mandcrut237 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Mandcrut -- I'll pipe in too since I think I can offer some input. As you know ARE (AAE AREc.. whatever they call themselves) focus primarily on applied topics... so I think that is where 'fit' matters. They are going to give you a heavy dose of therotical training from day one, but they will tailor the program to highlight applied methods. The goal of the ARE program is to make you understand theory and master empirics. Because of this, fit is insanely important - because some folks who think they are interested in empirical may end up becoming theorists. This is likely much more difficult at an ARE program because (i) that isn't the focus on the program and (ii) the professors there will likely be applied econometricans, by and large. So -- the fit is more important in that the professors who will be teaching/advising you will be able to provide excellent mentorship and guidance, conditional on your interests, as opposed to tailoring your research interests to matching those of the faculty. This isn't to say that there is no crossover between ARE and theory, it is just that it isn't the main focus. Thus changing from a empirical field to a more theoretical field will be quite difficult in the confines of the ARE program. The good news is -- there is always an economics program just down the road that would surely be accessible with enough gumption on the side of the student. Thanks for more information, Icculus. It is helpful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandcrut237 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Hi guys, I want to ask something. I already secured a government fellowship for doctoral studies and wrote about it in my SoP. Yesterday I got an email from the grad program secretary at Cornell AEM asking about the nature and length of my government fellowship because they said they are considering my application. After replying the email, she shot me another email saying I should be hearing the decision shortly. Is this a good sign?? Thanks in advance for your insight. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandersnatch Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 Hi guys, I want to ask something. I already secured a government fellowship for doctoral studies and wrote about it in my SoP. Yesterday I got an email from the grad program secretary at Cornell AEM asking about the nature and length of my government fellowship because they said they are considering my application. After replying the email, she shot me another email saying I should be hearing the decision shortly. Is this a good sign?? Thanks in advance for your insight. :) Congrats! Sounds like you're in and they're just working out funding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
envirodevonomic Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Question about journals - What are considered the "top journals" in ARE, in other words, the ag econ equivalents of what AER/QJE/Econometrica are to Economics overall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandcrut237 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Congrats! Sounds like you're in and they're just working out funding. Wow, really??!! I hope you are right. :eager: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asymmetrica Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Question about journals - What are considered the "top journals" in ARE, in other words, the ag econ equivalents of what AER/QJE/Econometrica are to Economics overall? I'm not sure the distinction really works like this. I mean, there are journals like American Journal of Agricultural Economics that are for the most part exclusive to ARE departments. However, depending on the strength of their research professors will often publish at top (or near top) journals in their field as well. As an example, development professors in my program will publish in something like Journal of Development Economics. Going backwards some years, I know that some purely ag/demand professors here also made some contributions to JPE as well (though it might be noted these professors have mostly contributed to AJAE since). In other words, the top is still the top, but it may be somewhat less attainable in ARE due to the type of heuristics (e.g. prestige, name recognition) that often dominate peer review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
envirodevonomic Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I'm not sure the distinction really works like this. I mean, there are journals like American Journal of Agricultural Economics that are for the most part exclusive to ARE departments. However, depending on the strength of their research professors will often publish at top (or near top) journals in their field as well. As an example, development professors in my program will publish in something like Journal of Development Economics. Going backwards some years, I know that some purely ag/demand professors here also made some contributions to JPE as well (though it might be noted these professors have mostly contributed to AJAE since). In other words, the top is still the top, but it may be somewhat less attainable in ARE due to the type of heuristics (e.g. prestige, name recognition) that often dominate peer review. Thanks for the info! I should have clarified that by ARE I meant the field of agricultural and resource economics, and papers whose main focus is on those two branches of economics - not necessarily just the professors who teach in those departments, nor related fields such as development or political economy of regulation. AJAE seems to be solid. Is it uniformly regarded as the leading agricultural economics journal? What others are runners-up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandersnatch Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 Thanks for the info! I should have clarified that by ARE I meant the field of agricultural and resource economics, and papers whose main focus is on those two branches of economics - not necessarily just the professors who teach in those departments, nor related fields such as development or political economy of regulation. AJAE seems to be solid. Is it uniformly regarded as the leading agricultural economics journal? What others are runners-up? Asymmetrica is right. You place it in a highly ranked econ journal if you can. Otherwise I would guess the ranking is roughly: 1. AJAE 2. Agricultural Economics 3. Journal of Agricultural Economics 4. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandcrut237 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Just got an email from grad program secretary at Cornell that they will probably be sending decisions early next week! FIngers crossed. :encouragement: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuvok54 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Just got an email from grad program secretary at Cornell that they will probably be sending decisions early next week! FIngers crossed. :encouragement: That is a wonderful and completely horrifying development. Based on their past years I wasn't expecting any news until 2/15ish at the earliest. Well here goes nothing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnvEcon Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 The top journals in ARE are AER/QJE/Econometrica (I would add JPE and ReStud, the traditional "top five"). Seriously, top general interest journal are the same for all the economics subdisciplines. We can discuss how easy is to publish with an ag paper in those journals (not general interest enough?), but it happened in the past. You can say the same for second tier general interest journals (e.g. ReStat). What might change is the perception of top field journals. I guess that AJAE has more weight in an agecon department than an econ department, where there might not be ag economists at all. Also, ranking and specialization of the