Math Camp started a week and a half ago. So far it has been lots of fun. We get homework everyday but the grades aren't being kept track of so there is no pressure. It's just a time to get used to doing school work again and getting to know my classmates- they are a great bunch of people.

The move to New Haven went fairly well and my place is less than a mile from campus. I like it a lot. I have yet to set up cable TV or internet access there and I'm starting to like it that way. It restricts the ways I can procrastinate and so I don't think I'm going to get internet at home during my first year. That puts to question the future of this blog. I'm not sure what to do with it. I've barely been posting anyway. It feels like it's almost become an obligation that I'be been shirking for a long time. I don't want that guilt so instead of saying that I'm going to be closing it down I'm just not going to promise any further posts. This blog was supposed to be for my future self anyway and I think he'll forgive me for taking an indefinitely long vaction from this.

For those that actually checked this every once in a while I appreciate it more than you know and I wish the best for you guys.

That's all for now.

More later? we'll see....

-Adam

It's about time...

Wow. It's been two months since my last post. It doesn't really feel like two months. Well maybe a little. I find that when I'm in school I can be somewhat productive but once I leave school it is impossible to do any work. And yes, for some reason, blogging seems like work to me. I'm unsure why. I get this sour feeling in my gut when I don't post for a while and I try not to look at how many people have visited since my last update or else I feel guilty. But I've been meaning to post for a while. I think I'm just gonna start posting random things whenever I feel like it instead of trying to have a pseudo-cohesive line of thought from post to post. Anyways, enough thoughts on blogging, on to the real stuff: Economics.

First off for those who are curious, those street signs are the real deal. If you map them you'll find them. We left off last with the end of my UCLA visit. All-in-all visiting the schools was a nice experience. I got to see the West Coast which was nice. For some reason I always envisioned it to be starkly different from here but it is very much more of the same. I guess that is Manifest Destiny for you. Checking out the three schools I was really considering helped me come to my decision without regrets.

So as most of you probably have figured out, I decided to go to Yale. It really just seemed like the place for me. Not only was it only a 2 or 3 hours drive from where I grew up (as opposed to a 6 hour plane ride) the feeling I got from the department was one of warmth and camaraderie. It really seemed like there was a community there that looked out for the graduate students. All of the grad students I met seemed to like the place a lot and were happy with their time there. Cost of living was the cheapest among the three I was considering and yet weather was the coldest :( but in the end I couldn't turn it down. Stanford didn't really impress me as much as Yale did and my new interest in development with my already present interest in Labor, Stanford has little of both, really made the decision for me.

When I informed the department of my choice they were very receptive. It seems like this year they had a very strong yield. As I understood it last year everyone on the waitlist was eventually offered a spot but this year they got enough yeses from the main list that they couldn't accept anyone from the waitlist meaning that the entering class should be a bit stronger than usual which should be great for discourse. I personally know of a handful of students that turned down Stanford, Princeton and Chicago for Yale which gives me confidence that I'm not completely crazy for doing that myself.

The department sent us a list of the new entering class, 21 of us in all of which 7 are females, 6 are Americans and the rest come from Australia, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Columbia, Germany, Iceland, Korea New Zealand, Pakistan and Turkey! I remember I few of them from the visiting day and look forward to meeting the rest during math camp.

Math camp starts August 6th and is three weeks long. The notes are up here. It is supposed to be a time to just get situated and allow us all to get to know our classmates. After the three weeks we get a week off and then the semester starts for real. I'm already a bit nervous and hope to start reviewing some stuff just to build up my intuition over the next few weeks. I hope to be able to muster the willpower to get to studying.

So I'm very excited for this chance. I hope I can hack it. I'm sure this will bring me to the limit of my ability and I'm interested to see where that is. Hopefully I'll start updating with random thoughts from now on.

That's all for now.

More Later!

The UCLA Fly-Out

So I'm a day late in posting. Apologies. I've been working on my senior thesis and the ball has finally gotten rolling. I guess that is another post though. On to UCLA:

I left Stanford in the middle of a seminar on sub-prime lending and its effect on house prices. I then took the long walk from the Economics department to the train station, got to the airport and started going through the NELS dataset looking for relevant variables as I waited for the plane to board. The flight was very quick, by the time we took off and I finished looking through the magazines they served some drinks and then the captain came on saying we were 15 mins away.

