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Currency [0]/Explanatory TextG5Explanatory Text % 0Good;Good  a%1 Heading 1G Heading 1 %B2 Heading 2G Heading 2 %?3 Heading 3G Heading 3 %234 Heading 49 Heading 4 % 5InputuInput ̙ ??v% 6 Linked CellK Linked Cell }% 7NeutralANeutral  W%3Normal % 8Noteb Note   9OutputwOutput  ???%????????? ???:$Percent ;Title1Title % <TotalMTotal %BB= Warning Text? Warning Text %XTableStyleMedium2PivotStyleLight16`Form Responses 15 KK InstitutioncHave you noticed any trends in the qualifications or characteristics of applicants in recent years?Has your department changed what they are looking for in a graduate application over time? Is any qualification or skill becoming more (or less) important?One recent development is the emergence of pre-doctoral programs and positions. What are your institution's expectations regarding pre-docs, or other evidence of research experience?dHow heavily does your department weight standard factors like GRE scores, GPA, and math preparation?KCan you describe what makes an application stand out, beyond these factors?Many of our readers will be letter-writers for applicants. What are the characteristics of letters that are most helpful to admissions committees?dDo you have any advice for students who find themselves on the waitlist for their preferred program?Can you give me 3-5 tips for people applying for a Ph.D. program in economics? (I may look for themes among the responses and create a  top 10 tips list or similar.)/Is there anything else you would like to share?{We view predocs positively, but we also make efforts to find and admit candidates who have less elite research experiences.As mentioned above, we won't allow applicants to submit GRE scores starting this coming fall 2022. We weight GPA and math preparation very highly.Top applicants have substantial research experience. This can take the form or independent research projects (e.g., honors undergrad or master's thesis) as well as research assistant work. The best candidates have both types of research experience.The letters of top applicants focus on research potential, with substantial detail on both independent research projects (e.g., honors undergrad or master's thesis) as well as research assistant work.Keep in touch with the director of admissions of your preferred program(s) via email expressing your continued interest. Attend the in-person or virtual visit day, if they will allow waitlisted students (and ask in advance if it's not clear). 1) Cultivate relationships with professors who can be potential letter writers as early in your undergraduate career as possible. Go to office hours. Take small classes, ideally in which you can write an independent research paper, so that the professor gets to know you and can describe the research you did. 2) Do the honors track, and write an honors undergraduate thesis. Double major in economics as well as another quantitative major such as math, applied math, or statistics. 3) Seek out opportunities to do research assistant work. 1. Biggest change: recently more and more candidates from foreign countries, especially from China, applying during or after a master's program in the US to our program. 2. Some pre-doc candidates especially American (but sometimes foreign, and after a Master's degree they became pre-docs) in applied micro areas especially started to apply, too. 3. We always had a healthy does of macro candidates from the US who did some junior assistantship after the undergrad degree at some FED. Our best American macro candidates came like that.OSome research experience is valued more now for domestic, US-educated students.As I mentioned above, foreign candidates usually have some master's thesis already written, but we used to not care as much before, now this and pre-doc experience seems to be somewhat valued. I am not fully sold to this premise though as sometimes the pre-doc assistantship the student did is on pure programming and very little to do with economics, etc. Nevertheless, we sometimes still admit straght-out-of-undergraduate students from the US. But the numbers went down.We do quite a bit especially quantitative part, and consider them as initial screeners. However, occasionally we get very good candidates who either did not do well in GRE or their initial undergraduate GPA was lower than expected, however the letter writer is someone we know and trust and ranks the student highly and explains the reason for low scores in a logical non-hyped manner.I mentioned one thing above. Other than that and maybe more importantly, we have region specialist faculty members in the committee, either they are from that region or have known and interacted with people from that region quite a bit. They screen many regional applicants really well. For every region there could be different criterion: for example students where I am from originally, almost have to earn a master's degree and bachelor's degree from one of the top schools that I know (as there is a persistent low-variance education and talent difference between students educated at that schools versus other schools. For example another country consistently generates excellent Field-X students regardless of their GREs and we have a faculty member who knows almost all advisors in that area -- we know this and tested it over the years. Factors of this sort play one of the biggest roles in our admissions.Especially if a letter writer wrote letters for multiple candidates, and compared candidates among themselves or a letter writer compared past cohorts with the current students and a non-hyped logical manner, which is consistent with the surrounding evidence, that is a big factor. Name recognition of the letter writer is very important for us (not as a famous economist, but over the years built a reputation in our regional specialists). Dynamic game theorists were right! Reputation matters.Yes many: 1. Especially for the schools maybe not in top 10 but between 10 and 30, waitlist inclusions are never very low probability. If you are on a waitlist there is a reason, you may get an offer with a high enough probability. Just learn when a waitlist offer could possibly come and wait until then. Ask the program to let you know as soon as possible if you will not be considered for an offer anymore (human delays and errors always occur, and common knowledge of what is going on with your status is important for everybody, so you are not forgotten, do not be shy but do not be aggressive either in your correspondence). 2. Moreover, never get offended if you are put on a waitlist. There can be multiple reasons including too many admissions from the same field, straight-out noise and variance, regardless of the quality of the applicant. One simply does not know. Do your serious work as if you were accepted to that program, learn everything and show genuine interest. 