UrbanWonk

I agree with the previous posters, and would also throw in that you don't have to have a PhD to teach--you (generally) need a terminal degree. While a PhD is a terminal degree in some fields, in "practicioner's" fields such as business, it's not. You can teach at most business schools with an MBA. That said, many top MBA (and MPA, which is the policy version) programs won't accept you without experience, so you might want to work in finance for a few years first. But if you're not compelled by research, a PhD program would be misery. If you're going to be knocking around the house this summer, I'd try to get a copy of STATA and play around with econometric modeling, and see if that suits you any better...you might find it plays to your mathematical interests nicely. Good luck!

So I see several people have gotten notification of admission for the Duke Econ PhD...is anyone still waiting? Did anyone else apply to the dual PhD program with Econ/Policy? Thanks!

UrbanWonk is a she, and yes, I am still waiting. Sorry if either bit was unclear. :-D You were told specifically March, though? i know it was March last year but since the submission deadline was so much earlier, i was hoping the decision might follow suit...especially as the fin aid deadline is a week from today!

I applied, too...no news, but you can track receipt of GREs, etc, on the Embark page. Best of luck!

I'll admit it--I bought a Wii Fit. But I love it! There are a lot of games that are more balance-oriented than fitness-oriented, but the yoga and strength training exercises are really good, and it lets you customize workouts or choose from time/focus area presets. Mostly, I like that it's pretty good at critiquing form--I tried yoga a couple of times, but I've lost a lot of flexibility (I used to do gymnastics), so I was too embarrassed to take a class. It's quite calming, and ditto on the others--you can't check app status while working out!

There are 6 of us in a senior thesis forum that meets on the same night as a campus bar's "Flip Night"--call the quarter correctly, and your drink is free. All of us applied to similar programs. Good news or bad news, we won't be attending class...

In cleaning my stuff out of my parents' house, I found the newspaper I was editor-in-chief of during high school. The last edition of it was an "advice to juniors" special--all about applying to college. One thing that stuck out-- "Applying to college is like taking a class. You can do it in the fall on top of everything else, or you can do it in 'summer school.'" Yeahhhh....wishing I knew now what I knew then? I did the applying for fellowships gig over the summer, and was so burned out from that and my job that I didn't start on apps until around Thanksgiving.

This is where that "additional information" essay comes in. At face value, those stats suggest a person who's lazy, so you need a killer explanation to get their attention. If you do mention your undergrad lack of focus, I'd try to point towards recent demonstrations of a newly enlivened focus...if you've got strong recs who echo the sentiments you express, you have a much better shot. Your comment of a downward trend is what could hurt you--find something concrete to prove that that period of your life is over, and that you've matured/are focused/whatever. I'd sit down with your letter writers and explain to them your situation (if they didn't know from having you in class) and what you're trying to convey. I think you've got a good shot at funding, though. Why GREs and not GMAT? Are you going MBA or a different program? Best of luck!

Misery loves company! I keep getting the "so where are you going next year?" So I always say something along the lines of "well, I have to get in first..." And then, you know, interview, compare aid offers, and then decide... People don't seem to understand that applying to graduate school is just as lengthy and involved as applying to undergrad.

Wasn't charged; tried Chrome but still got the over-screen preventing me from doing anything else once I said I was paying by Visa. I'll try IE (groan) tomorrow, and if not, phone sounds like a good option. Thanks all!

So I finally resigned myself to the idea that I'd have fork over another hundred-some dollars to ETS. I attempted to purchase score reports last night, only to be failed by the website. I think this is more of a problem with the CyberSource host they're using, but upon clicking "Buy," the page was covered up by a "Verified by Visa" prompt (yes, I was using a visa). I've seen these many times before; it's an optional service and there's always a way to close the request. Except this time. The prompt covered a portion of the page, the submission form was still beneath, only the "buy" button has disappeared. I never got to the confirmation/receipt page, so I called ETS today, and got the helpful response of "well, it takes 2 days for us to have a purchase in our system. have you checked your credit card?" (Yes, I'm not an idiot). I'm using Firefox on a Mac, if that makes any difference. Anyone have this problem at all? Potential workarounds? THANK YOU!

I'm a student jury member for academic integrity violations at my uni. There are some methods out there you wouldn't even fathom. My favorite is when typos manifest identically in two papers when the students "were just writing them in the same room, and never ever emailed or shared them." Riiiiight. If there are any lurkers out there who are still in undergrad, I highly recommend this form of service! Lots of fun, and rather satisfying for those of us who play by the rules.

Re applications: My fate lies in another's hands. For the six word statement: White chick believes cities have potential.

Thanks guys...I took GREs back in June, and had been applying for a specific scholarship program which ate up two of my free/included schools. And I'm not applying to my undergrad institution, so I think that eliminates the loophole. Oh well, guess I'll just have to suck it up! "investment in my future" and all...

Look at the Rochester Institute of Technology's program in public policy. It's actually, Science, Technology, and Public Policy, and it's a Master's program, but you could pretty likely get funding as it's a fledgling program looking to attract better students. RIT has a TON of courses in diffusion theory (tech transfer), so you could explore all of your interests at one uni. As far as I know, they don't have a PhD right now, but it'd be good exposure to experts in tech policy for your later dissertation. CMU is also excellent--just depends on what kind of program size you're looking for.

