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2014 ARE Thread


bandersnatch

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Hi All, this thread seems quite for a while. :playful:

So please allow me to ask some advice. I have a sort of dilemma here. I got acceptances to Cornell AEM and Wisconsin AAE. That's it. I only applied to two schools. My main interest is in development econ. I am leaning towards Cornell more heavily for its more diverse professors with interests in econ development. Moreover, more professors in econ department at Cornell who are interested in development than in Wisconsin. I plan to take devt courses in econ dept, in addition to those offered in AEM. On the other hand, I am very much attracted to excellence in applied econometrics training at Wisc. One more question, which do you think has more collegiate atmosphere among students and professors? Thank you, guys. Happy Sunday! :eager:

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Hey Mandcrut -- I urge you to go to the visit days and there you'll be able to see and feel the answer to your questions. Take advantage of this time for sure and congrats on the admits. I'm sure some people here can weigh in on the relative strengths of the programs, but I have nothing besides that snippet of advice.
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Hi All, this thread seems quite for a while. :playful:

So please allow me to ask some advice. I have a sort of dilemma here. I got acceptances to Cornell AEM and Wisconsin AAE. That's it. I only applied to two schools. My main interest is in development econ. I am leaning towards Cornell more heavily for its more diverse professors with interests in econ development. Moreover, more professors in econ department at Cornell who are interested in development than in Wisconsin. I plan to take devt courses in econ dept, in addition to those offered in AEM. On the other hand, I am very much attracted to excellence in applied econometrics training at Wisc. One more question, which do you think has more collegiate atmosphere among students and professors? Thank you, guys. Happy Sunday! :eager:

 

I am biased, but I would go for Wisconsin, which I consider more prestigious. There are a lot of students and faculty studying development in AAE. The department has quite a friendly atmosphere, although I cannot compare it to Cornell. Wisconsin also has students who come for their PhD after a Masters at Cornell AEM, which is a signal that Wisconsin is preferable.

 

However, I really agree with Icculus. The decision you will make will have to be based off some visits this spring. Good luck!

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Hi All, this thread seems quite for a while. :playful:

So please allow me to ask some advice. I have a sort of dilemma here. I got acceptances to Cornell AEM and Wisconsin AAE. That's it. I only applied to two schools. My main interest is in development econ. I am leaning towards Cornell more heavily for its more diverse professors with interests in econ development. Moreover, more professors in econ department at Cornell who are interested in development than in Wisconsin. I plan to take devt courses in econ dept, in addition to those offered in AEM. On the other hand, I am very much attracted to excellence in applied econometrics training at Wisc. One more question, which do you think has more collegiate atmosphere among students and professors? Thank you, guys. Happy Sunday! :eager:

 

I agree. I'd lean towards Wisconsin. I think they have much better methods training, plus I've yet to see a graduate development class that's actually useful. Bulk up on methods and read the development literature/talk to faculty on your own...

 

That said, anyone going to visit these places soon?

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Wisconsin also has students who come for their PhD after a Masters at Cornell AEM

 

I'm not sure how we would interpret that signal though, though. Cornell has a pretty large Master's program -- they have about many students in their MS as in the PhD. Not all of those students will stay at Cornell since ~25 (assuming just one cohort applies) students are competing for ~5 slots for Master's students. Granted, some of these students are likely looking to work after their MS.

 

The real question is whether the students from Cornell to Wisconsin were accepted into both programs.

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Thanks guys for your suggestion. It seems almost everybody prefers Wisconsin to Cornell. Unfortunately, I cannot come to both places. I am not in the USA now. So I think my decision would come mostly from contemplation. :)

 

Departments typically offer funds to help you travel... wait and see -- you can likely slam the two trips together to save some dough. I think spending a bit of money to actually visit these places will be important to you making the best decision for yourself.

 

I'm not sure if Phaneuf is doing ad-com again, but he is a really great guy... reach out to him if he is still in charge.

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Thanks guys for your suggestion. It seems almost everybody prefers Wisconsin to Cornell. Unfortunately, I cannot come to both places. I am not in the USA now. So I think my decision would come mostly from contemplation. :)

 

Hi mandcrut237, you should totally go to Cornell. (this advice isn't at all biased by the fact that I'm 95% sure I am going to accept their offer and think it would be cool if we had two urch people in the AEM program). Now for the real reasons why I'd support cornell. I've talked with a faculty member there just recently and I took away a couple of cool things: 1. You build your degree around your concentrations, but only one concentration has to be in the AEM department, so if there are any general econ topics you want to also do while in grad school you can have committee members from the econ department (or other departments for that matter) to supervise your thesis (I think you mentioned that you wanted to do development at some point, Cornell's econ department has a lot of great people in development for example). You can also make your own concentration that isn't one of the big ones listed on their website, so you could do some kind of specialized urban econ for example. 2. The department has had a lot of excellent placements recently, and while there are many rumors about cornell's econ department having trouble placing people (I have no idea whether these rumors are founded, so do not in any way take this as me supporting those rumors as true) it seems that the AEM faculty are really committed to placing their students well.

 

As a more personal note, I just visited the campus recently to see what it would be like (and if I would be able to survive the cold.) They just renovated their building and it is REALLY nice, so that's a bonus too.

 

Anyway, I'll be really interested to hear what you end up deciding to do!

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Hi Stuvok54, thanks for the heads up! I also have talked to a third-year student and have couple email exchanges with other students, as well. Flexibility is indeed a plus of Cornell AEM program. In addition, I found two of them actually presented their papers at NEUDC 2013, which is great! Another job market candidate also presented there. I am actually pretty impressed by JMP of AEM's candidates. I also heard many good things about collegiate atmosphere in AEM. Together with your information, they assured me to come to Cornell. I already accepted their offer. So, I will see you there if you decide to attend AEM! :)
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Just now I called the secretary Carmen at Berkeley, she said the admission process in ongoing and she didn't get the list of admits yet. But I believe the admission committee already have decisions and they send offers individually. One of my referee said he will call someone he knows at Berkeley today but I think it is too late, my chance seems to be slim.
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I hope not. This should be the first round and those guys are nominated for fellowship.

 

I also got in with a graduate student researcher position. It seems they are sending out admittances in clumps by advisor. Though judging from previous years all rejections are sent out on the same day in March.

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