I touched down around 3:30 and took a taxi to the UCLA campus. Traffic was horrendous as the stereotype demands and I didnt get to the Economics department until about 4:15. I entered the seminar room with a professor with an accent talking about his work. The day was supposed to start around noon with a number of presentations and I was able to catch the middle of the applied micro groups talk which is what I am interested in anyway. As the man at the front ended his talk mentioning his current research on Social Security it finally clicked that this was Moshe Bushinsky, my advisor's advisor and co-author. It was nice to have a touch of familiarity in a foreign place. After he was done talking there was a Q&A period and people stuck around for a bit afterwards asking the normal questions on placement and general trends in the dicsipline.

I found a group of prospective students that were making their way to the bar that we were going to be having dinner at and so I tagged along and we reached there without much trouble. The rest of the night was devoted to socializing and there were a few professors there that I got the chance to speak which helped since I had missed most of the day. I got to see Dan Ackerberg who had just been at Stony Brook for a seminar so I got to talk to him some more about his work and his time at Yale doing his PhD. The people there were great and very interesting. One problem was the UCLA program was lacking any structure for Saturday, one was to spend it doing whatever they wanted, the department had nothing planned.

I opted to used Saturday to look around campus. It is a very beautiful place. The funny thing was that the building the Economics department is in is easily the ugliest building on campus and sticks out like a sore-thumb. Everywhere you look you see aesthetically pleasing building and then you see Bunche Hall. Nonetheless the place was very nice as were the people. There did seem to be an intangible difference in students though. I couldn't put my finger on it but it seemed like the students at Stanford and Yale were a bit more focused than the students at UCLA but that could be me projecting what I figured I would see.

Overall it was a nice trip and I got to see a small part of LA. For the sake of continuity there was also another freaky street sign I found walking towards the apartment of the graduate students that I was staying with:


I couldn't get away from it. It was calling me! Twice! Once in Palo Alto and again in Los Angeles. I'm not superstitious though so it didn't really phase me. It was just funny to keep seeing it around. They had a graduate student party Saturday night and I had them drop my off at the airport and I got on my way home Sunday morning. It was a nice trip and helped me solidify my choice- but that seems like a topic for my next post.

Check back soon ;)

That's all for now.

More Later!

The Stanford Fly-Out

Time flies when you're having fun. It's been nearly three weeks since my last update. A bunch has happened. Let's start on the west coast:

I got to San Francisco International Airport the day before Stanford's admitted student days were to begin. I decided since it was my first time on the west coast I might as well take the train up to San Francisco and look around for a bit. I did lots and lots of walking and had a pretty good time- the hills were no joke! I unknowingly to got off the train in the bad part of town and so was quite surprised to find so many homeless people out on the streets in what I had thought to be an affluent town. As I made my way to the water I found the city began to become more and more like what I expected and was able to take lots of pictures and just have a good time sightseeing. After walking along the shore and getting some clam chowder, as night began to fall I then made my way to the hotel next to the Stanford campus and passed out from the long day of traveling. The hotel was located right off campus at an interesting pair of cross-streets. It could not get more freaky than this:



So yea, I was at a cross-roads, which path should I take?

The next morning we started off with some breakfast and then introductions. They gave us a list of admitted students and I noticed that Stanford actually admitted more students than Yale. I guess they expect lower yield rates which surprised me given Stanford is generally considered a 'better' school. We heard from a few faculty members and one graduate student about the program and had a day of research presentations and food. During the time allotted for professor office hours I decided to go on a self-guided tour of campus. I knew I wouldn't have time for it the next day because I would need to leave early to go to LA. The campus is stunning. The weather was perfect. They have a golf course and offer hand-gliding lessons. It seemed more like a resort than a school. It was just jaw-dropping.

The day concluded with a nice dinner with professors and graduate students and I was able to get a seat next to Tim Bresnahan, the chair of the department at Stanford. After talking about a variety of topics I asked him to comment on Yale's department. He was nice enough to oblige and told me that he had many friends there and he thought it was a great department. The only problem he thought they had was that they couldn't attract the best students out there. This was something that I heard from others as well. I asked how they determine who the top-students are but he couldn't answer me. He told me placements were too easy to manipulate (even though it seems to me that Yale's placement was better than Stanford's over the papst few years). It was a problem that I did not fully buy. I think that even if it is true there isn't that big of a difference. The day ended with dinner and the next day started a bit later. I needed to leave midway through the first talk so I could catch my plane. All in all it was a great time, I met lots of cool people (many of whom I had met at Yale previously) and I learned a bunch about the general environment at the department. I was pretty happy with it and figured I could be happy there. The only problem was that it was so far from home. a six-hour plane ride was not a fun thing to have to do when I want to see my family...

