Eustruria

Anyone not heard from Duke yet? They sent out a round of rejections, but based on the large number of acceptances in late February, I'm assuming they'll continue to release some more rejections or at best, waitlists at this point.

Not too sure, the letter starts off with "Dear applicant... I am writing regarding the status of your application for the Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt University. The admissions committee was impressed by your credentials. Because we are constrained by our university administration, we cannot yet make you an official offer of admission. However, we are very confident that we will eventually be able to make you an offer ... potential official offer would come in April, and you will likely have other options as well, I thought it would be helpful to let you know how an offer would look like if we are able to make one so that you can think about whether you would take it. " (3 more pages of info). Seems kind of like a high rank waitlist?

I just got a 3 page letter from the director of graduate studies at Vanderbilt saying he is "very confident" he wants to give me an offer but only around April because they're "constrained".

Hi, thanks for your reply! I was wondering if I could get your opinion on where I should improve for future cycles? I come from a public university (60-ish ranking in US). I'm majoring in both Economics and Mathematics (BS) in addition to a statistics minor. I've actually taken grad level micro/macro along with a PhD level math econ course that deals with real analysis. I've worked as a research assistant throughout my undergrad in economics, environmental engineering, and geography with 4 publications (2 first author). None of these publications are in economic journals, although they have economic related content. I did, however, recently publish my honors thesis. I don't want to come off as insecure or pompous over all my rejections, I'm just curious as to where I went wrong or where I'm lacking so I can have a better cycle myself in the future. Some negatives that I can think of aside from my differing research experiences are that I only obtained a B in undergrad real analysis my fall freshman semester and a B+ in spring freshman year when I retook it. I had positive impacts on all my research advisors, and they were the ones who gave me confidence to apply to so many top programs, so I'll definitely try again next cycle. Two are in economics and one is in environmental engineering. As with BoredGames, I got no offers from top 20 aside from one waitlist. Do you think doing an RA or masters would be better given my circumstances?

What is the best plan of action if you do get rejected at all your desired programs? Working at the FED? Applying for predoc positions? Doing a masters? I've been getting straight rejections so far aside from my safety program and one waitlist, so I'm assuming IR for the rest of this cycle. It's quite disappointing but I'm not going to lose hope. I'm undergrad, so I'm praying Chicago and maybe Columbia will offer a masters after I got/will get rejected. But I also heard online that those programs can be quite cash-cow, so maybe a predoc is better? Then again, I'm not sure how easy it is to get into a strong predoc program at this stage. At the same time, you aren't getting a degree out of a predoc and it might limit your future options.

To clarify, I'm still waiting on ~10 programs, but I'm assuming rejection and moving on.

I'm also a senior undergrad who applied only to top 30 schools and one safety. So far, I've only gotten into my safety and waitlisted at Wisconsin-Madison's Applied Economics. I've gotten 7 rejections as of now and I have no interest in going to my safety program. I feel like it's gotten pretty difficult to get into a top program straight from undergrad unless your undergrad institution is also high ranked. All my honors advisors, LOR writers, and other economics professors said that my list of schools weren't risky or that I will definitely get into a top program. But frankly, most of my professors are quite old so their expectations are likely off. It feels like the average person who attends a top program has gotten a masters, predoc, or took some years at the Fed reserve. I was feeling quite depressed as well but you need to change your mindset. Assume you've been rejected from everywhere and start planning your next steps now. Start applying to any master's programs whose deadlines haven't passed or predoc programs. You won't feel as bad. Frankly, I should have applied to some top master's programs, but my initial perception of how easy it was to get into a PhD program got the best of me. My remaining hope regarding this application cycle now is to (hopefully) get into Uchicago's master program since I got rejected from their PhD. Here are my stats: 3.888 GPA; 169Q/163V/4.5AWA; economics (BS), applied mathematics (BS), statistics (minor); 4 publications (2 first author), none of which are in economics journals but are economics related; 3 research assistantships, only one was in economics department; 2 presentations; various awards and scholarships (~$30k).

Is Princeton Economics IR? A lot of phone call acceptances on gradcafe.

I got a waitlist for Wisconsin-Madison's AAE PhD program, haven't heard back from economics PhD or financial MS yet. Someone else also posted their waitlist as well on gradcafe. I think I might have been IR from economics PhD, but it's too early. Chances are they release decisions in multiple waves.

Thanks! That's good to know. Best of luck everyone on future admissions!

Congrats to phd2022! I got this: "Dear XXX, Following careful review by faculty in the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics (PhD program), your materials have been referred to the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) for consideration because of the strength of your application and research interests in the social sciences." Does this mean I am likely to be accepted for the masters even though I got rejected for PhD? Or are they just generically passing me to the master's committee?

My email stated, "Since you indicated that you would like your application to be considered for admission to the Finance: PHD program if unsuccessful, your application continues to be reviewed by the Finance: PHD program." I don't think the admissions committee personally decided to pass anyone to another department for review, only if the applicant states so in their application. I doubt I will receive a positive response from finance as my application was optimized for economics research. Most likely I was rejected based on some cutoff. Here are my stats: GRE(169Q/163V/4.5AWA), 3.89 GPA (undergraduate); major: Economics (BS), Applied Mathematics (BS), statistics (minor); 4 major publications (2 of which I was first author in); 3 research assistantships; 2 presentations; various scholarships/honors awards. I am still attending senior undergrad.

Just got a rejection email from Northwestern 30 minutes ago! I'll be passed to the finance department for a PhD consideration, but I highly doubt I'll get in. Not too worried. Best of luck everyone!

Nobody replied huh? I'm no expert and by now you've probably already submitted or are about to submit your application, but I think that your Utah GPA definitely makes up for your community college GPA. I know a bunch of PhD students from foreign countries whose GPA, when translated into 4.0, were not particularly high due to the lack-there-of grade inflation in their respective countries. I think a 3.7 will most likely get you through the first stage cutoff so admissions will see your improvement. I think your list of schools are pretty good because, in my opinion, it's probably better in the long run to take an extra year to buff your CV than to waste 5 years at a poor institution (which the universities you've applied to are not). I think you've grown over the past few years and you will continue to make good progress in the future. Don't stress too much on your applications and always prepare a back-up plan just in case.

I already submitted 7 applications, and now I realized I wrote the wrong date for one of my presentations. This took place at X university on August 2020, but I mistakenly wrote December 2020, the date of publication for the research article that I presented. Normally I wouldn't be worried, but for all my other presentations I listed the date of occurrence, not eventual publication. It was a video presentation that is posted on the University event's website, so if you look it up it will show. The university holds this event annually, so I'm not sure if admissions might get confused when they try to confirm my participation. Additionally, I applied to two different programs at the university that held this event! Do you think admissions will just see this as a minor mistake and move on, or will there be repercussions?

I noticed that a number of PhD applications want you list relevant courses on a form along with the textbook you used in that course. Some go as far as simply listing the most advanced textbook you used in a relevant subject. Coming from undergrad, I've taken a lot of courses in math and statistics didn't really utilize any textbooks at all. They might list some textbook on their syllabus and never once actually use it. And for courses that do use textbooks, well, I forgot their names. I'm wondering, did you guys email your previous professors for textbook names or leave the column blank? Did you guys go about searching for your old textbook names or is it really not worthwhile doing so?