So, perhaps this was a poor choice on my part, but I'm applying to more than 4 schools, hence I hypothetically need to send score reports at an extra cost to each of my surplus schools. Thing is, looking at the application requirements, they don't specify when your scores have to be in, and a few go so far as to say they don't have to be in by the application deadline. My ideal world involves me not reporting any until I get offers, and just send the scores to confirm that I reported them correctly, but I'm not sure that's truly possible. Will it be frowned upon to have not sent them in? How long can I wait? $75/school for app fees + $23/school for GRE scores adds up quickly...and then we have the holidays!

For anyone else silly like me, note that entering and saving your recommender information on the Berkeley PhD online application does NOT give them access to the system. There's a separate choice (other than save/delete) to email the recommenders, and that's not just a reminder--that's how you notify them the first time. Hope this helps someone!

This might help someone, as I just went through this--I have a mac, and using Preview's quartz filter made my transcript utterly unreadable. I instead saved it as a jpeg, slid the "quality" down until the file size read below the limit (2.0 MB, but it can go far lower), and then resaved that as a pdf. I tried switching to grayscale & b&w, and that didn't change file size any. Hopefully they don't mark me down for my scan job being a slight bit crooked!

This is a really last minute request... I have 2 letters in the bag already--1 from a "Distinguished Prof" (econ) at our uni who is my undergrad adviser, I've taken 2 classes with, etc etc, and 1 from an Asst Prof (econ) who I've worked with on 2 papers and who is advising my undergrad thesis... I decided on applying to the PhD rather late (about 2 weeks ago) and am struggling for my 3rd letter if it's going to be econ...among econ, I could ask a prof I haven't had since freshman year but whose class I did really well in (mathematical micro), a prof I had soph year who I ran into the other day who flat out offered to write a letter (intermediate macro--not as relevant to PhD/my specialty), or any number of people who aren't econ profs. One of the non-econs I'd be completely comfortable asking to do this quick turnaround (my first apps are due 12/8) as she's written for me a lot before, but I was told to have all econ/math profs for the PhD. True? Is it ridiculous to ask a prof with just a week to go?

Panic moment! I just logged in to my HKS application on Embark that's due in less than a week, and a lot of my info has disappeared, including all of the registrations of my recommenders! One of them has already uploaded a letter (I have the email from Embark saying so) so I know that I had fully registered them. Anyone have this happen to them? Do I call Embark or HKS? THANK YOU!!

You might want to look at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) too--they have some great CS/IT programs with specializations in networking.

So in starting (yes, starting!) my grad school applications the other day, I found that two of them asked where else I was applying. It's an optional question on both, but should I answer it? Anyone have any experience with this? It seemed extremely odd to me, but I'm kind of new at this.

Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MPP/MUP Schools Applied To: Brown, CMU, Harvard, Pitt, Birmingham, Univ Coll London (these are for sure, also potentially Columbia, GWU, NYU, RIT) Schools Admitted To: Schools Rejected From: Still Waiting: Undergraduate institution: Medium private university, known for social sciences in graduate programs Undergraduate GPA: 3.91 Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable): 4.0 Undergraduate Major: Economics, Policy Studies GRE Quantitative Score: 800 GRE Verbal Score: 680 GRE AW Score: 5 Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 0 Years of Work Experience: Essentially 2 Describe Relevant Work Experience: Worked for 2 summers and 1 year at local government think tank; have also done a fair amount of undergrad research (1 publication) Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): Sort of a strange format of anecdotes/snapshots of research/the things that motivated me towards urban policy...I polished it for the Marshall so it should be pretty solid. Strength of LOR (be honest, describe the process, etc): Two from professors I've done research with/TAed for, one from my boss at said think tank, one from a staff member who knows me very well through ECs and leadership Other: I applied for the Marshall scholarship to study in the UK--that's why UCL and Birmingham are on there (and I love the schools). It's a long shot for me so I'm looking back in the U.S...I really like Providence and Pittsburgh as case studies in Urban Policy so I guess they're top for that, but then there's Harvard, which is just...Harvard. Not sure about the strength of my application since my undergrad isn't a top-tier school, so I guess we'll see! Feel free to suggest any other match schools--I'm a bit clueless about this whole thing!

I'm finishing my undergrad at Syracuse, so I know the city quite well and have had class with some of the Master's folks (some of the econ courses overlap). As for the one who pointed out Maxwell doesn't have a huge number of ambassadors--this is true. But you'll often hear reference to the "Maxwell Mafia"--the army of alumni in prestigious positions in DC and NYC, so it all depends on where you want to end up. On the funding note, there are several research centers affiliated with Maxwell (they're even within the building) that offer RAships, so just because you don't end up with explicit funding doesn't mean you can't find some when you get there. Also, check out this page: http://www.maxwell.s.../pa.aspx?id=661 So long as you get your application in early, there are a world of options, some specifically focused on IR. Any questions on the city, feel free to ask!

A new topic of this dragged this conversation up again, so I'll throw in my dilemma--about to head into graduate school, and will likely be engaged (I'm not just fantasizing; we've talked about it). However, his last name is hyphenated (his parents' names), and mine (maiden) is not. My last name was invented by Immigration so I'm not particularly attached to it, but me taking on his hyphenated last name would only cause confusion. FWIW, I'll have one, maybe two publications when we get married (under my maiden name). We've talked about inventing our own last name, and I really want our kids to have the same last name as us (I'm from the very traditional "family unit" school of thought...not for everyone, mind you, but it's important to me =D). Is this completely weird? I don't really plan on a career in academia, so the publication thing isn't a big deal, but is making up a surname completely crazy? Anyone know of people doing this?