rchien

Hey Grad Cafe-ers. I just visited the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and am on a plane back to Reno now. I wanted to put some unbaked thoughts about U Illinois down and share them. These thoughts are from the perspective of a 23 year-old male who grew up in a liberal outdoorsy town. I will have a hard time living in Illinois. No mountains. The nightlife is stereotypical. I went out Thursday night to two bars, met a few cool people and also some weird ones. There are maybe two non-college-fratboy options. The food is bad. The beer is good. People are generally not fashionable. People are very kind. I had great conversations with a current Agricultural Economics PhD student, Dr. Ali Toosi, and Dr. Firouz Gahvari. They care. According to Dr. Toosi and Dr. Gahvari the main advantage of the Illinois MS Econ program is that it is designed as PhD preparation. The MS program would last two years with the option of continuing directly into the PhD program. The facilities are spartan compared to my alma-mater, the University of Portland. Perhaps this is a difference between public and private college. There is a significant Chinese-born population. They do not associate with Americans. They are isolated. 50% of MS candidates are Chinese-born. Overall I left with the impression of an excellent program but sub-par living standards. Whew. Text me or post on this thread if you want to talk about the University of Illinois and living/studying in small Midwestern towns. -Ryan

In general a MS in Finance is more applied. The MS in Finance will prepare you to work as a corporate business analyst, whereas a MA in Economics teaches the theory behind Finance. If that sounds confusing, it's because it is. A good way to understand this better is by comparing the classes required by each program. So check the links below. MS Finance at the University of Illinois: https://business.illinois.edu/msf/program/ MA Economics at Duke: http://econ.duke.edu/masters-programs/master-s-of-arts-in-economics/course-information Also consider a MS in Economics, which is something of a middle ground between the two. MS Economics at the University of Illinois: http://www.mspe.illinois.edu/Courses.shtml Remember that Math is the most important consideration for Post-Graduate study. You will need to have taken Multi-Variate Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability Theory, and Basic Computer Programming to qualify for top programs.

I would choose B. Quality of life, recreation, and social connections matter to me. I wouldn't do well in a high-stress graduate school situation without some time to recuperate!

I'm strongly leaning towards The U. Any other Economics students out there?

Econ and Business School departments are generally linked to Finance departments. A good place to start would be a rankings website such as: https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.econdept.html

Hey, I think we are in the same boat. I graduated from the University of Portland with a BBA in Econ in 2013. Felt my math skills weren't strong enough so I went to the University of Nevada Reno for a year to take Multivariate Calc, Probability Theory, Linear Algebra, and Computer Sci. Here are the Masters Programs I applied for, with corresponding IDEAS Econ Department ranking. U Minnesota (38) U British Columbia (24) U Toronto (42) Simon Fraser U (78) Duke U (32) UC Santa Cruz (73) U Edinburgh (96) UC Santa Barbara (43) Vanderbilt (44) Tufts (130) U Illinois-Urbana (98) Erasmus U Rotterdam (63) My strategy was to spread my applications broadly among the rankings spectrum. This was advantageous because the rankings reflect minimum requirements. For example a top school like U Minnesota require Linear Algebra and Multivariate Calc. Whereas a lower ranked U such as Tufts does not specifically require any mathematics preparation. Good luck buddy. Give me a call if you want to talk about it! -Ryan