<p>I have been wondering this for a long time..
Why is everyone that goes for the Ph. D in Economics at the top schools foreign?
These programs are already ridiculously selective but then tack on the fact that apparently Americans are not allowed. Here's an example:
Untitled</a> Document
trust me it is like this at every school i've checked out.
but why?!</p>
<p>Sounds like a game of "we can dish it out but can't take it" American universities accept large numbers of foreigners but some other countries are so hesitant to take Americans on. I am not one for xenophobia but I can sure see how these type of policies fuel that fire.</p>
<p>Sorry that rant was unrelated to the original post but has been festering in my mind for awhile.</p>
<p>Except maybe in computer science, Economics is the one department of study that Americans absolutely dominate the rest of the world in (not saying this is 100% fact, but it is the perception amongst academics). Most other programs have some competition abroad, where in Economics it is seen from foreign countries that to get a good job in Economics, you must go to an American school to learn. It is not being selective only to foreigners, it is simply that many more internationals apply to these programs than in undergraduate years. Also, internationals tend to have a Master's degree before they apply, to prove that they can handle the American workload in the Economics phd.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I have been wondering this for a long time..
Why is everyone that goes for the Ph. D in Economics at the top schools foreign?
These programs are already ridiculously selective but then tack on the fact that apparently Americans are not allowed. Here's an example:
Untitled Document
trust me it is like this at every school i've checked out.
but why?!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Seems to me that there are quite a few Americans in the econ grad program at Harvard.</p>
<p>Harvard</a> Econ Department - Graduate Student Webpages</p>
<p>Granted, I suppose it may regard how you define "American". For example, Sandip Sukhtankar of Harvard is Indian-American (he is a US citizen). I would certainly call him an American, but I know that others (sadly) may disagree.</p>
<p>yeah yeah you would bring that politically correct crap in here
my issue is that they are all minorities - most likely foreign - who will most likely go back to their home countries to help w/ development which is great don't get me wrong but when you consider how important economics is and how few slots each school offers, where are the normal americans? the people i can relate to, and compare myself to</p>
<p>“Normal Americans”</p>
<p>are you guys really oblivious to the fact that america is still majority white middle class, and the econ grad students are not from america maybe one or two are indian-american so you bring this pc crap in here and say im wrong… but most are FOREIGNERS</p>
<p>yeah most are foreigners because they have the grades and experience to get there stupid. 80% of American students—take it back, 99% american students aren’t willing to do a pHd for 6 years or so and would prefer to get into the workforce or go to law school or medical school- that is why such skuls are 99% american (putting funding issues aside)- thats why. Not the schools fault that american students don’t want to get a PhD. I heard this from one of my professors who also mentioned their is a lot of incentives being offered to american students to do PhDs but very few enroll.</p>
<p>do yourself a favor and study a real science instead of this crap.</p>
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<p>I fail to see what is wrong with that. You think economics has lots of minorities? How about engineering? At most top engineering schools, the vast majority of students are Asians (with many being Asian-American of course). Just look at the engineering student population at Berkeley, for example. {Heck, just look at the regular student population at Berkeley - there are actually more Asians than there are whites.} Similarly, MIT has so many Asians that people joke that MIT actually stands for Made in Taiwan. And of course the a highly disproportionate number of them are Asian males. </p>
<p>Nor is this peculiar to Asians in the US. Asians in Canada, Australia, and the UK tend to be disproportionately successful in the technical academic disciplines in the schools of those countries. Thomas Sowell once showed that Chinese students in colonial Hong Kong performed better in standardized mathematics exams than did the white British students who lived in Hong Kong, despite the far greater economic and political power enjoyed by the latter, as those white students were generally the children of rich British businessmen or administrators of Hong Kong. The ethnic Chinese earn the vast majority of engineering degrees in colleges in Malaysia despite being only a minority of the population in that country. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if I look at the students in, say, a sociology department, I am going to find a lot of women and a lot of African-Americans. Sowell once showed that, of the PhD’s earned by African-Americans before the 1960’s (hence, before AA), far more of them were earned in sociology than in any other discipline. </p>
<p>I think it simply demonstrates that certain people are more interested in certain topics. Asians, for example, seem to be highly interested in technical subjects. Nothing wrong with that. Like sefago said, most “normal Americans” (as you call them) are not interested in getting PhD’s in economics (or engineering for that matter).</p>
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<p>Uh, look, if you’re looking to get a PhD in any subject, then by definition, you’re not a ‘normal American’. After all, according to the US Census, only 27% of all Americans age 25+ even have a bachelor’s degree.</p>
<p>haha ok i appreciate all the replies this time around,
i am white middle class, if that wasn’t already made obvious and it seems that as such i have slightly subjective views that are getting taken out of context even further - it appears using the term normal american was a bad idea lol - but if i were to look at the federal reserve (i haven’t) something tells me most of them would be from america, as well as as all the other top econ positions, all of my econ professors now (granted i go to a state public) are from here. im not trying to bring race into this, and its a matter of how i choose to do my wording but sandip for instance (btw, i hate looking at harvard), while he is american, he is not someone i can compare myself to, which is why i look at the cv’s of job market candidates in the first place. i wasn’t born ramanujan
as someone interested in econ, im simply interested in finding the most logical path for myself, to me that makes complete sense</p>
<p>There is a big difference between race and culture; I suggest you learn the difference.</p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, when you say most of your professors or academics at the World Bank/Federal Reserve/IMF are Americans, a lot of it is self-selecting. One, previous generations in Southeast Asia were a lot less affluent and could not afford 6 years out of school as much to get their Bachelor’s and Master’s let alone going all the way to America and paying to go to a phd program. Secondly, a lot of those who get their degrees who are from other countries work back in the country where they are from, so many of those who stay and teach are from America in the first place. It is not a universal rule, but a lot of countries offer money/stipends to students from their country to study abroad (in England, USA, etc.) in return to having to work in their own country for X years. Not universal, but certainly a factor that matters.</p>
<p>thanks citric, amen to that</p>