Choosing a Graduate Program by Greg Mankiw

Now is the time of year when prospective PhD students in economics are deciding which graduate program to attend. The decision is often hard. If you are in that position, here are a few recommendations about things to think about:

1. Start with the rankings. For some recent rankings of economics departments, click here and here and here. All ranking systems are imperfect, but other things equal, higher is probably better.

2. Talk with the graduate students who are now in the programs you are considering. Are they happy?

3. Don't make a decision based on a single faculty member. He or she may leave or turn out to be not quite as wonderful as you now presume. Look for a department that is strong overall.

4. Don't presume you know your specific research interests and focus just on faculty in that narrow area. Many students change their mind over their first few years of grad school.

5. Is the location of the school a fun place to live? Grad school is a long haul, typically 4 to 6 years, which is a significant fraction of your life. Being a PhD student is hard work, but it should not be a miserable existence.

6. Is the university overall a good place? It is always more fun being part of a great institution. Even if the economics department is perfect, if it is an island in a sea of mediocrity, being there will be less satisfying.

7. Are the undergraduates there good students? At some point as a graduate student, you will (and should) do some teaching, perhaps as a teaching assistant in an undergraduate course. If the undergraduates are an academically strong group, they will be more intellectually engaged and more rewarding to teach.

8. Don't be distressed if you did not get into your top choice. What you do in graduate school (or college) is far more important than where you go. Your personal drive matters more than the ranking of the school you attend.

Update: Readers suggest an additional criterion:

9. Look at the record of recent PhD students. What fraction who start the program complete a PhD? What kinds of jobs do they get upon completion? Are they the kinds of jobs you aspire to? The placement record will give you an indication of the caliber of students who enter the program, the value-added of the program itself, and how well the department sells its students on the job market.

Asking for a recommendation letter

It’s application time, both for grad school and acadmic jobs. Belatedly, I offer some advice on faculty recommendation letters for current and aspiring grad students.

Strong letters usually come from long and close relationships with faculty. We take these letters seriously, since we often write these letters to our colleagues at the same pool of schools and employers. Our reputations are at stake. So students should request a letter with equal seriousness and care.

Good letters also take time to write, especially those for graduate school and (most of all) for the academic job market. Approach your professors as early as possible—at least a month in advance. Faculty are extremely busy, and last-minute requests might get last-minute effort.

I think I’m similar to other faculty in that I generally write recommendation letters for students who:

• took at least one course with me and excelled;
• wrote a strong senior essay, thesis, or dissertation with me;
• worked for me for at least four months; or
• had some other close, personal interaction relevant to your application.

If none of these apply, it’s difficult to write a strong letter. Letters are usually explicit about how long we’ve known you, in what capacity, and how we rank you relative to your peers and our past students.

How can you find out if someone will write a strong letter for you? One way is to ask. Personally, I am frank with students, so as not to do them a disservice.

Once a professor has agreed to recommend you, three or four weeks before the due date you should email the following:

• your latest CV;
• your transcripts, GPAs, and (if relevant) GRE scores;
• a list of where are the letters will be going; and
• depending on where the letter is going, some supplementary information:

Grad school, scholarship, or academic job market applications: share your statement of purpose, research proposal, or other personal statements. Letter-writers take these seriously, and often discuss the specific strengths and weaknesses of the proposal in their letter. So try to ensure you letter writer sees a fairly polished version before the letter is written. This means you probably want to start discussing the proposal with your advisors at least six to eight weeks before the letters are due.

Job or fellowship applications: include a description of the job or fellowship, and what they are looking for in a letter. Often a job or scholarship application will offer specific guidelines. If they don’t, provide a quick description to your letter writers.

Try to send everything in one package, well organized. We letter writers are absent minded, and will lose the multiple pieces if you do not collate them for us.

For grad school applications, you want at least one to two academic letters. Two is probably better, with one from an employer if you have been out of school for long. So maintain contact with your advisors after you leave university.

If your application requires three letters, you might be tempted to send four. This is usually a bad idea: every additional letter after your best one lowers the average quality of your application. This is simple arithmetic. A fourth letter only makes sense if it will be glowing and adds a completely different perspective.

Finally, remember that (as academic applications go) letters from senior faculty usually carry more weight. Junior faculty who are poorly known outside their subfield (i.e. people like me) carry less. Strong letters matter most, though, and you may be able to build closer relationships with junior faculty less inundated with students. Keep this trade-off in mind. Probably a balance of junior and senior faculty recommenders is best.

from here

When do I start applying?

Before I answer the title's question, I think I should mention what you should do for application.