So that was my Stanford fly-out experience. I plan to get to UCLA tomorrow ;)

That's all for now.

More Later!

Yale and Fly-Outs

I meant to write a new post a while ago but I never got around to it. Sorry. So the past couple of weeks have been fun. I've gotten to be in the drivers seat and have amazing schools try to woo me. It is certainly an unexpected experience. Professors that are much much smarter than you trying to be extra nice and impressive so that you pick their program to pay you lots of money while they train you to be a great economist. Sounds like fun to me!

Last weekend I went to Yale. I took the ferry from Stony Brook over to Bridgeport, about a half hour away from New Haven, Friday morning. The ferry took an hour and fifteen minutes but you don't care. By the time I got to the department there was 4 people already there. The table we were sitting at kept getting bigger and bigger as time went on until the whole room was filled with people. Apparently over 35 people went to Yale's fly-out this year, the biggest group ever. It was a bit crowded. I met lots and lots of interesting people. I was the most boring one coming from New York. I met a bunch of Canadians, and Italians and Germans. I met someone from Argentina, New Zealand (mmm... New Zealand) and even Iceland! All of these people had interesting stories to tell. I even met some Americans which was nice. The weekend was kicked of by Chris Urdry the chair of the department and it went on from there. We had a small talk about why Yale is so great and then a bunch of field presentations and then they had office hours so people could talk to faculty. I instead walked around the area just to get a feel for it. Afterwards they had a talk about living options in New Haven and then a dinner with the faculty. Sadly I was battling a huge headache so I missed out on that. They then had a mini-party at a pub which I stopped in at for a few minutes and then left due to the loud rap music and alcohol. I don't drink. I spent the rest of the night just walking around the area and enertaining myself. It was nice.

The next morning we had breakfast and then a grad student panel where there were 5 students each representing their year in the program just answering questions. All in all it seemed like they were pretty happy and no one was feeling tortured. Eveything seemed doable and well crafted. There may have been a selection bias in terms of who they had sit on the panel. Most importantly attrition is pretty small at Yale which is a good sign. Hopefully I won't need to worry about it. After the panel there were some more presentations. One by John Geanakoplos who was very charismatic. He spoke about General Equilibrium and made it seem interesting. There was also one by Mark Rosenzweig who spoke about development which was very interesting. Afterwars Dean Karlan stuck around and spoke to students for a while. Many people think that Yale currently is the best place to study development. Their faculty is top-notch and they have more on the way. Applied Micro in general seems to be very strong which is what I want to do so so far they are well in the lead. After the presentations there was a tour that I skipped out on and I ended up saying bye and going home.

All in all I was very impressed by the department although New Haven itself is fairly lackluster
. I imagine that New Haven's dullness can be offset by the people there and the fact that it is less than a three hour drive from home, whereas Stanford and UCLA are 6 hour flights. Speaking of 6 hours flights I am about to go to Laguardia for one. I'm off to Stanford until Friday and then UCLA until Sunday. Hopefully all will go well and I look forward to an informative (and fun) time. I've never been to California and San Fransisco and Los Angeles are the two places I'd want to see if I could. It seems like grad school applications were worth it. I'll try to keep you guys informed in a more timely manner than before.

That is all for now (I have a plane to catch!)

More Later!

Decisions Need to be Made

Hey Guys... It's been some time since I posted. I was debating what to do. When I got into Yale I broadcasted it to the World, all my friends and family and I had people coming out of the woodworks congratulating me. It was nice although some people got hurt that I didn't call them and tell them personally. This time I got into a few more schools and I figured I would try to keep it quite and I did for about two days but I don't want to anymore. Too bad if they feel hurt, can't please everyone. Anyways you guys probably don't care so here is what has happened since my last update:

I was rejected from Princeton which was a bit disappointing because they are amazing at Labor and that's what I was hoping to do. It didn't hurt too much, I never imagined I had a chance at most of these schools anyway. I am waitlisted at Northwestern, UPenn and NYU- all of which I don't really care about anymore. Finally I got into UNC and Michigan. Oh and I got into Stanford too ;). That was a shock! I really couldn't believe it. I figured when I got into Yale they made a mistake but for Stanford to make a mistake as well?!? it's got to be like a six-sigma event sort of thing.

