Ibn Abbas

PROFILE: (Ibn Abbas) Type of Undergrad: B.B.A. from a South Asian university Undergrad GPA: 3.34 out of 4. (A =4, B+ =3.5, B =3 and so on...) Type of Grad: M.A. in Economics from mid-range Canadian university Grad GPA: 9.67 (out of 12) so far. (A+ =12, A =11, A- =10, B+ = 9 and so on...) GRE: 770Q, 690V, 5.5AWA Math Courses: Business Math C+, Linear Algebra A, Calculus II A, Calculus III and IV combined C-, Mathematical Economics A Econ Courses (MA-level): Micro A-, Macro B+, Metrics A, Intl. Trade B-, Dev Econ A-, Evolution of WB/IMF conditionality A Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Principles of Micro A, Principles of Macro A, Advanced Micro A+, Advanced Macro A+, Metrics I A, Metrics II A+ Stat courses (undergrad-level): Business Stat I B+, Business Stat II B+, Statistical Econ A-, Intro to Stat (from Math dept.) A+, Intro to Probability (from Math dept.) A+, Stochastic Processes C+ Letters of Recommendation: Metrics (UMontreal), Metrics UGrad (UWO) and Development (Columbia). Teaching Assistantship: 3rd year Econometrics, 4th year Econometrics, Agricultural Economics, Principles of Economics Research Interests: Open to macro, labor etc. SOP: Focused on research interests and explained the reasons behind some of my bad grades in math courses. Other: Need to be in big city. RESULTS Acceptances: U of Houston (16.5k with tuition waiver), UT Dallas ($ amt. unknown), U Ottawa (no $) Rejections: Carleton U What would you have done differently? Would have applied to more universities (of rankings higher than of those I applied to) Attending: U of Houston

Update: 1. 100 universities included from USA and Canada. 2. Reranked US and Canadian universities such that UBC stands at 18th, U of T at 30th and so on. 3. Excluded 7 universities/colleges that are in the rankings but do not have Ph.D programs. Names are mentioned in the opening post.

Wait till I hijack one of your threads. :tup:

Another diversion. To the other posters: Just to let you know, asianeconomist is my friend and classmate (from undergrad days) and tends to take the liberty of hijacking my threads and gain sadistic pleasure out of it.

Well, I started off with US universities only and wanted include the top 100. By the time I got to 80, I got tired. Later, canukonomist suggested adding the Canadian universities to the maps and I agreed. Since I didn't want to edit each of the US universities and change the ranks (UBC is 20th -- I have to edit at least 61 links on the map), I just ranked the Canadian universities separately. So, UBC is no. 1 among the Canadian unis and Toronto is no.2 and so on... One day, if I have another spell of boredom, I will rerank them completely.

Maybe I undershot but let's not deviate from the thread topic.

One summer, given the time and money, it's definitely on the cards for me.

Well, the whole thread was done out of jest. :D Of course, your explanation is quite plausible and reasonable. Hope it helps people in the coming years.

They need to move their campuses closer to water (instead of hiring better faculty) to move up the rankings.:)

True. Will update the map later during the day.

I wanted to see the pattern for USA. Observations from Europe would be outliers that would distort the estimation process...ahem. Not anymore. It's got company, finally.

This is my idea of leisure time. Instead of spending/wasting time on Facebook, this is how I waste time. :rolleyes:

I don't know if anyone would be interested. But I did it anyway because I like to spend a lot of time in Google Maps. Google Maps - Top 100 North American Econ Ph.D programs Wanted to use some form of rankings and went with the econphd.net rankings. That does not suggest, by any means, that this ranking is better than others. Note: 1. Only US and Canadian universities are included. In other words, I reranked after exclusing all universities outside US and Canada. 2. Tufts, Dartmouth, College of William & Mary, Brigham Young, HEC Montreal, Montana State and IUPUI are excluded because they do not have Ph.D programs. After looking at the map, I feel like doing a regression with x=distance from major water body (Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of mexico or the Great Lakes) and y = ranking. :)

Nope, not yet. They sent me an email acknowledging receipt of my materials nearly a month back. Since then, silence.

Did you apply to UH or UT (Austin, Arlington, Dallas, etc.)? From my personal experience, Ph.D and M.A. offers are usually sent by email or phone or by post. It is unusual for departments to just post the news on your student account (application status section) and not contact you directly. On the other hand, since rejections are more than acceptances, they tend to be put up on the website only. If you are in doubt, call or email them or clear things up. I have spent some time going through the faculty websites of UH Econ and found Vollrath and Ozcan to be strong in growth theory (not surprising....given they both graduated from Brown). Labour Econ is also another strong point. This suits me well since development and growth is my preferred field. And given that I have to choose a secondary field, I might want to work on 'immigration' which is part of Labour Econ.

