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Type of Undergrad: BA in Economics and Mathematics from a small liberal arts school, not very highly ranked or well known Undergrad GPA: 3.93 GRE: 169Q/167V/5.5W Math Courses: Calculus and analytical geometry I, II and III (A, A-, A); Foundations of Math (sort of intro to proofs and set theory) (B); Probability and Statistics, I and II (A and A); Differential Equations (A); Linear Algebra (A); Abstract Algebra (A); Mathematical Modeling (A); Topology (contains early real analysis) (A) Econ Courses Undergrad: Intermediate Micro (A); Intermediate Macro (A); Game Theory (A); Econometrics (A); Environmental Economics (A); History of Economic Thought (A); Senior seminar (thesis paper) (A); Political Economy of Africa (A); Independent research course/paper (A) Other Courses: Object Oriented Programming (Java): A Letters of Recommendation: Really strong letters from three economics professors, including my senior thesis advisor, that will place me near the top of students they have taught. A fourth strong letter from a math professor who does the same which I may submit for some schools. Research Experience: I wrote my senior thesis, and then a paper for an independent research course I designed with a professor, on capital flows in the eurozone, the Greek Debt crisis, and monetary unions. I was also a research assistant for a professor’s consulting business doing union arbitration cases, mostly doing research on local economies, development projects, and city finances. Since leaving undergrad 1 year ago I have worked as a labor market researcher for a state labor department. At first this was a pretty sleepy job that gave me a lot of time to do independent research and work on my programming skills. Since COVID-19 began I have been involved deeply involved our state’s response to the unemployment crisis, including data analysis, forecasting and modeling for unemployment insurance programs and the trust fund, and implementation of new federal programs. Other: I applied to PhD programs in fall of 2018, for admission in fall of 2019. I received several funded offers, from schools like Pittsburgh and Notre Dame. I was also waitlisted at UT Austin and Maryland, and received an offer off the waitlist from Maryland. I was excited by several of my offers, but my partner got into an amazing master’s program and I made the tough decision to move with her, find a job, and wait on grad school for two years. Unfortunately I expect this year to be significantly more competitive than when I applied before. Having gone through this once, I feel I should know where I have a shot, but COVID-19 and my work experience makes this tricky. I am planning to apply for a few reach schools in the teens and 20s (Minnesota and Hopkins), several schools in the 30s and 40s (Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt), and a few “safer’ options in the 50s and 60s, for about 12 total. Does this seem like a sufficiently cautious path? Any advice on leveraging my work experience? In my SOP I lean on this to talk about how my research interests have shifted from monetary economics towards labor economics. Unfortunately I also feel like my research interests are less specific and clearly defined than last time (when they were pretty honed in on monetary policy, monetary unions, debt crises). Not sure if this helps or hurts. Self-assessment: I think I made the most of my possibilities given the undergrad I attended. Not accepting a grad school offer in 2019 may have been a bad decision in retrospect. There are plenty of things that hurt me and things that help me in my background. Weaknesses: Having gone to a small not-highly-ranked school, lack of publications, working in government the last year instead of as an academic RA Strengths: Really good recommendations, solid GRE, high GPA, subject matter expertise in labor economics, especially with the state response to COVID-19 unemployment crisis.

