wetwilly

Hello friends, I am a Junior hoping to pursue a PhD in quant marketing and have some questions on research areas. Like everyone else still in undergrad, I am grappling with a variety of concerns about my application profile, but I still have a good chunk of school to do. My main concern is trying to narrow down a specific area of research within quant marketing. Fortunately, the professors I have been speaking with have been able to help me understand the importance of program fit as opposed to going for the highest ranked program I can get into, but this has also compelled me to try to find an area or direction sooner than later. I currently work as a research assistant for a quant professor, and though my experience with him has been very rewarding, most of his work revolves around research methodology. Methodology has never appealed to me much; I was originally considering taking the CB track because I found the problems and questions in that area very interesting. However, I enjoy the quantitative approach to these problems rather than the psychology/neuroscience approach. My hope is to be able to coauthor/publish research by the end of undergrad, which will also fulfill an Honors thesis requirement. Covid has made contacting professors difficult to say the least, so I haven't had much exposure to other areas of research, but I plan to change that this semester. I anticipate that my interactions with them will be very formative in helping me choose an area/direction, but I still wanted to ask you all about your experiences with choosing research areas. More specific questions include: -What has been your timeline for narrowing down research questions? -How do you balance your personal interests with popular/trending subjects? -Is the quality of a PhD program fit more related to the actual research subject matter or the methodology/approach to questions? Thank you for your time reading and responding in advance, and apologies for anything poorly worded or confusing--I am happy to clarify.

That helps a lot, thanks!

Hey friends, What is the difference between incoming student profiles for public policy PhDs, compared to econ? I'm slightly hamstrung by a poor freshman year, and while I have basically all of my econ and math in ahead of me, best case scenario is I walk away with a 3.8 GPA or so. My school is really good at placement for PhD programs as well. Despite this, I think I can rule out a top 20 econ program, at least straight out of undergrad. Are similarly ranked public policy programs just as competitive? I haven't found too much information regarding admissions data. If anyone knows any good resources and/or has firsthand knowledge, that would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone knew how to access the previous US News Rankings for economics graduate programs. I understand they do it about every four years or so, and if anyone knows, that would be great. I've done some searching around and understand that there might b some copywrite issues, but at least pointing me in the right direction would be swell. Cheers mates