The impression I have so far is that UH, and in particular UH Econ is dominated by Turkish students. :D I don't mind at all. I had Turkish classmates during my MA too.:)

Hello YoungEconomist. I am indeed going to wait until I hear back from the others. But it's just formalities because UH is the best among the 5 universities that I applied to. Whether UH is a 'reach' for me or not is debatable. I didn't expect to even get a offer from them, let alone funding. Now that I got admission with full funding, I am thinking whether I should have applied to higher-ranked universities. But anyway, I am not going to cry over it. UH is good enough for me. :)

Thanks a lot for the info regarding the city of Houston. However, as thursday said, it would be helpful if someone could talk more about the Econ Ph.D program at UH. In particular what textbooks they use for the core courses, what is the level of difficulty of the prelims etc. Thanks a lot.

I got a 16.5k offer with full tuition waiver from U Houston and I am very inclined to take it up. But before I sign off the letter and send it back to the grad prog administrator, I was wondering whether I need to consider anything in particular about U Houston, the city of Houston or Texas in general? I am currently in Ottawa, Canada and the other universities I have applied to are Carleton U (my own uni.), U of Ottawa, UW Milwaukee, UT Dallas. I haven't heard back from the others except UT Dallas which has offered me admission but no news yet about funding. U Houston is clearly better than the other 4 and it seems obvious to take up their generous offer. But, just to be on the safe side, I was wondering if you guys have any advice to give. Thanks.

Same here, buddy. Given my less than ideal profile, U of H is the best among the universities I applied to. Hence, it's very likely I am attending.

In at UT Dallas, thought I doubt anyone might be interested. Funding decision later. Profile here

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: B.B.A. from a South Asian university Undergrad GPA: 3.34 out of 4. (A =4, B+ =3.5, B =3 and so on...) Type of Grad: M.A. in Economics from mid-range Canadian university Grad GPA: 9.67 (out of 12) so far. (A+ =12, A =11, A- =10, B+ = 9 and so on...) GRE: 770Q, 690V, 5.5AWA Math Courses: Business Math C+, Linear Algebra A, Calculus II A, Calculus III and IV combined C-, Mathematical Economics A Econ Courses (MA-level): Micro A-, Macro B+, Metrics A, Intl. Trade B-, Dev Econ A-, Evolution of WB/IMF conditionality A Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Principles of Micro A, Principles of Macro A, Advanced Micro A+, Advanced Macro A+, Metrics I A, Metrics II A+ Stat courses (undergrad-level): Business Stat I B+, Business Stat II B+, Statistical Econ A-, Intro to Stat (from Math dept.) A+, Intro to Probability (from Math dept.) A+, Stochastic Processes C+ Letters of Recommendation: Metrics (UMontreal), Metrics UGrad (UWO) and Development (Columbia). Teaching Assistantship: 3rd year Econometrics, 4th year Econometrics, Agricultural Economics, Principles of Economics Research Interests: Development Economics SOP: Will be focusing on my research interests and explaining the reasons behind some of my bad grades in math courses. Concerns: C- in Calculus III and IV and C+ in Stochastic Processes. Applying to: UHouston, UT Dallas, UW Milwaukee, Carleton (Canada), UOttawa (Canada) RESULTS: Acceptances: UT Dallas ($?) Rejection: None yet Waiting: U Houston, UW Milwaukee, Carleton, UOttawa

That's part and parcel of the experience of coming from a developing country. Red tape can be pretty thick. Thankfully, I resolved the situation. One of my friends visiting home will obtain the transcripts for me once I send in a letter of authorization for him to act on my behalf. By the way, I did get a reply from the grad coordinator of UC Boulder explaining that they very much have development as a field. I am applying but I am not holding my breath for admission.

But wouldn't that mean that I would have to open the 'seal' of one of my transcripts to make copies? And I thought no department accept photocopied transcripts. They keep on insisting on their websites that only 'signed and sealed' original transcripts will be accepted. Regarding UC Boulder, I went through their website and class offerings several times and found that the last time a development course was taught was in Spring 2007. So the fact that it was offered again in Spring 2008 is a surprise to me.

I agree with you Olm. Can anyone tell me the current state of the Econ dept. at UC Boulder? I emailed them about whether they are offering Development as a field and they didn't reply.