1. Take a TOEFL and GRE exam. (you should have scores before mid Dec.)

2. Prepare you resume and SOP. (You should have in hand in first week of Dec.)

3. Get enough! recommendation. (You should have in hand two weeks before application deadline)

4. Mail them on-time and accurately. (post one week before deadline)

5. request your exam scores to be sent by ETS. (request them when you send your files)

6. Wait. (Enjoy from Life)

General comment for each step:

1. I prefer the paper TOEFL. I think it has the same credibility as IBT. To do that you should check every week the ETS site to book for empty seats. But that is not enough, because you should check that every day. To do that apply in groups. Find at least 7 people, not necessary in the same field, but at least 2 of them apply for economics. Each day one member of group check the web for new empty seats. This is great exercise because you should do the same when you apply for VISA appointment. I will talk about it later. Also If you miss the PBT in you country consider the other countries. For example Iranian should consider Turkey.

TOEFL is very important. Generally you should get the minimum requirement. For some school it is really strict to pass the requirements for some not. But if you could not pass the requirement and you think you have good chance for that school, try for it and do not worry. The "Quantitative part" is very very very important in GRE. It is not easy. You should get 800. Solve many sample exams before the test. Sometimes you need to know the meaning of some worlds. If you fail this part, it is really hard to come up with the solution.

2. This link is funny but really helpful. The grad advisor prepares it for Job Market students and not you. But it shows that the resume should be really to the point and brief. Do not include any irrelevant statements. If it has no connection or nothing to do with the economy why do you mention them. Imputing then in your resume show that you are not a professional application. I like to prepare the in latex, if you know how to use Latex try these resumes. Also if you are gonna to write you resume in world, see them, they will give you some ideas.

3. It is very important, believe me. Talk with professors very seriously. Ask them how many recommendations they can write for you. Set some day to get them. Ask from your old friends to know who is responsible for recommendation. Responsible in the sense to write accurate, fluent and relevant recommendation. Do not try the advisor who miss the deadline for your important school. Request from whom who are more in contact with you during the school. Ask them to write what. If you think your professor is a nice guy, request to write a sample to make the life easier for him/her. Consider to mention the following points. "I know him during this class or project. He is hard work, self research and responsible student. He is good programmer because write many codes for me. Good researcher because follow the project with high incentive and individually up to get some results. He present his results professionally. Outstanding among students. His English is fluent. I thought macro from Stokey-Lucas and he show his good math background in that class ...". Be honest. Explain what you are.

4. Plan to mail on-time. Although if departments receive your documents one week later they will be fine, but this one week is for some accidental happenings and error terms. You do your job on-time, they will happen out of you hand. Check with graduate advisor that they have received the files completely. If sending the files in groups reduce the cost do that. You can also send them for your friends in the same city and they hand out them to departments. But pay the application fee some days advanced. If you miss the deadline for application fee, it is hard to have another chance. Before start the application think about the credit card seriously. I mean before starting anything make sure you have reliable credit card. I will write more about it.

5. Easy but do that on-time. Ask the ETS to give you the information of postal date and code. You can share them with department if they deny reception.

6. Wait and check here for news and rumors. Reply to departments in time. If you want more time for decision, inform them why do you have such a request and inform them one week in advance. Bring reasonable reason.

Good Luck

Does it make sense..

Does it make sense we write in our SOP that we want to come back to our country, we want to think about growth, we want to think about political economy of oil and so on?
1. I prefer to do not write this kind of domestic economic interest, I personally prefer to think more globally and think more about frontier but
2. These kinds of reasons are not at all harassing, I mean professors here understand them but if you write them in informal fashion, no one buy them. You could propose your idea in professional manner and not talk like an socialists. Be economics in your SOP.
3. Univs read SOP if they hesitate to give you fund/admission or not, thus I strongly recommend to write some thing be related to professors in the your target univ. For example
Talk about political economy, Natural curse if you apply in LSE
Talk about Inequality, Dynamic Macro, Auction in Oil and Gas industry if you apply for UT
Talk about Electricity and LNG, auction, regulation if you apply stanford
Talk about growth, public policy and .. if apply MIT
....


Does it make sense if we mention our perfect job in engineering?
Do not insist on them, they only show that you are a serious student, but do not forget you apply for economics. The same causality work when you ask from engineering prof. to write recommendation for you. But Math is completely different. Focus on your skill if you have some specific research or TA ... in mathematics.

Does it make sense to request from my manager to write recom for me?
depends on what he wants to write for you. If your work is not related to economics this recommendation destroy your situation. But if you have done some economic research in your job it could be interesting.

