seems a bit low right?

Can also confirm UCSB post. I am a bit concerned with their stipend offer though. Santa Barbara is not a cheap place to live.

Has anyone heard from NCSU about funding yet?

Do schools typically invite wait listed students to visit?

Thanks for the responses everyone! I will just wear casual clothing then as I hate packing my dress clothes.

Have not heard from UW, Georgetown, nor uscb

I was also asked by ASU to disclose competing offers. I only mentioned school names and that they're fully funded. But i reiterated that I would choose to go there over the others given the opportunity.

If anyone can provide insights on ASU's WL I would really appreciate it. They conducted Skype interviews before sending out offers and WLs so I would guess that they take it seriously but at the same time the email that informed me of my WL status was rather brief.

Hi All, It's about time where schools are starting to host students for visit/open house day and I would like to know, what kind of attire do students typically wear? I know that it probably doesn't matter either way since one is probably already admitted if they're attending these things but I am still curious. I would rather not stick out either way, ha.

Not sure. I know that most, if not all, of the other U of AZ acceptances on GC had the same offer as me though.

You mean U of AZ? I was accepted about 2-3 weeks ago but I turned them down. Only offered 4.8k per semester which is not enough for me to live on.

I was waitlisted this morning via email. Kind of sad about it but I guess there's still hope....hopefully you received better news!

I'm assuming that if I haven't heard anything from U Washington by now then it's an implicit reject. Has anyone heard back from ASU? I interviewed with them on Monday but I have not received any notifications yet and I was told that I would hear back by this week.

Can anyone confirm acceptances from UCSD and Georgetown that's on GC today?

Oops, didn't notice the intro to real on your original post, sorry! But no, that is perfectly fine I don't think you need to do the full sequence. I wouldn't say that your freshman year grades will doom you. But even with a marked improvement, those earlier grades still introduce an element of uncertainty (I would believe). Disclaimer: I am not the most credible source for advice. But I am going through this cycle right now and my undergrad profile is similar to yours except I come from a no name school with no undergrad RA experience. I was late to the game and decided to do a masters in econ, got RA experience (2 years worth) and aced all of my grad courses. Plus I got near perfect on GRE quant. This was all so that I can make up for my undergrad deficiencies. So far, my highest ranked admit as of now is probably U of AZ. I say probably because other ranking sites may be different. Granted, you might have better letters and your RA experience is probably more relevant than mine as I do transportation related research, but I have a high degree of autonomy with regards to my research. I'm practically writing the papers myself. Anyways, I think a good quant score on GRE can help a lot to mitigate some of the uncertainties as well as doing good in grad level courses. Assuming you do awesome at both of those I'm sure you'd be competitive within the top 30. Also, addressing your weaknesses in your SOP can help a lot too. Though don't focus too much on them.

Weak math grades are a bad sign. Hopefully you can get a near perfect quant score on the GRE and you may want to consider taking real analysis and math stats II. I would also say pick some schools further down the rankings just to be safe.

Still nothing from UCSB, UCSD, or UC Davis. Websites are uninformative too.

If that's all it was then I passed the English part, probably not the social one. I get anxiety pretty easily so when I was asked about how I happened upon economics I stuttered my way through a choppy story that wasn't all that great. Otherwise, I'm a native speaker so I nailed the English part. I hope things were better on your end.

Thanks for the advice! I will be sure to login to Skype and verify that everything works. And luckily I remembered the time zone differences right off the bat so no problems there. But good luck to you tomorrow!

Has anyone interviewed with ASU before or planning to do so? Mine is tomorrow over Skype and I'm kinda freaking out. I've prepared for the typical interview questions you see online for graduate admissions but I'm notoriously bad at interviews. If anyone can offer some advice I'd really appreciate it!

Does anyone know if University of Washington - Seattle is doing rolling emissions too? Their pattern of acceptances is all over the place. I still haven't heard back from them yet.

No word from Georgetown yet.