3. Almost-full information revelation almost always worked for a weakly better outcome for the candidate at least in our program during my time there. If you are sure about your preference show genuine interest. Fake interest is somewhat easy to detect.1. Give information as streamlined as possible in your application dossier, including the courses you took related to the field of study. 2. Field interest is kind of quite important. Even if you do not work in that field later, your statement of purpose shows your seriousness about getting important information and coming up with solid, interesting, and doable research in one area. So it is almost a preliminary thesis abstract with no bearing of commitment. Do not fill it with superficial things to do. Write it if you have really something to say. That is to say, it needs to be credible to some degree with the rest of your dossier. 3. Identify possible red flags in your own application and be frank to yourself about them such as low grades in some important courses or GRE scores, low research experience, longer-than-4 years undergraduate study, etc.. In the end an application with too many of them will fail even the initial screening. If there are explanations for such red flags and there are valid reasons why that aspect of your application is not perfect, and if you are close to one or more of your letter writers , ask them to explain those red flags on your behalf in their own words. 4. Just do your homework: if you are suggesting to work with a pr< ofessor in your application, I often see some students writing names together that do not make sense: for example an an econometric theorist and a micro theorist for a labor thesis; or list teaching faculty members as their target advisor, who cannot advise graduate students by by-laws. Such faculty have different names and titles such as Clinical Professor, Professor of Practice, Instructor depending of the university. Do your homework and learn them. 5. Unusual life stories and backgrounds sometimes really attract attention if they show how you overcame some very unusual challenges. For example, if you are a chess master do not forget to include that in a suitable manner in your application.NoNo !They are valued in our departmentYThey are heavily weighted, but we look at them "adjusting" for possible biases in scores Mletters of recommendation are important, and evidence of research or teachingeMost helpful: (i) honest letters in general, and specifically from (ii) people we know professionallyDgoing to the highest ranked school is not always a dominant strategy(i) take courses in math and stats to prepare well before you start grad school; (ii) look for good fits (e.g., going to the highest ranked school is not always a dominant strategy); (iii) stipends are important but they should not be the deal breaker; (iv) if you are not admitted to top schools, consider schools with strong faculty and reputation in some fields. You can get the best education in some fields even if you are not at the top 0an increasing % of applicants have done pre-docsEnothing specific; we have been requesting the same kinds of materialswe look for evidence of research experience, and especially independent research potential. this can come in various forms; not just from pre-doc or RA experiences.wdifferent evaluators have different (implicit) weights. grades and math preparation are more important than GRE scores.a strong writing sample. Jspecific comparisons to prior applicants in terms of research potential. Xbe patient. and don't take WL status as a lack of interest; precise rankings are noisy.pletters of recommendation from people who know the candidate well (in particular, can evaluate the candidate's research potential). if the existing background is not entirely strong, a pre-doc or masters program can be useful. writing samples that shows evidence of independent research ability (e.g., ideally one not co-authored with a pre-doc PI or other faculty).The successful candidates, overall, appear to have more research exposure either through pre-docs, undergraduate research programs or research assistantships.^GRE scores were optional during the 2 pandemic years. Accordingly, overall, we pay less attention to this. It seems the assessment of the quantitative background and Math courses taken, in fact, fill in the gap. However, moving forward, we are still requiring GRE scores, but I imagine, they will not be as important as they were before the pandemic.zAs mentioned before, we now have less emphasis on GRE scores. I have observed my colleagues review applications and overall, I would say, they still put a lot of weight on math preparation and grades in math and econ courses. If I had to rank all the factors affecting admission, math preparation, grades in math courses, and basic econ courses would be the most important ones.Maturity of the personal statement and the application in general. Some applications are extremely comprehensive --- they have the personal statements telling a story addressing why the applicant is interested in Economics, and what the applicant has done to get ready for a Ph.D. program. In addition, some applications have complementary letters in that the letter writers capture various characteristics of the applicants, thus painting a more holistic picture.Assuming that the letter writers have been through Ph.D. programs, it is useful to learn how they view the strengths and weaknesses of the applicants for the Ph.D. programs. Which part of the program will be easy for applicants, and where do they think the applicants would need more help? Also, some notion of how the applicant might be able to contribute to the diversity in the Economics profession would also be helpful (if this applies). In addition, in the case of the international applications particularly, if the letter writers can shed some light on the education system, overall performance of the students, and the general curriculum for a particular major in that particular country (or whatever the reference group might be), it would be very useful.Do not be discouraged and stay in touch with the admissions officers. I would also suggest they reach out to faculty members in the fields they are interested in. At the end of the day, all else equal, the more interested and the more engaged candidates will have a marginal advantage.(1. Make the application as air-tight as possible, by incorporating all the ingredients, math preparation, research exposure, strong letters, and a well-defined personal statement. 