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Hi everyone, I have recently been accepted to the CUNY graduate center with tuition + stipend. Although the overall ranking and reputation of the program at CUNY is not the best, I applied there and am considering it because of its focus on finance and its availability of a huge group professors whose main focus is in financial economics. I couldn't find any program that had that many professors in financial economics. On the other hand, I also have a competitive offer from UC Irvine. Although UCI is not known for financial economics, there are professors who I can definitely work with, and their focus on data science is really attractive. I would have to say that I am happy with landing a good industry job as both places are not the optimal places to go to for academic positions anyway. With that being said, I think CUNY's advantage is its huge faculty (and courses) in financial economics and location. But I do not know interactive the faculty is with the grad students. UCI has slightly better reputation and offers a MS in Statistics and one of their labs focuses on deep learning which I can definitely take advantage of and utilize in so many fields including finance, tech, etc. In other words, I feel like I will learn more technical stuff there. Anyways, can any of you provide any insights/advises on which one I might be better off choosing? Thanks!

I have been accepted both in Maryland (21k) and Minnesota (23k), and I do not know what to choose. I know Minnesota is great in Macro, but even though I used to like Macro I like it less and less every day. So, nowadays I think I do not want to focus on Macro for my research, and neither I want to focus in empirical IO which is the other strength of Minnesota. I am more interested now in applied micro and issues of Development and Political Econ. Because of these reasons now I am leaning towards Maryland rather than Minnesota. Also in terms of location I prefer the weather of Washington DC than the one of Twin Cities. However I am afraid of taking that path, since in terms of placement Minnesota is far better than Maryland. Am I crazy if I choose Maryland over Minnesota? Please share your opinions.

I have a couple of choices of linear algebra courses to take. - A is standard linear algebra course, uses Strang's Intro to Linear Algebra (should give context on the material) - B is computational linear algebra, ie it has a focus on computational applications, MATLAB programming, etc. It covers the same material as course A in a sense, but probably with less focus on the theory. - C is proof-based, abstract linear algebra, uses Linear Algebra Done Right as a textbook (for context on the material). Known to be the hardest of the three. B seems more helpful towards possible research work, as it provides experience with computational methods that could be useful in doing RA work (and also in applying to pre-doctoral RA positions, which I'm considering). C seems the most helpful for signalling, but I don't know how valuable linear algebra is as a signal compared to other math courses (I've heard it's not) and the potential grade hit/opportunity cost may not be worth it. A is probably the least work and maximizes probability of a good grade while giving me time to focus on other math courses. Which should I take?