Anyways this make my decision a little harder. I was pretty set on going to Yale but Stanford is an amazing school. Moreso it has amazing weather! I also got a University fellowship from UCLA that gives me my fourth year responsibility free. I haven't heard anything from Stanford about funding yet. I am sort of hoping that I don't get much so that my decision is made for me. Forgive me though, it sounds like I am complaining but really I am not. I am just shocked. It is hard to believe that this is really happening. I just hope that I can come through and deliver on the promise my professors saw in me which I imagine they wrote about in their letters. It is really a shock, I imagine they had to be great.

Also I am starting to feel guilty for being this lucky. I don't really think I am smarter than most of these people on the message boards who aren't getting into these schools. There is this one guy who didn't even get an unfunded offer from any of the schools he applied to when his profile seemed fairly decent.

The final count was 8 ins, 3 waitlists and 4 outs. I would have been happy with just one in. I am truly blessed and have some choices to make. Even though UCLA is probably the best out of all of these schools for applied micro I don't think I can take their offer just for the sake of name recognition. Then for Stanford are they worth being a 6 hour plane ride from home instead of the 3 hour car ride Yale is? Are the departments that different? Is one on the way up or down? Who are their hires this year? What are the schools' attrition rates (which is very important for me since I've seen my current grad course grades!).

Lots of decisions need to be made. I imagine I won't be able to make a decision until I visit both schools. How does one turn down an offer from Yale? How does one turn down an offer from Stanford? Both seem impossible but I'm going to have to. My advisor gave me the emails of a two of his Yale classmates who ended up teaching at Stanford so that I can talk to them to get the unique perspective of people who have been big parts of both departments.

Anyways sorry for the thinking out-loud post... Any advice?

I'll try to keep you guys posted on any info that I come across that may sway me one way or another...

More Later!

UCLA!!

I got a few dings from some decent schools over the past couple of days. They don't really sting due to the fact that Yale has already said yes and they are a great program. I got the 'thanks but no thanks' emails from Duke, Columbia and Berkeley. I find now that every rejection is just one step closer to me making a decision. It makes my job easier, I don't have to worry about if I picked the right school or not, my path is laid out in front of me. Still it would be nice to get into some other top schools just so that I don't feel like Yale was a fluke.

In the same vein I got an e-mail last night from UCLA! This was my dream school for a long while and it seems that I am one of the only people to get an email from them. No one else on the message board or grad cafe has gotten info from them. Basically the e-mail said that I was accepted with a full fellowship. Pretty darn exciting. They offer slightly more money than Yale does but I imagine since the cost of living is so much higher in LA than it is in New Haven in terms of cost of living Yale's offer is more generous. Either way they are probably both very similar and so it all rests on the strengths of the programs. I look forward to the visitation days at both schools which I believe will be by the end of this month, maybe I can visit UCSD at the same time.

Speaking of UCSD, they e-mailed everyone saying to expect funding decisions by the end of next week and UNC sent out emails saying to be patient and not to e-mail the department to ask about your status. I guess some people were annoying them. Northwestern has released some news but I haven't heard from them. Sandro Brusco, one of my letter writers, told me that they had called him so I imagine that means they were interested but I don't know what that means now.

I hoped to speak to my main advisor Hugo Benitez-Silva about most of these schools but we didnt have much time to talk during our normal weekly meetings because he was giving a midterm the next day and students kept showing up. I didn't mind, the guy has done so much for me already, so I guess we can just talk more about the schools next week. Apparently he has already decided for me that I'll be going to Yale. He lists his students on his CV and updated it with my name starting at Yale in the Fall. I guess that makes it easier on me, I don't have to debate between schools, it has already been decided :D.

A quick recap of whats happened so far:

In:
Yale (Fellowship),
UCLA (Fellowship),
UMD (Fellowship),
UVA (Assistantship, turned down),
UCSD (Aid Pending)

Out:
Duke (the we know you won't come here anyway rejection),
Columbia,
Berkeley

Waiting:
Stanford,
Princeton,
Northwestern,
NYU,
UPenn,
UMich,
UNC

I'm still amazed that this is really happening...

That's all for now.

More Later!