2. When selecting the programs, rankings should be one criterion, but students should also pay attention to placements, to the ability of the current students to work with faculty and other students. 3. Be on time with the application and with the communication with the schools. Any message you get from the schools should be answered, even if the answer is "I do not know" or "I am working on it" or "I am still thinking about it. 4. It is the applicant's job to represent themselves fully. If the applicant thinks their application is deficient in a particular way, they should explain how they made up for it. For instance, if earlier in the undergraduate program the applicant had poor grades, they should explain the reason and then describe how they moved on and addressed the relevant issue. If possible, things should not be left to the admissions committee's interpretation.Admissions offers can be negotiated, at least on the margin. When faced with broadly similar choices, it would be useful to get in touch with the admissions officers and bring to the table some aspects of the offer the applicant is concerned about and would like to see some improvements. The goal is to generate a good match, so anything that can help achieve that would hopefully make the applicant successful in the graduate program and the profession, thus making the graduate program successful.6It would be difficult to identify trends over the relatively recent years during which I've been involved with admissions, but in comparison with my own time in graduate school there is a clear increase in the amount of research-oriented experience applicants are obtaining between college and graduate school.7We see no shortage of applicants who have high levels of training in some combination of mathematics and data science. This leads me to spend more time looking for evidence of research potential. A surprisingly small fraction of applicants submit papers (e.g., an undergraduate thesis, a term paper for a demanding upper level course, or a paper written while in a masters program or working as an RA) as writing samples. When a writing sample of this sort is of reasonably high quality, I view it as being among the strongest possible signals of research potential. I view time in a competitive pre-doctoral program as a strong signal of data science skills. By itself, however, I do not view these experiences as a signal of research potential. GRE scores and overall GPA play a relatively small role in the process. They help to identify the weakest applications (e.g., the weakest 10-25%), but do not play a major role in differentiating between the more competitive applications. Evidence that an applicant has taken and excelled with a challenging course load plays a strong role in the process. Identifying applications that fit this criterion often requires blending information from transcripts with information in recommendation letters. ,A strong writing sample coupled with a mature, well-crafted research statement can provide what I view as one of the strongest signals of <<research potential, in particular if an application's recommendation letters provide additional commentary on the quality of the applicant's independent research.Credible evidence of research potential is highly valuable. Letters can also play an important role in explaining any potential puzzles in an application or provide information about an applicant's upward trajectory.Waitlists have played an important role in the process in recent years. Many applicants wait until the 48 hours before the decision deadline to make their decisions, which means a substantial amount of movement off of waiting lists takes place during that short period of time. If an applicant is waitlisted by a school that is genuinely their top choice among the remaining possibilities, it can be very useful to reach out to the admissions director with this information. It is even more useful if an applicant can ask one of their letter writers to convey this information, since the combination of outreach from the applicant and letter writer strengthens the signal of the applicant's intent. That's all!8Yes, increase in qualifications and more pre-doc RA prep*some research experience is more important3most people we accept have some research experience;All these factors are considered and they are all important!Very good recommendation letters lLetters that provide insight into the applicant's abilities as well as character/motivation and creativity. vWait until the last day, because many people do not find that they are selected off the waitlist until the last day. (1) Take math along with economics class to be prepared for graduate studies, (2) get to know some professors and try to be engaged in some research so that they can write a personal recommendation letter, (3) apply to a lot of programs because their is some randomness in the admissions process. Apply to programs at different levels (top 10, 11-20 etc). It is a highly competitive process, especially to get fellowships.Doing research in economics and being an academic is a rewarding and enjoyable occupation. I wish that more women would apply to economics PhD programs. Top 30Outside the Top 50Top 10ATop 40Top 20BTop 20ATop 10B2Applicants will no longer be able to submit GRE scores, as of the coming 2022-23 admissions season. In the prior two seasons, GREs were optional due to COVID-19. The decision to discontinue GRE scores was made by our graduate school [redacted], within which the Economics Department Ph.D. program resides. 1) Before applying, have honest conversations with your potential letter writers to determine whether your preparation is appropriate and at what tier of school you are likely to be competitive. Because the process is costly and time consuming, it's important to know in advance that you are ready.2) Include a writing sample if you have an original piece of research. This is particularly valuable if one of your letter writers graded the piece of research for a course or advised it as an undergraduate or masters thesis. 3) Communicate with the admissions directors of programs that put you on their waiting lists so that they have information about your ongoing interest. In my experience, an institution of the rank of [redacted] has no shot of getting prospective students that have a pre-doc experience from a top school (and these are the schools typically offering pre-docs). We did and do pay attention to other research experiences. These are typically participation in undergraduate research programs, working and assisting faculty members with research, etc. I would say this is not a requirement and is a desirable experience. 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