vinnythepooh

Aww shucks... :) thanks guys!

Hey everyone, As I'm in the middle of exam prep, I'm just cross posting this from my own blog where I had put out this information yesterday. I had a lot of you asking me on my status - many I private messaged... but nontheless here it is! I promised to let everyone know what happened to my admission status the moment I heard from the last institution, and now, finally after almost six months of unending nerves and incredible amounts of torture, all my cards are in. I didn't make it into any institution. Chicago was the first to send me a rejection in early April, followed by an email from Princeton. NYU took its time till today, it was probably waiting for the NSF results to come in. My NSF application was not evaluated - I'm still trying to look into why that happened. There are obviously many questions that you might ask (and have asked for that matter). I'm sure that the most pertinent ones are, "Why didn't you apply to more schools", "Why did you get rejected?", and, "What next?". To the first question - the answer to me was obvious. I didn't see myself being able to put out an honest and straightforward statement of purpose to an institution that I didn't see myself fitting into. The three schools that I had applied to at the time were my 'dream schools', the object of all my grad school nerdy fantasies. Have things changed since then? Yes - I realise that there were probably a few other schools I would have tried applying to now that I have learned and absorbed more. Nontheless, I still have no regrets about this decision. It was always going to be a tough ask, especially since I am fresh out of a three year undergraduate course and they didn't have any LSE grades to make their decisions on. Add to this the fact that I had indicated my unwillingness to be considered for admission without aid, and I guess it was always going to be an uphill challenge this year. To the second question, I suppose my single biggest disadvantage was the fact that I come from a small institution in India, where Economics is not necessarily taught with the same mathematical gusto as it is elsewhere. Do I have regrets for not choosing to go back to the US to study my Undergrad? Nope... undoubtedly those were the best three years of my life - I managed to milk out of those years some of the best experiences of my life, and wouldn't trade them for the world and it's five cows. Lets face it, my year at the LSE has been an extremely difficult challenge for me mathematically. I honestly believe I have come out the better for it, and I think I am a lot more confident about myself than I have ever been in the past (my math teachers from school will vouch for me on this). Its like the first time a mountaineer does an Everest - you feel like the king of the world (and its five cows). Understanding the mathematical elegance of my subject has been one of the best experiences this year. To the third question, the answer is that I am still trying to sort it out. There are some very exciting and interesting developments in the making, but at this time I'd rather wait before bringing them up. In a way, I feel so incredibly scared. I don't want to work full time for an investment bank or a consulting firm. Thats just not me right now. Having spent a year here, I finally feel like that fire in my arse is alive and burning. I knew I liked Economics, but seriously... now... I don't know... its so difficult to describe. I am considering a lot of options - applying to the Federal Reserve, or working as a research assistant somewhere or for someone... the doors are wide open for the year ahead. Thanks a lot for all the emails and bits and pieces of advice that everyone has given me over the last year. It can be an overwhelming experience to survive this entire process alone, and its always nice to walk the road with friendly travellers. A huge thanks to the TM forum members - Econ, Scheng, Klimano, Gstergia, Cliff, and all the others who messaged me or wrote to me with advice and help. Oh and by the way... Princeton, Chicago, and NYU... and trust me on this... I'll be back this November. Keep an eye out for me.

I just got word - rejected. Emails are being sent out.

Its been moved to Monday.

Good luck :)

Now THAT is what you need to get inputs.

Oh Scheng - what would I do without you! :)

Thats funny :) I was JUST about to say the same thing, including the harried woman part.

If you're in the US, just give them a call and see what they say. I don't have access to a phone in the library, so I'm just too lazy to go out and call them :)

Apparently someone posted on another site that they will be announcing results today. If you visit nsfgradfellows.org they've removed the applicant status page and in the ratings page they announce that the results will be available on May 2, 2005. Looks like we're close to finding out... probably today!

I'm still waiting one one more outcome. You're not alone... don't worry.

Toronto is a good program. If it is the Doctoral stream, it would be a good idea, as it would be worth some brownie points in your apps to better schools later.

Yousuf, You're absolutely right. In general, when you don't know what you want to do in life, my parents always brought me up with "Do Math". Looking back, I do wish I had listened to them :) At times I've wanted to switch from Economics into Physics, but never could because of the lack of Science/Math. When you're lost in life... absolutely do math :) However, if its Econ that you think you like... then make sure you do enough to make a judgement call.

Hey, all you math-trigger happy people, relax. I'm normally quite affable about the math-econ debate but I'm going out on a mean limb to say that everyone needs to give the math overdose a break. Polkaparty - you're in your FIRST year. You don't even know what Economics is. First take the time to find out exactly what the subject is by taking some courses in Econ. You want to go to grad school in Econ today. In my humble opinion, its still a little too soon to home in on that. However that said, if you are interested in Econ being a freshman, take the time to explore the subject more to make sure its what you want to do. It's not all about the math. If you want to do a PhD, make sure you know your Econ before you start getting into the Math. Otherwise you WILL end up in an awkward place. I don't discount the fact that you need to take as many math courses as you can. I however think its something you need to save for your penultimate and final year in college, NOT early on while you still need to explore your major subject. I'm not going to play anti-math evangelist all the time, but please, as a request from someone who never even took multivariate calculus, appreciate Economics for what it is aside from the math. To me, grad school in Economics is about thirty million times more boring than the exciting stuff I did in undergrad. And thats the problem polkaparty - you'll never get a chance to appreciate the beauty of the subject if you don't take enough Econ undergrad courses. The reason for this is that in grad school, people pretty much move forward with the assumption that you already had the chance to take those fun Econ courses, and that its time to get down to cutting edge stuff. Anyway, like I said, I don't want to discount the importance of taking Math courses, but in short, if you're still young, get to know WHY you need all that math before you do the math. P.S. - Go with Scheng's advice. :)

You stand a good chance of being admitted to those schools. You may want to try one or two more schools higher in the rankings just to see how it goes, especially if you have gone through a 'strenuous curriculum'.