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*Looking for Advice* Hi there! I am new (just joined yesterday), so apologies if I am not doing this right, but I am wondering if anyone might be willing to provide their insight/advice on approaching this situation. Relatively short version~~~ -I am currently an RA at the Fed (have been remote my entire time there), and I have applied to both PhD Econ programs and Pre-Docs. -PhD application was not well prepared (GRE = bad, SOP meh, letters of rec are B to B+ grade-ish overall I’d guess), didn't even apply to a couple of my dream schools -Got in to a ~top 20 and ~top 25 school for econ PhD (but I am not terribly passionate about either) -Got in to a pre-doc at a top business school with a great Econ department (top ~2 Econ department, would be working with a full prof with an Econ degree and an AP with a management degree focused on econ-related issues) --> Unsure of what to do I don't want to take the existing PhD offer and then always wonder "what if" I had truly put together the best application I could and applied to all of my target schools On the flip side, I don't want to take another pre-doc only to do worse in the next cycle I apply to. (As an aside, I am not terribly concerned about the age and money issue at this time, except in the ways that they might affect my career outcomes) Any thoughts, comments, roasting, recommendations, etc. are all very much appreciated. 😓

Hi there! I am currently finishing up my first round of application deadlines, and I was wondering what y’all think about some of the common requirements. 1) CV/Resume: How long is yours? How much detail do y’all go into? Do you include “unrelated” things like internships not in Econ/finance/data? 2) Statement of Purpose: How do you avoid simply rehashing things on your resume? What have y’all prioritized including? How much do you spend talking about your past (experiences, research, coursework) vs your future (why that program, what you want to focus your research on, career goals)? 3) Personal Statement: For schools requiring another statement, how are y’all using it? Are you using it to discuss something you didn’t have room for in your SOP, something personal about you (I.e. life-changing experience, “light bulb moment”, etc), or something else entirely? Obviously no need to answer all of the questions! I was just curious what your thoughts were about some things I’ve been thinking about throughout this process. Best of luck, everyone!

Hi there! I am currently finishing up my first round of application deadlines, and I was wondering what y’all think about some of the common requirements. 1) CV/Resume: How long is yours? How much detail do y’all go into? Do you include “unrelated” things like internships not in Econ/finance/data? 2) Statement of Purpose: How do you avoid simply rehashing things on your resume? What have y’all prioritized including? How much do you spend talking about your past (experiences, research, coursework) vs your future (why that program, what you want to focus your research on, career goals)? 3) Personal Statement: For schools requiring another statement, how are y’all using it? Are you using it to discuss something you didn’t have room for in your SOP, something personal about you (I.e. life-changing experience, “light bulb moment”, etc), or something else entirely? Obviously no need to answer all of the questions! I was just curious what your thoughts were about some things I’ve been thinking about throughout this process. Best of luck, everyone!

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