More Grad News

I got a call from the Director of Graduate Admissions from UMD today. I was expecting one this week from her last e-mail to me. We had about a 15 minute chat about the program. She saw my last e-mail when I informed her about my Yale acceptance and told me that she would not try to compare her department to any other one and instead would just tell me about her department and let me make the decision. She informed me that the Flagship Fellowship I was awarded is a new university-wide program that departments need to nominate students for and she was happy that their department's request was accepted. I blushed but she couldn't see that. After that she told me that she read my SOP and knew that I was interested in Applied Micro but no particular field (which she said was a sign of maturity to know that I don't know what I want to do for sure) and that due to the department's size I would have many many options of scholars to work with, even herself. She also told me that I may want to talk to John Rust, who was my advisor's adviser, about the differences between UMD and Yale because he left Yale to go to UMD. She was very nice and very helpful throughout. I then told her that my two biggest concerns were placement and attrition. She acknowledged that there was mention on the TestMagic message boards (TONY THEY ARE ON TO YOU!! he he) that they didn't give out a full placement list but she said she would e-mail me one and that they would have it on the website soon. She also told me that attrition due to the comps was about 30% if not a bit lower and that looking at my profile she doesn't think it would be a problem for me. I thought differently considering I completely bombed my econometrics exam a few hours before the call today... All in all it was an interesting phone call and she invited me to the Admitted Students Day, expenses paid. Still something amazing would have to happen for me to pick them over Yale I believe.

Also today I got an email from UVA finally offering my funding. It was 14k for 4 years with teaching responsibilities. I will probably decline their offer tomorrow so they can pass it on to someone else.

All in all I'm still amazed at my admits this year and think my letter writers must have seen something in me that I am missing. Either that or they just wanted to see what kind of pull there letters had ;). I'm already stressing out about whether I'll be able to hack it at Yale, if that is where I end up going. After basically taking this year off and not doing any work I'm going to have to get back in shape. I look forward to the intellectual stimulation. I'll keep you guys updated. Rumor has it UCSD should be mentioning funding soon and UPenn and Columbia should be releasing decisions soon too. 11 more schools to go! If I knew I would have gotten into Yale I could have saved a lot of money.

Stay Tuned!

More Later!

Schools and the NYT

Wow. It has been an exciting few days. Yale emailed me around 11am on Friday and the email said that a decision has been made and that I should check the website. I figured at that point that I was certainly out of Yale because of what they did last year. From my understanding last year Yale emailed all the people that they rejected and Overnighted admissions decisions to the candidates in the postal mail. Once I saw the email my heart sank. When I saw that it said I should check the website I was thinking 'Why? To prolong the agony?' I then checked anyway and saw the letter that I pasted below and flipped out. FLIPPED OUT. It was a good time. I am still in awe of the decision. It is hard to believe. Earlier today I got the letter that contained the funding offer. Needless to say it is very generous. It includes tuition remission, health care and 6 years of support if needed as well as 3 guaranteed summers. It is very very exciting.

Later on Friday I was informally informed by the Director of Graduate Admissions at Maryland that I was accepted and on top of the normal package at UMD I was awarded the 'Flagship Fellowship' which gives me an extra $40k over 5 years and that the director would call me this week. I e-mailed her back thanking her profusely and saying that I look forward to her call and that I had just gotten accepted to Yale and would be interested to hear any reasons why she thinks I might pick UMD over Yale. I should be getting the official letter sometime this week.

Just a few hours ago I got an email saying I was accepted to UCSD. There was no mention of funding yet but I imagine I may hear later.

This has been insane and unbelievable. I never thought that I would ever be accepted to these places. Just last week I had convinced myself that I would only get into Virginia and was happy with the option. All of this is just icing on the cake. What an amazing cake...

Right now I'm looking forward to hearing from other schools. In a couple of weeks I am going to have some serious decisions to make. Now I'm just sitting back happy even if I get rejected from the 11 other schools I applied to.

On top of all that today I was quoted in the New York Times. Here is the article about the movie Obsession. I'm not too happy with my quote, I qualified the statement I made with a sentence right after that which was left out. ..

Well that is all for now, I have an Econometrics exam tomorrow...... ugh.

Thanks to everyone for all of your congratulations and well wishes!

More Later!

Unbelievable

Dear Mr.Osman:

Congratulations.

I am delighted to inform you that you have been selected for admission as a full-time student into the Economics Program beginning with the 2007-2008 academic year. Your selection is a recognition by the Faculty of your accomplishments and, especially, of your promise as a scholar and a researcher.

A letter containing the details of our offer has been sent to you via first class mail. You should receive this letter within 5 business days. If, after this period, you have not received your offer letter, please contact us at .....

After you have reviewed our offer you may return to this letter and click here to be taken to your Admissions Reply Form.