Does it make sense I send a research proposal or abstract of thesis?
absolutely. It could help you so much.

continue..

Where To apply

People usually ask where we should apply. There is no general answer for this kind of questions. My suggestion is that first decide about "Your Median List". Where do you go you think is appropriate for you. Then divide all universities to 3 groups. 1. Top Rank 2.Median Group 3.Satisfactory level.

Choose 20% of your list from first level. 60% from Median Group and the rest from last group. For example who thinks that Boston Univ. is fine for him, I mean he has seen his friends with the same grade went there are are happy. The three groups are as following:

MIT
Chicago*
Northwestern
LSE
Upenn*
----------------------
UMN*
Penn state*
Maryland
Washington Saint louis*
Austin*
Boston Univ*
Illinois
SSE
UBC
Toronto*
-----------------------
Arizona*
USC
Texas A&M*
BC
Virginia Tech
Rice
--------------------

If he want to send 10 application, he could apply for * universities. Based on other factors like cities, Iranian Groups, Money and ...

PS: In all the preceding univ some Iranian had graduated in recent years or got admission or already study economics. Thus I suggest you to fist try for this univ.
PS: I found 3 source for ranking. I do not have any idea about methodology or how much there are reliable, I only want to vast your choice to rank univ for yourself. Also very good and international source is econphd.
Here1
Here2
Here3
PS: I rank the above universities based on my opinion. It might be different from other ranking.

Advice for Applying to Grad School in Economics

Disclaimer: These are just opinions, and some people may disagree with the claims here. You should seek opinions from your advisors.
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Choosing classes

• Graduate schools care much more about what hard classes you've taken and how you've done in them than about overall GPA.
• If you have taken difficult classes its probably a good idea to point this out in your application essay because schools might not know what the math classes are, which economics classes are the advanced ones, etc. �
• Real analysis is an especially important class because it tends to be demanding everywhere, and forces you to do logical and formal proofs. Get a good grade in this class.
• Taking some graduate classes can be a good thing, but be prepared. You will be at a disadvantage since the grad students will all have study groups. Try to join a study group and devote serious time to any graduate classes you take. More and more applicants are taking graduate classes.
• Students from top universities who have the bare minimum coursework (an undergraduate major, no graduate economics or math classes, and only basic undergraduate math classes) will need something really outstanding -- like a thesis that is publishable in a top economics field journal--to get fellowships at the top two or three graduate programs. Typically the strongest applicants have some distinguishing feature, like scoring near the top of a graduate class at a top PhD program, very strong math (e.g. graduate level real analysis and topology), or an outstanding thesis or coauthored research.
• Undergraduate classes at most U.S. universities are much easier than graduate classes. To be a strong applicant you should be getting mostly or all As in undergraduate economics classes--with grade inflation even A-'s are not going to help you. Some poor grades your freshman year won't disqualify you though, doing really well in very advanced classes will more than compensate.

Recommendation letters

• Recommendations which are not from economists have very little value.( I thinks also true for mathematics:Hossien) Recommendations from economists who have contacts at the schools you are applying to are most useful. However, one letter from someone you have worked for after undergrad may be useful to document your work ethic, maturity, etc.
• Get recommendations from people who know you well.
• Corollary: Get to know some professors well. Professors will be very excited that you want to get a Ph.D. in economics. Don't be afraid to approach them. Listen to their advice.
• Give professors every possible opportunity to say they don't feel comfortable recommending you to the school you're applying to. If they express any hesitation don't have them send it. One bad letter hurts much more than any good letters can help. A letter that mentions a poor work ethic, or basically almost any substantive negative, probably spells death at the best programs.
• It's fine to have a letter from someone you worked for even if they didn't teach you in a class.
• If you do not have relationships with economics professors (e.g. you are a math major) or if you attend a college or university without faculty that have connections at the top Ph.D. programs, you still have a good chance of admission if the rest of your application is stellar. Just be aware that objective criteria such as GRE scores, grades in hard math classes, and essays will receive more weight, and make sure that you do everything you can to help the admissions committee evaluate your record.
• Your professors' letters will be most effective if they compare you specifically to other students in top graduate schools. This is especially important if your professors do not have personal relationships with the faculty at the top programs. The admissions committee needs to be able to calibrate the content of the letter. To get into Harvard or MIT, the letter probably needs to be pretty explicit that the student is comparable to other students who have been to those programs and succeeded. For foreign students, where transcripts are particularly hard to evaluate, these comparative statements carry a lot of weight. The comparative statements should be backed up with reasoning--such as comparing analytic abilities, coursework, the quality of the thesis, etc. You can tell your recommender about this site since you don't want to tell them what to do!

