<p>A'ight,</p>
<p>It's better to get a good letter of recommendation from a prof that likes you and cares about you than a letter from a "famous" prof. The fact is also that there aren't that many nationally renowned profs, so just because your LOR writer appeared on CNN once doesn't mean much.</p>
<p>Why Econs Phd is such an attractive to all? higher economic prospect or out of interest in the field? </p>
<p>by the way, I saw too many economics publication around, but not knowing which are those major publications, sometimes I am confused for to which one really matter and have quality. Hope there's a way to better understand the journal or review in economics.</p>
<p>Wish you all well.</p>
<p>aword,</p>
<p>Although alot of people probably want Econ degrees for the money it might afford them, I have found that economics can be a really, really interesting discipline when you get past eh boringness of Intro level stuff. Since it is such a practical discipline, you can cull alot of knowledge about it from everyday life and current affairs. I took an public policy class with a fairly well known (in Canada at least) economist last semester and some of the economic oriented discussions were very interesting. I can see why many would be attracted to the field, beyond professional reasons.</p>
<p>taking a step back, i am a prospective University of Chicago economics major. although i know that officially, attending Chicago as an undergraduate won't give you any advantage when applying to the Chicago economics graduate program or the GSB, do you guys think that it would still be advantageous in terms of networking, etc?</p>
<p><a href="In%20my%20case,%20I'm%20almost%20positive%20I'll%20be%20attending%20Vanderbilt,%20and%20here%20is%20the%20list%20of%20Vandy%20econ%20faculty.">I</a>*</p>
<p>At a quick glance John Siegfried, Jen Reinganum, and Andrew Daughety are probably some of the most prominent faculty there.</p>
<p>I would add Driskill to that list too.</p>
<p>An unrelated question: Does the path to an Econ Ph.D. go Bachelor's-Masters-Ph.D. or is it directly Bachelor's-Ph.D.? Is it different in different countries?</p>
<p>NBZ,</p>
<p>Either way, MA can marginally help you if it is in an unrelated field. If it is in a mathematics field and done well, it will definitely improve your odds for getting in. Having said that, getting a Master's is certainly not necessary.</p>
<p>Have not posted here in a while, but to Sakky, I should say I was interested in pursuing a possible economics PhD not because of the job prospects but more because of my interest in the discipline. When I entered my freshman year, I was rather enamored by my intro microecon course. When I find something I'm really interested in, I kind of want to learn as much as I can about it and master it so that I may be able to do something positive with it in my life. Moreover, I thought the prospect of working at a place like the IMF or academia would be very exciting and fulfilling. I don't exactly know if that's the way I feel about it anymore. My plan was always to take a year or two off after completing undergrad to just work and see how I liked things. Still pursuing economics with math as a minor or second major. Real Analysis will certainly be taken. </p>
<p>To Nauru, several undergraduate econometrics courses are offered at Penn, and I am indeed enrolled for the first this fall. It is a recommended course, but by and large, the choice of higher level economics courses is one left up to the students, although from what I have read ieconometrics seems quite important and is one most end up taking. I think for anyone wanting to pursue the Honors Thesis here (which is not required but of course anyone wanting to potentially pursue a graduate program in economics pursues it), econometrics is required. </p>
<p>On a side note, I am working as an intern at one of the federal reserve banks this summer in the research department under a economist. I'm doing it less for prestige, resume fodder, or research experience (although I guess it will be good for those as well) than to get an idea of how I might like working as an economist. Basically, I'm going to use it to see how I might like going to graduate school for an econ PhD, although I'm certainly in tune to the fact that as an intern I'd be doing more . . . ***** work, if you will. </p>
<p>I'm still pursuing math as I'm kind of still curious and interested in it, especially now that I can go into real analysis and abstract algebra, the real "meat" of the math courses offered. But I'm still kind of wondering what I want to do with my life. </p>
<p>I'm actually considering not returning to school this fall to just travel the world and figure out my life a little bit. I don't know. . .I do great in classes, have good career prospects with or without grad school, but I'm kind of burnt out by school and all around rather confused in and outside of my school life. Oh well. Anyone ever taken a semester or two off in the middle of undergraduate studies? Any thoughts/suggestions?</p>
<p>I just graduated from MIT with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. I am going to Hopkins in the Environmental Engineering Dept for a masters focusing on Environmental Management and Economics. How can I position myself to get into a good econ PhD program or top policy program?</p>
<p>I am interested in environmental economics and environmental policy.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well, we're not talking about MBA's, we're talking about PhD's in Business.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Of course we are. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Again, and ugh...this is like talking to a brick wall....it DEPENDS. Very few economists are pure economic theorists. Fields such as Labor, Public, International - both trade and finance, Macro to some extent, Monetary, Finance, Develeopment, and a good bit of IO are all applied areas or have substantial applied portions. The point is that there is an awful lot of applied economics.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It certainly seems like I am indeed talking to a brick wall.</p>
<p>OF COURSE it depends. It ALWAYS depends. But * in general * business is more applied. That is, after all, why business exists as a separate discipline. If there really were no difference between the 2 disciplines, then they might as well just combine the 2 disciplines into 1. </p>
<p>
[quote]
And once again, I'm not claming the opposite. You claimed that a PhD in business provides graduates with better placement relative to that of economics PhD programs. I questioned that.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And I return to my basic point - business schools/departments are growing at a more rapid rate than econ departments are. </p>
<p>Consider the burgeoning growth of demand for business education in Asia.</p>
<p>Or consider the fact that Oxford and Cambridge have both recently established business schools. I am quite sure that many universities in Asia will establish business programs in the near future if they haven't done so already. </p>
<p>Now, will these schools hire some Econ PhD's? Of course! Just like some business PhD's will end up in departments of economics. But the point is, more growth in business translates into more jobs for business PhD's than for econ PhD's. That's simple logic. </p>
<p>
[quote]
If you're statating opinions, it would behoove you to preface such comments accordingly. However, you seem to state a lot of things as if they were gospel.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And what about you? Have you prefaced any of your comments accordingly? Didn't think so. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Not all others. Just you. And just on this point. Don't write checks your a$$ can't cash. If you can't substantiate your claims with any outside source then your claim is dubious. I don't substantiate my claims in every post because that's inefficient. I can, however. That's the difference.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And you should also write checks your a$$ clearly cannot cash. I would like to see you substantiate each and every one of your claims before you ask me to do likewise. You said you could, I'd like to see it. You claim that it's inefficient, but hey, this isn't an efficiency contest here. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Yes. I posted a link to Harvard's placements. Perhaps you should go back and read it. Here's more for you to chew on:</p>
<p>Note the placements in places like: Carnegie Mellon Heinz School of Public Policy, McKinsey and Company, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Public Health School, Boston Consulting Group, Lehman Brothers, Vanguard, Department of Justice Antitrust Division, UNC (Health Policy), TKI Consulting, Medstat Group, and numerous business schools, and many more consulting and finance positions.</p>
<p>So yes, I have proved it. Took me all of 30 seconds too.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No, you haven't proved that the placements of econ PhD's are * in general * as good as that of business PhD's, which is what you have asserted. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Can you back that up?</p>
<p>Do you have empirical proof to demonstrate what you have stated in that post? </p>
<p>Yep.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So then let's see it. In particular, I would like to see how the simple logic I expressed above does not hold - that there are actually more placements for econ PhD's available than for business PhD's.</p>
<p>I figured I'd bump this thread to keep the discussion going.</p>