blr Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 What's up with UCB ARE? I need some closure! Someone in the US should call Gail :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intrepidtravels Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 I am not too familiar with the programs you mention, but I would speculate that they are equally as good prep/signals as the environmental programs I mentioned (Duke & Bren). Do those programs have placement statistics for master's students? That might be a good gauge of what you could expect upon graduation. Overall, I think ARE programs value diverse background/experiences more than pure econ programs. I think you'd be in a good spot coming from either of those development master's programs. You may be right that ARE PhD programs prefer people with experience in applied econ. At Yale I would be able to take 1-2 resource/environmental economics classes (at their forestry scool), signalling my strong interest in ARE, which I could never do at UCL. Keeping in mind that I had a statistics major and economics minor in undergrad so I'm not lacking any math. Most graduates of Yale's MA IDE go work for international organizations/governments/private sector after graduation. Perhaps 10% of graduates proceed to PhD programs, either in economics (schools mentioned are Berkeley, Yale, Columbia, Oxford, Illinois) or in non-econ PhD programs such as Harvard (education), Berkeley (finance) and Michigan (pol sci, and law). I suppose it is being done occassionally, but not very frequently at all, suggesting that straight econ MA's are more rigorous in their preparation for a PhD. Yale IDE or UCL Econ? This is blowing my mind. I can't decide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lily714 Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Lily, I think I may have been lobbying for the MS in your case a bit too strongly. The MS was a very, very valuable thing for me to do (in one way or another), but it was a unique case, and I want to make one thing clear: you are absolutely ready to dive into the Ph.D., should you choose. I definitely go back and forth on whether I think I'm ready or not. I tend to underestimate my own abilities, so there's that. I just want to make sure that I will succeed in whatever program I enter. However, certainty is definitely not guaranteed with a PhD program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericonomist Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 To those who are waiting for UCB: I was notified by the department that I am in last Tuesday and have not yet received official admission from the graduate school. Until then, I will not be able to accept or decline the offer. So I think the ARE department is waiting to see how many of those admitted will actually accept the offer. Based on that number, they may admit some more people. That's why they are not sending out rejections at this time. Just my 2 cents. Good luck everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intrepidtravels Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 To those who are waiting for UCB: I was notified by the department that I am in last Tuesday and have not yet received official admission from the graduate school. Until then, I will not be able to accept or decline the offer. So I think the ARE department is waiting to see how many of those admitted will actually accept the offer. Based on that number, they may admit some more people. That's why they are not sending out rejections at this time. Just my 2 cents. Good luck everyone! So they are waiting to see how many of the admitted will accept the offer, however admitted applicants like yourself are not actually able to accept the offer? This seems odd. :hmm: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resource Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 So they are waiting to see how many of the admitted will accept the offer, however admitted applicants like yourself are not actually able to accept the offer? This seems odd. :hmm: I've given up hope on UCB. I think, for the most part, those of us who haven't heard have rejections heading our way as soon as they populate the form email. Perhaps they are planning on admitting a few students from an internal waiting list but, after updating my priors based on the number of applicants who have received news, the probability of acceptance seems negligible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intrepidtravels Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Berkeley ARE rejections are out, finally :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resource Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 Berkeley ARE rejections are out, finally :) Yep -- Got mine too! And now, it is time to wait... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyrain23 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Good question. Frankly, I'm not sure if I'm ready to dive into a PhD program. I feel that I have relatively little research experience, at least compared to most people on this forum. My I ask when you received Purdue Agricultural Economics MS program funding decision? Is it a RA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lily714 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 My I ask when you received Purdue Agricultural Economics MS program funding decision? Is it a RA? Purdue was the first school I heard from- Feb 1. Yes, it's a half RA (maximum funding). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyrain23 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Purdue was the first school I heard from- Feb 1. Yes, it's a half RA (maximum funding).I only got its admission decision. The paper AD letter told me the funding decision will be made no later than mid-April, Do I still have the oportunity to get its funding? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lily714 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I only got its admission decision. The paper AD letter told me the funding decision will be made no later than mid-April, Do I still have the oportunity to get its funding? I would assume so. They're probably waiting for those who received funding to make their decisions (which everyone will by April 15). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyrain23 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I would assume so. They're probably waiting for those who received funding to make their decisions (which everyone will by April 15).Thank you. Is it Baugh Lou Ann who told you about the funding decision? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lily714 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Thank you. Is it Baugh Lou Ann who told you about the funding decision? Yes, she was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyrain23 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Yes, she was.Thank you so much for your valuable information! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resource Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Hey folks -- what's your impression of Georgia State's econ program (in particular, I'd be interested in their environmental faculty: Banzhaf, Ferraro, Schnier)? How do y'all think it compares to Wisconsin AAE? I feel like UMD is clearly a stronger program, but I feel like Wisc vs. GSU could be a toss up. