econhopeful2018

Can anyone comment on whether the PhD program at Chicago deserves its bad rap? Concerns about things like extremely large and poorly-performing cohorts in some past years, uninvolved/inattentive advisors who don't care about their students, intense competitiveness/unfriendliness within cohorts, and extreme criticism at seminars come to mind. I still have many pending decisions but I'm mentally ranking my options now and trying to figure out whether I would prefer to go to Chicago or do an RA stint and shoot for better (HMSBP) in 2 years. In particular I'm still recruiting for RA positions because I'm not totally sure I would choose Chicago over being an RA. My interests are more or less within applied micro (labor, devo, political economy, I/O).