Sincerely,


Jon Butler
Dean of the Graduate School

Getting Very Anxious

So I've started to get very antsy... the incarnation of evil on Earth (aka Test Magic Message Boards) which I check many many times a day have informed me that Duke and UNC have sent out acceptances. I haven't recieved anything yet... Virginia has also sent out some funding offers and I haven't heard from them either. I keep checking my snail mail box everyday and my e-mail inbox every hour... it's getting bad...

I need a new hobby... Maybe I should try studying. Nah. I hope I can become a good student again next year after basically taking this year off .

That's enough of my rantings for now.

More Later!

A Wake-Up Call

I just got a call, waking me up, from Yale asking for my fall grades. I didn't see anyone else on the forums mention getting a call like that so I imagine ideally it would be a good sign that they are interested in my application. This makes me feel more confidant in my letters of recommendation. The only problem is that my fall grades sucked because I didn't really do any work. I was relaxing and taking a few grad courses to get exposure to the material but didn't even attempt to excel. So the two grad courses I took gave me B's. Two B's in the only grad Econ courses I took? Certainly not good enough for Yale. Eh... who knows? Now I'm going crazy. I wonder if secretary knows what a phone call like that can do to people!

Silly B's!!!!!! Now I am scared of every phone call.

More Later.

Addendum: I was pretty relaxed about the admissions process until this call. I am officially freaking out now. UCSD has also sent out some acceptance emails and yet my inbox is empty :( now there is a rumor that Princeton admitted someone. I have a hard time believing it, it is too early for them. Nonetheless- freaking out.

In at Virginia

So I've been fairly MIA lately. I would blame it on enjoying my last semester at Stony Brook. Sorry for the lack of posts but last time I figured I would try to make my next post a real update.

So here we are: In at Virginia :) That was quick. February 2nd. Gosh. Don't they have Job Market Candidates to interview? he he. No word on Aid yet. It was a 5:00am e-mail so I imagine any word on Aid would come in snail-mail form. My only problem is I don't know if I had them send it to my home or to my dorm.

Either way it's nice to hear some good news so soon. I really like Virginia, not only do I have a brother down there, rent is really cheap and they are doing some cool work on Econ of Education. My big concern I guess, like with any school, is attrition. And they did have the big cheating fiasco a few years back. Either way, it's nice to know :)

I'll keep you guys updated. You're only the third to know.

More Later!

Winter Break Relaxation

Since my last update I have a done a lot of relaxing. After finishing finals and checking the status on my applications all systems are go for a nail-biting few months.

I already had a close call with UCLA of all schools! I had to overnight my transcripts ($40!) and then priority mail the rest of my application to meet the dealine, all other schools were OK with my transcripts getting there a little late. Then 6 am December 16th (3am in LA) I was checking my status with UCLA and saw that I had filled out everything in the online form but forgot to hit the submit button! I did right away and after a few unanswered emails and a couple of calls I found out that I am still under consideration. That was scary! UCLA have been one of my dream schools forever.

My grades this semester were as expected. Given that I gave all my classes an undergraduate try I did well on my undergraduate courses and not-so-well on my graduate courses. I was only taking them to help my intuition next year so I don't really mind the B's. My only concern is if the schools that want to see my grades care. So far UMD is the only school that has explicitly requested them... I imagine that I should be hearing from a a school or two by mid-february according to when schools sent out letters last year. Most of them will be a month after that in mid-march. I am surprisingly calm about all this. Now that my apps are out I know there is nothing I can do so whatever happens happens.

Here are links to posts about a paper that tries to predict job market performace from applicant profiles: Marginal Revolution and Greg Mankiw.

Also the Chronicle of Higher Education has an article (now ungated) about a new ranking of faculty output done by none other than my own SUNY- Stony Brook. Some people are big fans of the methodology and other aren't so much. Either way what you guys might care about is the top 10 for Economics:

1-Harvard
2-MIT
3-Yale
4-Johns Hopkins
5-Princeton
6-UPenn
7-Duke
8-Wisconsin
9-UCSD
10-Chicago

I think the two really surprising things is how low Chicago is ranked and how high JHU is. Especially considering JHU only have 15 faculty members. Weird.

Well thats all for now.

More Later!

Application Process: OVER!

I just pressed the submit button on my Berkeley application. That means that now all my applications are in! Now I just have to check the status periodically to make sure all my things got to the schools on time and to the right place - and then bite my nails for 3 months!

Hooray!!!

Hopefully a real post is coming soon...

Stay tuned ;)

More Later!!