throwaway2019

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: MIT Undergrad GPA: 4.0 Type of Grad: Dropped out of physics masters Grad GPA: n/a GRE: 170Q / 169V / 5.0 AW Math Courses: Calc/DiffEq/Linalg, Real Analysis, Complex Analysis, Probability, Differential Geometry Econ Courses: Game Theory, audited first quarter of Ph.D. Micro Other Courses: Lots of physics, EECS, and music classes Letters of Recommendation: Two from NYU profs I RAed for, one from Ph.D. Micro professor (I got an A on the midterm) Research Experience: Two years as an RA at RAND doing policy work, half a year as an RA at NYU for some IO professors Teaching Experience: None Research Interests: Theory SOP: Standard Other: I was an engineering major, took very few econ classes, and dropped out of a physics masters program, so I think my profile is fairly unusual and perhaps interesting. Comments: I applied last year and got rejected everywhere, but then reapplied this year and got in. The only differences between last year and this year were the number of places I applied to (6 last year, 14 this year), my recommenders (I got recommendations from three RAND employees last year, none of whom were professors), and the fact that I also applied to NSF this year (I didn't bother last year). I'll post my results from both years below, on the off chance this is helpful. RESULTS (2019-20 cycle): Acceptances: Columbia ($41k), University of Washington ($28k) Waitlists: Columbia (accepted) Rejections: Berkeley, Harvard, Harvard BusEc, MIT, Northwestern, NYU, NYU Stern, Princeton, Stanford, Stanford GSB, UChicago, Yale Attending: Columbia RESULTS (2018-19 cycle): Acceptances: none Waitlists: Northwestern (rejected) Rejections: Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Northwestern, NYU, UChicago Attending: Reapplied fall 2019 Comments: Ph.D. applications are pretty crazy. As we all know, decisions are pretty random. My results over two years confirm this, if nothing else. What would you have done differently? Nothing - it worked out in the end. But I recognize the roll luck played in this!

Institution: University of Washington Program: PhD in Economics Decision: Accepted Funding: Not yet Date: 02/11/2020 Notified through: Email Comments: first acceptance woohoo

NYU has sent out acceptances on a Wednesday for the last four years... so tomorrow seems likely (especially with the pre-informal emails going out yesterday).

Do all NYU acceptees get the informal email first? I.e., if we haven't gotten an email from NYU today, is that implicit rejection?