The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper: The factory of the future will be very different. Cleverer design software greatly speeds up product development. The same software can be used to program automated machine tools and more dexterous robots. New materials, like carbon fibre and nanoparticles, result in entirely new production processes. And additive manufacturing, popularly known as 3D printing, promises to demolish economies of scale. With labour costs becoming a less important factor in modern manufacturing, where will factories go? Some manufacturers have already relocated Asian production back to America and Europe, in part to be closer to their markets and to respond more rapidly to demand. Will this become a significant trend? Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion. The author is concerned about the manufacturing industry in general. Automation, discovery of new materials as well as new manufacturing techniques alongside labor costs & relocation of factories to their home country provides a strong evidence for the authors concern. However the assumptions made by the author still need to be addressed before a conclusion is reached. Firstly the author assumes that the ''discovery of new materials'' would lead to new manufacturing techniques being developed. Carbon fibre & nanoparticles are the new materials in question. Both materials have important properties which can make the materials currently in use obsolete. A perfect example for this would be the application of carbon fibre in manufacturing of aircrafts. Consider the B747 it has its main components made from aluminium, whereas 53 % of the main componenets of A350 are made from carbon fibre making the aircraft lighter & consuming less fuel. This brings us to the next assumption being ""discovery of new techniques", namely Additive Manufacturing or 3D Printing. 3D Printing is the future of manufacturing industry because it reduces the time required for manufacture of a product. Consider the example of a Coffee Mug manufacturing unit, wherein the time required to manufacture a mug by conventional methods takes 3 days whereas my 3D printing it takes less than a day (almost 12 hours), this not only is a time saver but also the waste produced compared to the conventional method is far less. From the above assumptions we can conclude that discover of new materials & new techniques is essential for the future. Furthermore the author assumes that "Automation" is the future replacing manual labor in factories. Automation is clearly the future of manufacturing industry, a strong disapproval to this assumption can be stated by the fact that making a factory fully automated is expensive. Which cannot be implemented in under developed / developing countries, where most manufacturing units for companies are based. This highlights the other assumption of "Labor cost" as well. It is widely known that in developing / under-developed countries labor is quite cheap. It is universally known that for any company profit is a top priority. This is probably the reason why Apple Inc has a manufacturing facility in China, utilizing the cheap manual labor. If the same plant would be in USA, the labor would be quite expensive given the high cost of living in the US. But what if Apple Inc automated its manufacturing facility and base that in US? Wouldn't it be viable? Although it could cost Apple to automate the process, it would benefit the company a lot. Less tax on Apple products (a win-win situation for customers) &High profits (since process is automated and requires less labor) are some of the highlights of such a move. This also explains the last assumption of relocation of factories my companies to their home country. Although Automation & manual labor are two sides of the same coin, one assists companies to achieve profits, whereas the other reduces the same. Moving of factories to one's home country is a wise move, as it means low taxes for the company & increase in employment oppurtunities for the local population. The author has presented a nice idea. Although the author makes a good point we don't have enough evidence to conclude that this is the best way to as all the assumptions made by the author has their own pros & cons.

I got fully funded offers from both places. With a firm belief in academic career in field of applied micro, such as development, labor and public economics, which place can be the better one? Thank you in advance for your advice!!! Do need some help.

Currently choosing between UCI and UNC. The funding at UCI is a solid amount more and I don't have to teach for a couple of years. They also have subsidized housing which makes it easier to live there. UNC's offer isn't as good but includes fellowships in the summer. I'm interested in labor and empirical IO. Not sure which one I value over the other one yet. Also, I am interested in an industry job, so rankings are not as important. I'm pretty split down the middle currently, anyone have any opinions?

In general, how would LOR writer's specialty impact the influence of the letter? For example, if I am interested in doing macro or finance, how would a strong letter from a professor in fields like labor or micro theory be viewed differently comparing to a semi-strong letter from a professor in macro-finance?

Hello forum, I'm not the strongest applicant, but a year on the job hunt has me convinced finding a good position with only an Econ BA is tough. I'm looking to apply to an Econ PhD program, because of the potential for funding and a love of research. I would consider calling it quits after getting the complimentary Masters, but that's another conversation, maybe. My profile has flaws, but I am optimistic I have a shot at lowly ranked programs. 165Q, 161V no letter grades, moderate performance in Econ classes, Lin Alg, Diff EQ, calc 1&2, Real Analysis 1 wrote a decent senior honors thesis using SAS have worked non-Econ research assistant jobs since graduating undergrad inst. has moderate rep but good grad-placement (small, public liberal arts college in US, top 50) so, I am interested in the economic demography/labor/human resources and see myself working in the public/nonprofit sector, likely outside of academia. Can anyone recommend programs ranked, say, 50th or lower that have strengths in those fields? I'd be tremendously grateful. cheers, RC