department might matter: if it's specialized in environmental, JEEM will be highly regarded, JDE if it's specialized in development. But my impression is that top ag econ department are aligning with the rest of the profession in terms of internal ranking of journals. Question about journals - What are considered the "top journals" in ARE, in other words, the ag econ equivalents of what AER/QJE/Econometrica are to Economics overall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sulebrahim Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 I noticed that some people with ARE interests apply to some programs like Yale Forestry. Do they have an economic bent as well or is it a combination of interest and prestige? Just curious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icculus Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Yale has a Environmental Economics program... It is overseen by the faculty in the Forestry school, but you can take Yale econ courses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sulebrahim Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Oh I see, thanks for the info. Their website seemed a bit vague so I wasn't sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
envirodevonomic Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 (edited) I noticed that some people with ARE interests apply to some programs like Yale Forestry. Do they have an economic bent as well or is it a combination of interest and prestige? Just curious The Yale FES doctoral program has a specific track in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (ENRE). Website here: environment [dot] yale [dot] edu [slash] groups [slash] enre . Students usually take the Micro and Metrics first-year sequence with PhD Economics students, and can add on other PhD Economics field courses depending on their research interests. You're pretty much free to pick and choose the rest of your courses at FES. Their main researchers have been William Nordhaus and Robert Mendelsohn, then they have mid-career applied policy people like Matthew Kotchen and Mushfiq Mobarak, and young guys like Kenneth Gillingham and Joseph Shapiro who joined recently. Fairly good place to do ARE, depending on your research interests, I'd say. It's super selective - they only take like max 3 people in the ENRE track each year, and someone on Urch said that they didn't take on any new students last year. Edited January 31, 2014 by envirodevonomic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icculus Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 The Yale FES doctoral program has a specific track in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (ENRE). Website here: environment [dot] yale [dot] edu [slash] groups [slash] enre . Students usually take the Micro and Metrics first-year sequence with PhD Economics students, and can add on other PhD Economics field courses depending on their research interests. You're pretty much free to pick and choose the rest of your courses at FES. Their main researchers have been William Nordhaus and Robert Mendelsohn, then they have mid-career applied policy people like Matthew Kotchen and Mushfiq Mobarak, and young guys like Kenneth Gillingham and Joseph Shapiro who joined recently. Fairly good place to do ARE, depending on your research interests, I'd say. It's super selective - they only take like max 3 people in the ENRE track each year, and someone on Urch said that they didn't take on any new students last year. Much more informative than my post -- thanks for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asymmetrica Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Congrats to the Davis ARE admits! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ms484 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Congrats to the Davis ARE admits! Thanks! And for others who have replied who haven't heard back yet, don't worry! I was told in my phone call that they were only notifying the first few acceptances. They just went through the applications this weekend. They plan to send out more acceptances in the coming weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asymmetrica Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Thanks! And for others who have replied who haven't heard back yet, don't worry! I was told in my phone call that they were only notifying the first few acceptances. They just went through the applications this weekend. They plan to send out more acceptances in the coming weeks. I'm probably going to have to blow my cover as being at Davis right now (MS), but I can definitely attest to this. From the best of my knowledge, we have a lot of decisions around February 15th-March 10th, focused around February 25th (at least for us in the MS program). At the tail end, the admission season stays open until April 15th in which time wait-listed applicants might be contacted. The more you know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenith89 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Did anyone hear from Berkeley or Maryland? According to previous records, at this time, they should have sent the first round offers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icculus Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Berkeley and Maryland only would have sent acceptances for folks who they are nominating for University-wide Fellowships. Those are usually few and far between. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenith89 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Berkeley and Maryland only would have sent acceptances for folks who they are nominating for University-wide Fellowships. Those are usually few and far between. Thanks a lot. But I don't know if they will provide other funding except fellowship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asymmetrica Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Thanks a lot. But I don't know if they will provide other funding except fellowship The university fellowship will differ from the departmental fellowship. The former is used by the graduate school to advance it's objectives (e.g. diversity). Departments usually nominate some applicants that seem to fit the objectives and criteria of the graduate school for these fellowships. So these will go to the rare student who both satisfies the department's standards and interests and also competitively improves some other objective for the graduate school. Hence, the department probably doesn't get one of these every year, nor does it alter their funding for other applicants. Often, graduate schools arrange so that these awards are given before departments choose to admit and fund applicants, and so there will be no duplication of funding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenith89 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Thank you. The university fellowship will differ from the departmental fellowship. The former is used by the graduate school to advance it's objectives (e.g. diversity). Departments usually nominate some applicants that seem to fit the objectives and criteria of the graduate school for these fellowships. So these will go to the rare student who both satisfies the department's standards and interests and also competitively improves some other objective for the graduate school. Hence, the department probably doesn't get one of these every year, nor does it alter their funding for other applicants. Often, graduate schools arrange so that these awards are given before departments choose to admit and fund applicants, and so there will be no duplication of funding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fannek Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 University of Nebraska-Lincoln, PhD in Agricultural Economics, got the unofficial email about acceptance. Funding news will be in the end of February. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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