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iampain0

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iampain0 last won the day on December 4 2019

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  1. Anyone receive any news from UCL recently? It's been weeks since they initially reached out....
  2. It was not optional. There was no option/section within their application to submit GRE scores. I'm not sure what would have happened if one had instructed ETS to send them scores.
  3. A short side comment. I don't really know of any general resource to prepare for these as they vary quite a bit in research area and hence in programming language. It depends a lot on the context of the pre-doc position and what the research area is in. But just thought it would be helpful to share my experience.
  4. I can give my anecdotal experience since I applied recently to these and was called up for coding exercise to one of them. Since I was shortlisted for the coding task at only ONE of the places I applied, I can't speak generally about all pre-docs, but I certainly suppose some will act in a similar way. Unless you are really familiar with the research and work they do and have a good grasp of some programming language (Stata, R, Python, Matlab, etc.) it will be difficult to get into one of these. Some may be more flexible and expect learning on the job but others are specifically looking for someone who can do exactly what they need. The salary for these are decent and the title for this job has moved from research assistant to pre-doc. Along with the added competition will come with additional expectations to be able to do the job well. This will definitely vary from program but nevertheless, it will be a good idea to specialize in one language and perhaps 1-2 areas where you know how to apply in context. The task I received had to do with cleaning geographic data and while I did have experience using some of the aforementioned programming languages, I found the data task quite difficult as it was very different from the type of data work I normally encountered. So while I tried my best to complete the task, it inevitably didnt turn out well and as such I didnt make the cut. In general, you should have good grades (high gpa, in relevant courses if possible) and potentially previous research experience, be it as an RA or for a thesis but I will specifically adviseto target those predoc positions for which you think you'll be able to do well in the job and most importantly the type of positions for which you'll be able to do well in the data task. I.e. If there is pre doc position thats related to macroeconomic research, then they may expect you to code a lot using matlab (as an e.g.), so you should prepare yourself by working out various exercises relevant in a macro context. Obviously in this example, learning the language in general would be useful, but it would help you immensely if you familiarized yourself with the macroeconomic applications within matlab, just so you don't get blindsided during the coding task. The coding task will mostly likely determine whether you get the job or not (ex ante barring a horrendous interview performance). I took a chance applying to some positions that I didn't have much experience in and surprisingly I got shortlisted. However in the end it didn't turn out well. (Note: I later found out the only reason I got called up was because they had been looking for several months for someone to fit the position)
  5. Thanks for all the helpful comments They'll definitely help me plan what to invest my time in. Shapiro/Gentzkow's "Code and Data for the Social Sciences" seems like a useful read. As for MHE, i used it for a microeconometrics course in my final year. Moreover having done an undergrad dissertation, I'm extremely familiar with painstaking data collecting, cleaning and manipulation, but I mostly used STATA to get it done. I guess I'll focus on generally improving in stata for the time being and use that as well as my dissertation experiences as well as my econometrics know-how from courses taken when applying. I'll have further research experience after writing the MSc dissertation too.
  6. Does anyone have any information on likelihood or proportion of American Economic departments hiring international students as research assistants. I'm to enter a MSc program in UK this autumn and I'm definitely interested in doing a PhD thereafter but am interested to apply for some of RA jobs (plenty posted on NBERs websit) to gain experience as well as added value to application. However given that I'm an International student, do you know how many students generally apply, how many get accepted or will they sponsor a visa? Also, as most of these jobs look like data type work along with editing and managing projects and papers; while I'm extremely proficient in Stata, a lot of them emphasize on some kind of mathematical/finance/macro modelling done in Python or R, for which I'm inexperienced in. Hence I would appreciate some information on chances of being employed as If more than likely, I would expend a lot of time during the MSc to also train and code in Python/R.
  7. Thanks everyone for your responses, it's definitely helped me make up my mind on picking which program. I just have 1 last query. I had applied few months back to LSE for both EME and the regular MSc econ and unfortunately I didn't get any offers. I was however placed on wait-list for 10 weeks for the MSc econ. I'm currently 3rd year so I only had years 1& 2 grades to show for it and I didnt particularly do well in first year, which is probably why my application got ousted. I don't really want to waste time as I already intend to try for RA-ships after the MSc before applying for the PhD in USA, but Do you think it's worth waiting a year to try again at LSE (conditional on me getting a good grade in 3rd year obviously) but especially given how well they place into top US programs or should I just take my chances at UCL this year??
  8. UK undergraduate in Economics. Options for a masters in economics at Barcelona GSE or UCL. Definitely want to pursue a PhD after at a top program in USA. Which would you say is the better feeder program ?
  9. Final Year undergraduate in the UK with interest of undertaking a masters degree with the intention of finally applying to top 15 American PhD programs. I've gone through loads of previous posts considering these options, but would like a newly refreshed and up-to-date perspective. Note: LSE EME was my first and most preferred option over the other 3, but for the purposes of this post (ignoring LSE EME); for purposes of top 15 American PhD which masters programs would be best? LSE MSc Econ vs Cambridge MPhil Economics Research vs Oxford MPhil Econ?
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