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lily714 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Hey folks -- what's your impression of Georgia State's econ program (in particular, I'd be interested in their environmental faculty: Banzhaf, Ferraro, Schnier)? How do y'all think it compares to Wisconsin AAE? I feel like UMD is clearly a stronger program, but I feel like Wisc vs. GSU could be a toss up. Thoughts? I would assume that Wisconsin's Ag. Econ placements> Georgia State's Econ placements? I could be wrong, but that seems to be the case for Ohio State v. Oregon, and Oregon & GSU are similarly ranked, while Wisconsin AAE>Ohio State AEDE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resource Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 I would assume that Wisconsin's Ag. Econ placements> Georgia State's Econ placements? I could be wrong, but that seems to be the case for Ohio State v. Oregon, and Oregon & GSU are similarly ranked, while Wisconsin AAE>Ohio State AEDE. Yeah, I think that too, though it is a little misleading. Wisconsin hasn't had a strictly environmental econ placement in a long time. Their placements have all been development or ag, so it is tough to compare apples to apples. I've been told that name-brand capital hits GSU students pretty hard on the job market but they haven't done terribly. Do you think the ag econ stigma should be considered? I'm not so sure it matters -- GSU's rank is probably working against them as much as any ARE stigma would hurt at Wisconsin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lily714 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Yeah, I think that too, though it is a little misleading. Wisconsin hasn't had a strictly environmental econ placement in a long time. Their placements have all been development or ag, so it is tough to compare apples to apples. I've been told that name-brand capital hits GSU students pretty hard on the job market but they haven't done terribly. Do you think the ag econ stigma should be considered? I'm not so sure it matters -- GSU's rank is probably working against them as much as any ARE stigma would hurt at Wisconsin. Like you said, it's comparing apples to oranges. However, when you look at the rankings, Wisconsin AAE is a top 4/5 Ag. Econ program, while GSU is a a top 70 Econ program. I don't know if you applied to GSU before your masters, but I would guess that you would have been admitted, whereas I'm not as certain that would have been the case with Wisconsin (I forget if you mentioned if you applied previously, so I'm just going on personal experience here). So that might give you some insight to the competitiveness of admissions at both places and the quality of the programs in general. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resource Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 Like you said, it's comparing apples to oranges. However, when you look at the rankings, Wisconsin AAE is a top 4/5 Ag. Econ program, while GSU is a a top 70 Econ program. I don't know if you applied to GSU before your masters, but I would guess that you would have been admitted, whereas I'm not as certain that would have been the case with Wisconsin (I forget if you mentioned if you applied previously, so I'm just going on personal experience here). So that might give you some insight to the competitiveness of admissions at both places and the quality of the programs in general. True -- good points. My impression from Wisc is that they hadn't admitted purely env econ students for a while (due to deficient numbers of faculty in the field). Once they started hiring new env faculty, they started accepting more students studying environmental. I think my rejection in 2009 from Wisc was largely due to poor fit, among other things. Mainly, I feel like I should legitimately consider all of my offers before declining, and I was trying to gauge where GSU fit in. In my head, UW($)>UMD~=GSU($). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resource Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 Any new news with y'all (other than Lily's constantly increasing stipend at Ohio State)? Has anyone made any decisions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duffymang Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Hey everyone. I am approaching the end of my undergrad career and recently I have been looking into the possibility of going into an ARE program instead of pure econ. I just wanted to know if anyone could offer some guidance on how to determine if this is the right call for me. Suggested reading material or any wise words would be appreciated. The field really fascinates me but with a limited level of exposure during coursework, I just want to make a collected decision when the time comes. Also, is there a generally accepted ranking of the ARE programs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 (edited) One big difference is you get a much narrower set of options for fields from an ARE dept. They don't do macro or theory, and generally you can pick from environmental, trade, applied econometrics, development, agriculture topics (e.g. food production/distribution, risk, and some labor topics such as migration) and sometimes energy. One disadvantage is you generally take less macro, but more econometrics, so they really set you up well to be an applied micro guy. In terms of reading if you've got similar interests to me (development) then I'd suggest "Making Poverty: A history" by Thomas Lines. Anyone interested in development probably has read, or will read Poor Economics by Duflo and Bannerjee (JPAL guys), or its close cousin Good Intentions by Karlan and Appel (the IPA guys). Lines book is really a beautiful contrast with the mainstream development guys by focusing on rural poverty, and while you see a lot of mainstream development work being done in econ programs, you rarely see rural poverty work done by straight econ programs. As for rankings, its been mentioned before but [edited to include Resource's comments]: Berkeley ARE>Cornell AEM~Maryland ARE~ Davis Probably right below is tier of: MSU, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State, NCSU who are all right about the same level Note: the tier above I think ranking, if any exists, would put them so similar that it really ought to be determined by fit. Edited March 22, 2012 by Marshall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resource Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 As for rankings, its been mentioned before but: Berkeley ARE>Cornell AEM~Maryland ARE~ Duke AEDE (probably, its still new so it could move) Probably right below is tier of: MSU, Davis, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State, NCSU who are all right about the same level Duke AEDE? Davis is at least equivalent with Cornell and Maryland, the rest rings true with notable nods to IA State, Purdue, and Oregon St. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenrebelette Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 True -- good points. My impression from Wisc is that they hadn't admitted purely env econ students for a while (due to deficient numbers of faculty in the field). Once they started hiring new env faculty, they started accepting more students studying environmental. I think my rejection in 2009 from Wisc was largely due to poor fit, among other things. Mainly, I feel like I should legitimately consider all of my offers before declining, and I was trying to gauge where GSU fit in. In my head, UW($)>UMD~=GSU($). I would definitely prefer Wisconsin over GSU. In fact, if it hadn't been for my personal situation, I probably would have chosen Wisconsin over Maryland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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