SusanAthey 谈申请经济学博士项目

Professor of Economics

Departmentof Economics, Harvard University

Otheraffiliations:

ChiefEconomist, Microsoft Corporation

ConsultingResearcher, Microsoft Research New England (2008-)

ResearchAssociate, NBER

Disclaimer:Material on this website represents my own views and research and not those ofany Corporation or institution, including Harvard University, MicrosoftCorporation, NBER, or the National Science Foundation.

Advicefor Applying to Grad School in Economics

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

Choosingclasses

Graduateschools care much more about what hard classes you've taken and how you've donein them than about overall GPA.

Ifyou have taken difficult classes its probably a good idea to point this out inyour application essay because schools might not know what the math classesare, which economics classes are the advanced ones, etc.

Realanalysis is an especially important class because it tends to be

demandingeverywhere, and forces you to do logical and formal proofs. Get a good grade inthis class.

Takingsome graduate classes can be a good thing, but be prepared. You will be at adisadvantage since the grad students will all have study groups. Try to join astudy group and devote serious time to any graduate classes you take. More andmore applicants are taking graduate classes.

Studentsfrom top universities who have the bare minimum coursework (an undergraduatemajor, no graduate economics or math classes, and only basic

undergraduate mathclasses) will need something really outstanding -- like a thesis that ispublishable in a top economics field journal--to get fellowships at the top

twoor three graduate programs. Typically the strongest applicants have

somedistinguishing feature, like scoring near the top of a graduate class at a topPhD program, very strong math (e.g. graduate level real analysis and topology),or an outstanding thesis or coauthored research.

Undergraduateclasses at most U.S. universities are much easier than graduate classes. To bea strong applicant you should be getting mostly or all As in

undergraduateeconomics 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 reallywell in very advanced classes will more than compensate.

Recommendationletters

Recommendationswhich are not from economists have very little value.

Recommendations fromeconomists who have contacts at the schools you are applying to are mostuseful. However, one letter from someone you have worked for after undergradmay be useful to document your work ethic, maturity, etc.

Getrecommendations from people who know you well.

Corollary:Get to know some professors well. Professors will be very excited that you wantto get a Ph.D. in economics. Don't be afraid to approach them. Listen to theiradvice.

Giveprofessors every possible opportunity to say they don't feel

comfortablerecommending you to the school you're applying to. If they express anyhesitation don't have them send it. One bad letter hurts much more than anygood letters can help. A letter that mentions a poor work ethic, or basicallyalmost any substantive negative, probably spells death at the best programs.

It'sfine to have a letter from someone you worked for even if they didn't teach youin a class.

Ifyou do not have relationships with economics professors (e.g. you are a mathmajor) or if you attend a college or university without faculty that

haveconnections at the top Ph.D. programs, you still have a good chance ofadmission if the rest of your application is stellar. Just be aware thatobjective criteria such as GRE scores, grades in hard math classes, and essayswill receive more weight, and make sure that you do everything you can to helpthe admissions committee evaluate your record.

Yourprofessors' letters will be most effective if they compare you specifically toother students in top graduate schools. This is especially important if yourprofessors do not have personal relationships with the faculty at the

topprograms. The admissions committee needs to be able to calibrate the content ofthe letter. To get into Harvard or MIT, the letter probably needs to be prettyexplicit that the student is comparable to other students who have been tothose programs and succeeded. For foreign students, where transcripts areparticularly hard to evaluate, these comparative statements carry a lot ofweight. The comparative statements should be backed up with reasoning--such ascomparing analytic abilities, coursework, the quality of the thesis, etc. Youcan tell your recommender about this site since you don't want to tell themwhat to do!

ApplicationEssays

Onyour graduate school application its very important to write an essay

sayingwhat kinds of areas of economics you're interested in, what questions you thinkare interesting, what papers you've read that you've liked etc. Be as specificas possible. It may be helpful to discuss your thesis or research assistantwork. Its not necessary to have a specific thesis proposal, and odds are if youtry to pretend you have one when you really don't you'll come off as soundingnaive which is a bad thing. Mostly schools just read these to see what fieldyou're interested in and to get a sense whether you have any idea what you'regetting yourself into. You should therefore try to talk intelligently aboutyour topic of interest to show that you understand something about whatresearch in that field would be like.

Getsomeone to read your essays, preferably an advanced graduate student or a facultymember.

