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If you could sort the following into Top-10/20/30/50/etc, how would you do so? USC UCLA Stanford Berkeley UCSD UCSB UC Davis UC Irvine Rice Virginia UT-Austin Texas A&M Duke UNC

I’ve been fortunate to have offers from Berkeley ARE and HKS’s Public Policy PhD. I plan on attending Visit Days at both. I worry, though, that I’m still going to feel conflicted even after visiting the two schools. My interests are in environment/development economics and the policy implications of research in those areas. My general impression is that within this field, Berkeley ARE is the gold standard, and the curriculum seems more rigorous overall. However, HKS still has amazing faculty and potentially beats Berkeley in branding. Looking at recent past placements, I think Berkeley ARE places slightly better than HKS. My goal as of right now is to teach at a liberal arts college or work in a regulatory body or at a think tank, so I’m tempted to say I don’t need to worry about marginal differences in placement. Another thought I have is that Harvard as a whole is better funded than Berkeley as a whole. Would this affect opportunities at the graduate school level (ie. being able to attend conferences that are far from campus)? Does this seem accurate? I’d also appreciate suggestions on best questions to ask during Visit Days. Thanks in advance!

Hi all, it seems that after looking at the websites for both UCLA's and UC Berkeley's Econ PhD admissions criteria, they don't fund all of their students and they mention getting CA residency after the first year for lower tuition rates. First of all, do you recommend becoming a resident of the state where your school is at if you're only there for 9 out of 12 months? What are the drawbacks of not having resident status in your home state? Does it affect driver's license or voting rights, or anything else? But where I'm going with this thread is, is the quality of education much different at UCLA or UC Berkeley than at UC Santa Barbara, which admits approximately 20% of applicants and pays both tuition and stipend for all students? Which would you prefer of these schools, if you wanted a great experience throughout the PhD program?

I've heard from seeing posts on GC that it looks like there were 2 different funding offers at berkeley, one with the 8k first year and TA-ship onwards, and one that was ~30k a year. Does anyone have more specific details on the ~30k a year stipend amount? I'm thinking about trying to bargain with them.

Anyone else experiencing issues in submitting to PhD Econ Berkeley? Website states that deadline is on 8:59 pm Pacific Standard Time, but I have tried to submit since 2 am and gradapp insists that the deadline has expired. Suggestions?

Hi all! Second time poster, long time casual reader. I was wondering if anyone had any experience or insight about deferring admission for Berkeley Econ. I would love to apply both to both the Econ and the ARE department, as they are both at the top of my list, but as you may know an applicant can only apply to one of those two programs at a time. I'm quite enjoying my current RA job, and wouldn't mind another year here, so I'm considering doing the following: apply to Berkeley Econ this year, and accept and defer if I get in; if I don't, then apply to Berkeley ARE along with other schools next year. That way I can go to Berkeley Econ (my preference) if I get in, and if I'm considered a strong enough applicant for ARE but not Econ then I could have a chance at that as well. I'm waiting to hear back from the department about their deferral procedures. I guess I have three questions, assuming that deferral is possible: 1) What my level of commitment would be after accepting with deferral 2) My understanding is that schools that allow deferral typically re-evaluate your financial offer the next year. That seems totally reasonable to me - is there any reason to fear such a thing? 3) Are there any other obvious considerations here that I'm missing?

Hi all, One of my recommenders for Berkeley ARE just told me that the recommendation deadline isn't until 2012. My default assumption was that it was the same as the application deadline, which is today, December 10. I have not been able to verify this on either ARE website or the Berkeley graduate website, nor can I log back into the my application, which has been submitted. Does anyone have any idea? (My letter writer is apparently traveling, which is why this is an issue.) Thanks in advance!