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Here are my options: Georgetown – admitted, fully funded Wisconsin – waitlisted, but likely admission Maryland – waitlisted, unsure of admission UCLA – waitlisted, unsure of admission, but would likely be without funding I expect to hear about waitlists this weekend, before I need to make a decision Monday. Interests: urban economics, real estate finance, and more broadly, applied micro Job hopes: federal government (Fed, Census, etc.), tech firm, or think tank I think UCLA and Wisconsin might have the best opportunities for urban and real estate. Both have big real estate teams in their business schools. There’s a recently-tenured associate professor at Wisconsin, who does my exact urban interests and seems interested in working with me. However, I’m very concerned about living in a small town like Madison for the next six years and much prefer the DC area. For my job interests (non-academic), the placements at all the schools seem fairly similar, so I'm wondering if rank matters much? Also, how important is it to be at a school with a professor doing the exact research you want to pursue rather than just something similar?

Hi all, I'm trying to decide if I would prefer Georgetown or Columbia should I be accepted to both (what a thought!). Georgetown has easier admissions requirements with the GRE Quantitative just needing to be at least in the 80th percentile, and I'm sure Columbia is more like 90th to 95th percentile. One thing that left me wondering about Columbia is that they have you write a 2nd year paper, and I've heard of 3rd year papers, but I thought the 1st and 2nd years were used mainly for coursework and fulfilling TA or RA duties? Does seem to be a bit of a rush. I don't know too much about either program, but Georgetown says on their website that you can take 2 semesters of leave of absence, and maybe this a reflection of the pace of the program?

Hi everybody, I am from Europe and am going to start a graduate program in Economics this coming fall. My interests are Development, Income Inequalities and Financial Development. So far I have received several admission offers, with Georgetown University and Barcelona GSE being objectively the best universities I have heard back from (even if I was also admitted into Bocconi PhD program, but already rejected it due to personal reasons). I have only few days to make a definitive decision (BGSE wants me to reply only by next Monday!), so now I desperately need your help in order to choose the best option between these two universities. Georgetown allows me to enter directly into their PhD program, whereas BGSE forces me to attend and earn their 2-year Master first (which leads to 3 consequent years in which you exclusively do research and finally earn their doctorate degree). In some rankings Georgetown dominates BGSE, while the opposite is true in other rankings. For this reason, I would not rely too much on academic standing to prefer one to the other (or am I wrong?). Finally, both of such offers are unfunded. I know this means I am into a quite difficult situation, but fortunately I think to be able to manage my first year of study thanks to my finances (I have been working for 1 year just to fund my future 1° year of Master/PhD). Once in one of these two universities, I will really commit myself to study hard so as to (hopefully) get some financial support from 2° year on. I have not a clue about how Washington and Barcelone are, since I have visited none of them so far. I know Georgetown could maybe be better in placing me more easily into international institutions (like World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks), which represent my dream destination. Nevertheless, some of last BGSE Master and PhD graduates are now working in such institutions, so perhaps this is not a real point of distinction. Any information/advice would be really welcome! Thanks in advance.

Hello! I'm an international applicant, so I don't have enough information for my final decision. I was accepted by Georgetown univ with full funding and still waiting for ASU. Even though I was admitted by some better programs, I declined because they don't give any financial aid. So if I accepted by ASU, I have to choose between them and It must be very hard to make decision! I found that some information about ASU from past thread as follows, * Improving department with nice new hires * Small class size * Rising at environment (still nascent) * very strong in macro and economic theory * decent in applied micro * good at financial econometrics * not so good in econometrics * funding is not a problem as it is in business school * macro: prescott, ventura and many others but they loose rogerson! * environment: Kery smith, kuminoff * Financial econ: Mehra, ahn * Smiths' classes are very interesting * economic theory: Lin Zhou, manelli, chade * Possible to work with finance faculty * Prescott: teaches advanced macro topics in spring + actively advises + 2 RA each year with him at Mennepolis Fed + attrition rate is very low! And I've heard that G'town hires new faculties aggressively (eg: John Lust, Pedro Carneiro) and they have big potential to be improved while they weed out 40%~50% first year phd student. + they have better undergraduate reputation than those of ASU. Actually, I don't know exactly what I have to study in the future...! I would like to consider it during my phd course work period. Please share your ideas!!

Hi everyone. Long time reader; first time poster. I am applying to phD programs right now for next fall. I am looking for prestige, job/teaching oppurtunites upon graduation, money (cheap programs 3.5 or heavily subsidised), and I want to avoid the cold weather (I.E. Ann Arbor is out of the question). Which schools should I be looking at/setting my hopes on. GPA: 3.5 (T40 university) - Math and Economics double major GRE: 760Q; 580V Schools I have applied to: Rice Texas Vanderbilt Georgetown Ohio State Duke UNC BU Northwestern UVA USC UCLA UC-Berkeley UPenn :( Thanks!?!?!??!?!?

Hi everyone, I am an international student and have been lucky enough to get into Georgetown (MPP) in Washington and Master in Development Management & Policy (in Buenos Aires), LSE (MPA) and Hertie School of Governance´s MPP (in Berlin). Georgetown is very appealing but also student fees are much higher, so does LSE. I like Hertie and offers dual programs but seems to be less well-known. Would the Argentinean location hurt the degree? In the future I would like to work for some environmental / development agency or international organization. If any of you has any experience in any of those schools or in that sector it would be really appreciated if you could share your thoughts. Thanks!