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发信人: afeinac (我爱豆豉), 信区: abroadstudy
标 题: [zz]经济学申请
发信站: BBS 天地人大站 (Mon Oct 25 10:28:24 2004), 站内
发信人: soliloquies (独语), 信区: GoAbroad
标 题: Re: 经济学申请
发信站: 日月光华 (2004年05月05日00:05:12 星期三), 站内信件
转载一个东东吧。
Getting Started - An Overview and One Student's Experience
by Robi Ragan (Boston University Econ. Dept.)
This is a summary of several e-mails I wrote to friends at The University
of Georgia who are applying to Graduate School this fall. I found Christian's
web site and thought I would aid him in this project in any way I could. I
was very frustrated with the resources available on the web when I first
started looking, and there were many sites that I didn't find until it was
too late. Hopefully Christian's site will make life easier for people
considering Graduate School in Economics.
First, a little about me to frame the information below. I went to a top 20
public university and did not have stellar grades in my math classes. I had
good grades in my economics classes and a 710-Q GRE score. So the set of
schools I was looking at was different from the set Christian was looking
at. Hopefully, though, this will be general enough for those who are bound
for the heights of the top 10 as well as those looking at second and third
tier schools.
Here is how I went about picking schools to apply to:
The first thing to do is decide if a Ph.D. in economics is what you are
really looking for. Generally, either you work as a professor/researcher,
for a government agency, or for a private firm. There is a really good book
that gives you an idea of what grad school for economics is all about
called "The Making of an Economist" by Arjo Klamer and David C. Colander.
Most college libraries have this book, and I highly recommend it. It is
about a decade old, but still applies. And don't worry with reading the
whole thing (unless you want to). Just get the general feel. Once you
decide that a Ph.D. in economics is what you are after, then you should
begin choosing schools.
Making a big list
Peterson's web site and this list will give you a great way to look at all
of the schools relatively quickly. Try to pick around 30-40 schools to
start with (no, I am not kidding). Then do further research on them by
going to the departments' actual web sites. Every applicant has her own
criteria for what she wants in a grad school program. Factors could include
location, department specialties, placement history, cost, etc. You should
try to decide what your preferences are, and use those to pick your initial
30 programs. There are other factors besides your preferences that might
affect your choices, mainly the admissions requirements of the department.
A department's web site will often contain information about this as will
Peterson's. You probably want your 30 schools to span your range of
potential. You would not want to apply to the top 20 schools only, unless
you are risk-loving, or you have very good scores (See Christian's article
for more on scores).
That brings me to what schools base their admissions on. Although schools
do vary, by and large, I have found that these are the factors they weigh
(in order of importance):
GRE Math Score
GPA in Math and Econ Classes
Letters of Recommendation
GPA in Other Classes
All Other Factors.
In fact, the bottom 3 shift around a lot from school to school. But the GRE
math score is the "big deal" here. 700 is good for a low to mid level
school, maybe low second to high third tier (depending on how competitive
the year is, this process-- like all others-- is subject to our friends,
supply and demand). To get into a top program, you need to be as close to
800 as you can be. And, yes, 800 is a perfect score. Just to let you know
what you are up against, the distribution in 2000, for all the people who
were about to enter Ph.D. programs in Economics, had a mean of 698. That
means half the people you are competing against score between 700 and 800.
This is why you have to pick so many schools. There are a lot of smart
people competing for a few seats. This is a VERY competitive process.
OK, so now take your 30 schools and go to a couple of professors you like
and trust. Ask them what they think. They will probably tell you it depends
on your GRE score, but ask them to help you choose a range of 20 schools
that you can pick 10 or 15 from, once you know your GRE score. Now, once
you have your GRE score, pick 10-15 of the schools. Spread your risk.
Include 1 or 2 safety schools that you would not mind going to. A safety
school really depends on what your GRE is. If you scored an 800 then a
school like Virginia may be a safety school for you. But if you barely made
700 then maybe its USC (that's South Carolina). I personally applied to 15
schools. Some people apply to more, and some apply to less. As with
everything I have written here, you may have to modify this to fit your
situation, but this is the process I used to make my decisions. And don't
forget that different departments have different specialties (again see
Christian's list of departmental research concentrations).
Preparation
The preparation you will need is as follows, and almost every school will
want the following:
Macro and Micro Econ through Intermediate Level
Differential Calculus
Integral Calculus
Some Statistics Class
Matrix (Linear) Algebra
Many also look for:
Econometrics
Multivariable Calculus
Real Analysis
More Statistics
As with everything, the best schools want the best grades in the best
classes.
Career Choice and School Selection
When choosing a school, it is also important to think about what you want
to do with your Ph.D.. If you want to go into business or consulting, then
the academic reputation of the school may not be as important as if you
want to go into academia. If you want to go into government work, then you
may wish to choose one of the DC area schools, which plug you right into
that (American University, George Washington, Georgetown).
For academia, the general rule is that your initial appointment is usually
a school that is a level (or 2) below where you receive your Ph.D.. So if
for example I want to teach at a school of the size and reputation (both of
which are often correlated with pay) of UGA, then I would need to get my
degree from a school like a Duke, Virginia, or even better a Chicago or
Harvard.
Rankings
Just to give you some idea of how departments are generally ranked, here
are a few of the better rankings.
National Research Council uses an array of variables to get the results.
Good but dated. See Christian's article for more on this one. (NOTE: To see
this one better go under VIEW in the toolbar and change the text size)
US News and World Report is more or less a popularity contest, but
informative. Most of the rankings have been taken off-line.
These last two are based on faculty output. The well known Dusansky and
Vernon. And one done by Tom Coupe.
More Reading
Article for students who are considering graduate study in Economics.
General Guide to Getting in to Grad School.
Chronicle of Higher Education; Job market for economists.
Labor Department; Occupational Outlook Handbook - Economist.
Message Boards
These two message boards frequently have good threads on Graduate School in
Economics:
US News
Princeton Review
Looking Back
As for me, I am attending Boston University in the fall of 2002. Looking
back on the process, I can offer a couple of comments. The first is to
apply for financial aid outside the departments. This means school-wide
fellowships as well as national awards, and contests through special
interest organizations. I did not do this and am looking at a pretty big
bill for my first year of grad school (borrowing against future income, if
you will). The second is diversify when selecting schools. I was rejected
from many schools that are generally considered far below BU. So pick a
wide range of schools in terms of rank and size of program.
Good Luck,
Robi Ragan
【 在 yfyf(FeiYe) 的大作中提到: 】:
搞不明白，虽然说数学对经济学很重要: 但是我们数学系申请到经济的人几乎处处等于零
: 难道在米国就这么多人搞经济学的理论研究吗？
: 【 在 laogong (毛爷爷就是夸我长的帅) 的大作中提到: 】
: : 其实是想感叹虽然数学很重要
: : 但我们本科基本没人申请到经济
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