Application Essays

• On your graduate school application its very important to write an essay saying what kinds of areas of economics you're interested in, what questions you think are interesting, what papers you've read that you've liked etc. Be as specific as possible. It may be helpful to discuss your thesis or research assistant work. Its not necessary to have a specific thesis proposal, and odds are if you try to pretend you have one when you really don't you'll come off as sounding naive which is a bad thing. Mostly schools just read these to see what field you're interested in and to get a sense whether you have any idea what you're getting yourself into. You should therefore try to talk intelligently about your topic of interest to show that you understand something about what research in that field would be like.
• Get someone to read your essays, preferably an advanced graduate student or a faculty member.

Application timing

• As long as its in by the deadline it doesn't matter. It is an advantage to have your folder be complete very soon after the deadline, which means making sure your recommenders get their letters in.

GRE Scores

• Though the test is not necessarily a good predictor of success, it matters a lot (especially the quantitative portion). Studying for the GRE dramatically increases your scores so you should definitely practice.
• The economics GRE doesn't usually count for much, but it does give a chance for people who haven't taken much economics to make a positive impression.

Financial statements

• Its hard to generalize on what you should do on these. At Harvard, for example, its always best to make it seem like you have money because their administration has a rule that they can't accept people without offering them enough money to come. As a result they often reject people who at the end of the process they would have preferred to people they give money to. At other schools, if you seem to have a lot of money it may reduce the size of the fellowship offer you get. It may also, however, increase the probability of getting accepted because a school with a few partial fellowships to offer will give them only to people who seem to have the resources to accept them.

Where to Apply

• If you are well-qualified, you should apply to all of the top-ranked economics departments (e.g. MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Chicago, Yale, Berkeley), and several backup schools, depending on the strength of your record. You should definitely seek advice from faculty members on this.
• If you have a somewhat weaker record, there are lots of good graduate programs out there, but you need to shop more carefully for schools that have well-known advisors or have recently been investing a lot in graduate students. Some middle-ranked schools (like recently Pennsylvania State) aggressively recruit prospective students and have placed graduating PhD students in top 5 schools by investing heavily in the students. You need to do a lot of homework, and talk to lots of faculty about good places to apply. Information about good places to go is likely to be dispersed.
• Don't overlook the small but prestigious PhD programs at business schools: Stanford GSB has a placement record that rivals the top economics departments, and Harvard and Northwestern also have programs worth looking into. These programs typically offer more individual attention and have more generous funding.
• The applicant pool seems to be getting more sophisticated and well prepared all the time, so if you have something like a more "typical" undergraduate background (undergraduate major, a couple of math classes, a thesis, mostly As), you need to cast a fairly wide net. If you have more than a couple of B's you need to cast wider still.

Visits and Contacts at Graduate Schools

• With rare exceptions, you SHOULD NOT initiate contact with faculty members at schools you are applying to before the admissions decisions. You will seem like a pest and like someone who doesn't understand the system. After you are admitted there will be plenty of opportunities to meet faculty. If you feel like you have an exceptional case for contacting a faculty member at another school, seek the advice of your advisor first.
• After admission you should visit your top choices if at all possible. You will learn an enormous amount then, swamping what you have managed to figure out before then.
• Talk to the students to learn how often they meet with their advisors, who is really accessible, and how the morale is among students. Some faculty do a lot of aggressive recruiting but don't spend a lot of time with their students later. The current students can tell you how advising really works.
• Anyone who tells you that one department is best for every student is not being very thoughtful. You need to determine whether a department feels right to you, and whether you feel like there are a set of potential advisors for you. Your advisor will have enormous power over your life. You need to be comfortable. Different departments have different strengths, cultures, and styles. Some fields within departments have very strong subcultures and impressive placement records. Learn about those.
• Find out about the placement records of the programs. Don't just find out about the top 5 students--find out about how number 10 or 15 in a class did, and whether they were happy. Even if you are quite certain you will be a star, it's possible you won't be the very best, and even if you are, it will be a lot more fun if your classmates aren't unemployed, despondent and neglected.
• Don't get too caught up in overall stereotypes. Faculty and students all get very enthusiastic about grad student recruiting and tend to over-emphasize differences among programs. There are many more similarities than differences across top programs, and every department has fields with very different advising styles. In the end you need to find two or three advisors and a couple of good student buddies. A department with more outstanding faculty and students makes it more likely you will find your matches, but the subculture of your friends and advisors is far more salient to your life than the overall department.

http://kuznets.fas.harvard.edu/~athey/gradadv.html

CV

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