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Admission Sweat Thread 2014


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I have made my final decision, and I'm going to be attending Rice.

 

After thinking about a little more, I realized that I'm not just making the decision for location. I have spent a long time talking to Dr. Merlo (Rice's new chair), and I honestly feel that Rice is the best option for me regardless of location. It seems like the department will improve considerably over time, and my research interests fit really well with the direction that the department is taking. I really think that it will be a perfect fit for me.

 

Thank you everyone for all of your help and support throughout the process.

 

Congrats Catrina! I heard that Prof. Merlo received a substantial financial package that can almost rebuild the applied micro faculty at Rice. Prof. Merlo is great enough by himself but it sounds even better that he can get more young people!

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Congrats Catrina! I heard that Prof. Merlo received a substantial financial package that can almost rebuild the applied micro faculty at Rice. Prof. Merlo is great enough by himself but it sounds even better that he can get more young people!

 

Exactly. They hired three other people in addition to Prof. Merlo this year, and have permission to hire several more over the next year or two. The university overall is very highly ranked, and their other graduate programs are much higher ranked than the economics program. Therefore, given that they have support from the administration, I predict that the program will improve considerably over the next few years.

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Hey Guys,

 

I was wondering if you could give some guidance and input.

 

I am currently a second year student at a top 15 US university studying math and physics. I have recently become very interested in pursuing a PhD in economics perhaps 3 or 4 years after graduation. Do you think that it is a necessity to complete a master's program in Econ prior to applying for top PhD programs?

 

Also, how much do your plans afterward the PhD program influence your admission's decision? Say that you wish to return to your home country (middle east/central asia) where there isn't much academic talent and do work for the government there or educational institutions. Basically, do they look more favorably toward students who might take the university brand abroad?

 

Finally, how important is the GRE Economics exam in the admissions process, especially for a non-economics concentrator?

Edited by quanzbubac23
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Toronto just offered me admission (arg, so late).

I already accepted Queen's, what should I do ?

*Panic*

 

Congratulations! I think Toronto should be your choice considering the location and funding opportunity advantages. Unlike US universities, Canadian universities does not care about the 4/15 deadline at all, if I were you, I will accept Toronto's offer and write to Queen's. You will regret if you decline Toronto's offer...really...

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Is there sort of a scramble for departments on the 15th? Do they try to send out additional offers as soon as they receive notice of declined offers? Or do they wait another day or two before making additional offers?

 

Well I just got into Wisconsin although I was initially rejected weeks ago. There definitely will be a scramble.

 

I am still on 4 waitlists. Going to be a busy day tomorrow. Hopefully something happens today.

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If I were to somehow be admitted to a program where I was initially rejected, I'd be a little reluctant. Knowing I'm at the bottom of the heap going in would leave me a bit worried about my chances of actually completing the program.

 

Does that mean that you wouldn't accept a waitlist, or a second-round offer?

 

I do kind of feel similarly, actually. It wouldn't necessarily mean that I wouldn't have accepted it, but I definitely feel better about attending a program that accepted me initially. This isn't necessarily because I feel that I wouldn't be able to complete it (particularly when other similarly ranked programs accepted me), but rather that I would prefer being in a place where they really wanted me to attend from the beginning.

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Does that mean that you wouldn't accept a waitlist, or a second-round offer?

I wouldn't be averse to that. However, an acceptance coming weeks after an explicit rejection tells me that the department is scraping the bottom of the barrel to get per-capita funding after too many declinations. I doubt they'd hesitate to boot me out with an insane qualifier should they get a big crop of well-qualified matriculants the following year.

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All that being said, I do expect KSU to be my only funded offer. I'm okay with that (I wouldn't have applied otherwise), and I'm pretty excited about moving and getting started in a few months.

 

Have you still not heard anything from UNC? Did you check the admissions website?

 

I did get an official waitlist email, but I'm pretty sure that a fair amount of other people have been officially rejected. I withdrew from the waitlist after accepting Rice, so I'm not expecting to hear anything else from them.

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I check all my pending apps at least twice a day =). I've gotten so fast that back when I had 7 remaining I was able to check all of them in under a minute. No official waitlist notifications from any of them.

 

UNC was a hell of a reach for me. I'm surprised that all the black marks on my transcript didn't land me in the first batch of official rejections. I guess my letters were better than I expected, because somebody seems to think I'm worth keeping on the waitlist for the waitlist.

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I check all my pending apps at least twice a day =). I've gotten so fast that back when I had 7 remaining I was able to check all of them in under a minute. No official waitlist notifications from any of them.

 

UNC was a hell of a reach for me. I'm surprised that all the black marks on my transcript didn't land me in the first batch of official rejections. I guess my letters were better than I expected, because somebody seems to think I'm worth keeping on the waitlist for the waitlist.

 

My waitlist notification was emailed, not posted on the website. Maybe try checking your spam folder. I think they do post rejections on the website, however.

 

Maybe you can get my spot on the waitlist. Not quite as good as getting a spot in the program, but still...

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