Applicationessays for NSF fellowships have typically been judged differently. They seem towant a specific thesis proposal and value clear brief surveys of the existingliterature, a clear statement of what you'd like to add to this, a

discussionof datasets you might want to use etc. They don't like vague statements aboutliking economics, and don't seem to mind that people aren't really going to dowhat they say.

NSF Fellowships

Everystudent applying to graduate school should apply for an NSF fellowship. Winningone gives you a much better financial deal than any school will offer. Even ifyou don't win just the fact that you applied will increase the probability ofyour being accepted by graduate schools.

Don'tbe surprised to find that the fellowships are only weakly influenced by gradesand GRE scores. The essays matter a lot.

Evenif its questionable whether your eligible go ahead and apply. The rules seem tochange a lot.

Applyfrom your home address if you attend college in states like Massachusetts orCalifornia. There is some allocation by home state, since this is a federalprogram.

Applicationtiming

Aslong as its in by the deadline it doesn't matter. It is an advantage to haveyour folder be complete very soon after the deadline, which means making sureyour recommenders get their letters in.

GREScores

Thoughthe test is not necessarily a good predictor of success, it matters a lot(especially the quantitative portion). Studying for the GRE dramaticallyincreases your scores so you should definitely practice.

Theeconomics GRE doesn't usually count for much, but it does give a chance forpeople who haven't taken much economics to make a positive impression.

Financialstatements

Itshard to generalize on what you should do on these. At Harvard, for example, itsalways best to make it seem like you have money because their administrationhas a rule that they can't accept people without offering them enough money tocome. As a result they often reject people who at the end of the process theywould have preferred to people they give money to. At other schools, if youseem to have a lot of money it may reduce the size of the fellowship offer youget. It may also, however, increase the probability of getting accepted becausea school with a few partial fellowships to offer will give them only to peoplewho seem to have the resources to accept them.

Whereto Apply

Ifyou are well-qualified, you should apply to all of the top-ranked economicsdepartments (e.g. MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Chicago, Yale, Berkeley),and several backup schools, depending on the strength of your record. Youshould definitely seek advice from faculty members on this.

Ifyou have a somewhat weaker record, there are lots of good graduate programs outthere, but you need to shop more carefully for schools that have well-knownadvisors or have recently been investing a lot in graduate students. Somemiddle-ranked schools (like recently Pennsylvania State) aggressively recruitprospective students and have placed graduating PhD students in top 5 schoolsby investing heavily in the students. You need to do a lot of homework, andtalk

to lots of faculty about good places to apply. Information about goodplaces to go is likely to be dispersed.

Don'toverlook the small but prestigious PhD programs at business schools: StanfordGSB has a placement record that rivals the top economics departments, andHarvard and Northwestern also have programs worth looking into. These programstypically offer more individual attention and have more generous funding.

Theapplicant pool seems to be getting more sophisticated and well prepared all thetime, so if you have something like a more "typical" undergraduatebackground (undergraduate major, a couple of math classes, a thesis, mostlyAs), you need to cast a fairly wide net. If you have more than a couple of B'syou need to cast wider still.

Visitsand Contacts at Graduate Schools

Withrare exceptions, you SHOULD NOT initiate contact with faculty members atschools you are applying to before the admissions decisions. You will seem likea pest and like someone who doesn't understand the system. After you areadmitted there will be plenty of opportunities to meet faculty. If you feellike you have an exceptional case for contacting a faculty member at anotherschool, seek the advice of your advisor first.

Afteradmission you should visit your top choices if at all possible. You will learnan enormous amount then, swamping what you have managed to figure out beforethen.

Talkto the students to learn how often they meet with their advisors, who is reallyaccessible, and how the morale is among students. Some faculty do a lot ofaggressive recruiting but don't spend a lot of time with their students later.The current students can tell you how advising really works.

Anyonewho tells you that one department is best for every student is not being verythoughtful. You need to determine whether a department feels right to you, andwhether you feel like there are a set of potential advisors for you. Youradvisor will have enormous power over your life. You need to be comfortable.Different departments have different strengths, cultures, and styles. Somefields within departments have very strong subcultures and impressive placementrecords. Learn about those.

Findout about the placement records of the programs. Don't just find out about thetop 5 students--find out about how number 10 or 15 in a class did, and whetherthey were happy. Even if you are quite certain you will be a star, it'spossible you won't be the very best, and even if you are, it will be a lot morefun if your classmates aren't unemployed, despondent and neglected.