Search the Community

Admission posted on Grad Cafe...can anyone confirm?

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, 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 am hoping to borrow some of your knowledge about various programs. My options are: Accepted: Caltech, University of Arizona Wait List: UChicago, UCLA, Boston College I like micro theory but if I were to do empirical work I'd prefer randomized controlled trials/field experiments. My main question is if my preference ordering is wrong: UChicago > Caltech >= UCLA > Boston College > UArizona From what I understand UCLA is similarly ranked with Caltech but I doubt I will get the funding to go to UCLA. I also debating whether I should tell BC to take me off the waitlist. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Hi, I've been admitted to the UCLA PhD econ program with a tuition waiver for 5 years and guaranteed funding for the last four years via TAships. However, I have not gotten funding for the first year. Is it possible for me to negotiate partial or full fellowship for the first year and if so how should I go about it. My other offers are from UNC Statistics and Minnesota Econ and are fully funded for all five years. If I don't get funding is it worth it to still take UCLA over these options? Thanks

Hi everyone, I would like to get in somewhere with enough funding because money is an issue, but I'm also applying to the Smith College math post-bac program for women and jobs at the Federal Reserve and economic consulting firms as back-ups, so things will be good. I think I would like to enter academia after the Ph. D., but I haven't tried private sector work, so I don't know if that'd be just as good, so I guess I'd just like options. I'll be graduating next year with an Economics B.A. with Mathematics minor from UCLA. My current GPA is 3.5 overall and 3.7 major. I've taken Linear Algebra and am currently taking Real Analysis and Partial Differential Equations during the summer. I'll take more math classes my senior year, including Optimization and Mathematical Economics in the fall. My GRE score was 170/170/5.5. I did an undergraduate independent research project about Zipf's law in urban economics, and I was a research assistant for one year for a graduate student working on her dissertation in public finance. I'll be starting as a research assistant this fall for the professor who advised my independent research project. I'm interested in all research fields equally. I'm thinking I should apply to ten schools: UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, Berkeley, Caltech, UC Davis, Duke, NYU, Georgetown, and Columbia (where my adviser went). Which schools should I add or remove? I'm concerned about whether I'd be uncomfortable as an Asian female in the Midwest or South. Does anyone with experience here think I should be concerned? I'm also concerned that half are public schools, and I need funding, so should I apply to more private schools instead? Thank you very much for any advice and suggestions! I hope everyone's having a good summer :)

Hi everyone! I've got an admission to UChicago without any kind of funding and an admission to UCLA with full funding and 30K of stipend. My research interests are Macro Theory topics. I don't know which option would be more convenient. Help!

I am applying for Masters in Science (MS) in Computer Science for Fall 2015. While going through the online application form, I came to know that under the "Recommendations" section, I have to provide names and emails of three recommendation providers. I just wanted to know whether it is mandatory to submit letter of recommendation electronically in addition to mailing them along with all the necessary documents or will just sending them by mail be enough ? Thank you.

Hi everyone! I find it very difficult to choose between UCLA and Minnesota (ECON PhD); I wonder if you have any suggestions! Though Minnesota out-ranked UCLA in Macro, I am not sure about the situation in other fields (Metrics, IO, Trade, Micro Theory...). As people may change directions, I hope to get a more comprehensive overview. On the other hand, UCLA has a great FINA department. If I focus on macro-finance and asset pricing, will I be able to co-author with some FINA professors in UCLA? (In this sense I guess UCLA is superior). Also, UCLA has a larger department. So I am wondering if you would know something about the two departments, such as placement, research strength, performance in 5 years (any trend of declining or arising?), whether faculty members care about their students and etc. I really appreciate your advice! ******************************************************** some info about my research interest Currently I like asset pricing/markets, macro-finance, growth, and some metrics (but I may change my minds...) So UCLA has professors like Andrew Atkeson, Roger Farmer, and Pierre-Olivier Weill, and Ariel Burstein in international econ Minnesota has professors like José Víctor Ríos Rull, Fatih Guvenen and etc... Do you have more information/comments about the faulty in the two departments?

Hello, I have heard contradictory stories about UCLA. I would appreciate if any of you could help me with these 3 questions: 1. Completion rates? How many people fail the comps? (quantiative methods new comp?) 2. Environment in the department? Cooperation among the students? 3. Average monthly living expenses? If you can help me answering one or more questions, thank you in advance!

After much deliberation I chose UCSD over UCLA for a PhD in CS. But now I am feeling regretful... just wondering if someone out there can make me feel any better by giving some reasons why UCSD's CS PhD is better than UCLA's... Also, I have thought of applying again next year in hopes of getting readmitted to UCLA, or another higher ranked school. My stats: GPA: 3.66, double math and cs major (but 3.89 for last 2 years of a 3 year program, and 3.94 CS GPA) Have a previous degree from a liberal arts college Interned at Harvard, MIT, NASA Have published papers in biology, physics, philosophy, and wrote ACT math questions for a well regarded published prep-book need to retake the GRE but I know I can get 5.5 writing, 166 verbal, hopefully 170 math But so far people have told me that I probably wouldn't get into a much higher ranked school than UCSD.

General Reputation: UCLA ~ Cornell > Wisconsin Econometrics: Wisconsin >> UCLA > Cornell Game Theory: UCLA ~ Wisconsin > Cornell Placement: UCLA > Wisconsin ~ Cornell Location: UCLA > Wisconsin ~ Cornell Climate: UCLA > Wisconsin ~ Cornell My feeling is that UCLA and Cornell have bigger names but weaker faculties. Suggestions???