Thread by @ProfPieters

1/Many/ This is a thread for those of you who to applying to Economics graduate degrees, MA or PhD. I just finished my first year on an MA applications committee and it’s clear there is a *lot* of hidden information harming people’s applications.

2// I want to make clear that this thread is my perspective. Different committee members, schools, and programs may give different advice. My intent is to give those of you who do not have a mentor at an USA-based R1 institution some insight into the other side of the process.

3// Some ways my perspectives are different: I am not a private hs/liberal art/Ivy-degree, & mentorship was not something I really received. My undergrad & grad programs are excellent in the fields I studied, but they don’t have the instant brand recognition of, say, a Harvard.

4// I have also taught at 3 universities (public, private R1, & small liberal arts) so I can vouch with 100% certainty top students in each were all equally good.
They only differed in how much material they were exposed to, the skills they have had the opportunity to learn.

5// The impact that this has: A brand-degree w/pedigreed-references doesn’t mean an auto-accept from me. Your no-name degree w/unknown references doesn’t mean an auto-reject from me. I understand that rough parts in your application may exist because you weren’t coached.

6// This thread is trying to help people avoid obvious pitfalls that prevent you from showing me that you can succeed in the program.

For those of you who read that & think I represent the soft-hearted, easily influenced committee member w/fuzzy standards: Out of the 40-ish applications I reviewed, I voted to admit 5: the standard rate of the committee. At 30 minutes per application, it is a lot of wasted time.

8// Step Zero: Know the goal of the program you are applying to.

LOL you say. DUH.

Nope, let me show you what I mean. Compare the websites for these three different masters degrees:
mapss.uchicago.edu/areas-study/ec…
mapss.uchicago.edu/quantitative-m…
chicagobooth.edu/programs/full-…

9// The goal of Econ MAPSS student is a PhD. The goal of the QMSA student is a PhD/research institution/ government agency. The goal of the MBA is to get a job.

10// If you apply to Econ MAPSS and you say that your goal is to return to your company with improved analytical skills you are getting an instant-reject no matter how brilliant you are. Our program is not a match for you.

11// Ah! So all you need to do is say you want a PhD and you’re in? Nope. That's the cheap talk problem. Your application needs to *show* it and prove that you will succeed in this program.

12// So how do you show/prove?

*That* is what this thread is about, why I have all those earlier disclaimers about how it can/not be generalized from my perspective. This is for a PhD-prep, Economics MA degree. (Though parts may be applicable to Econ PhD program applications.)

13// Background: This MA degree is a 9 month program. The 1st q you take 2+ of the 1st yr Econ PhD courses. The next 2 quarters you take 5-6 add'l classes of your choice. While writing a thesis paper. And applying for a PhD/RA positions for the following year.

It is Intense.

14// The application has multiple parts I will discuss: GRE/TOEFL scores, classes and grades, a writing sample (research paper), a Statement of Purpose (SoP), and letters of recommendation.
Other things I don’t see or consider: financial need, disabilities, gender, etc.

15// Existence of Writing
The 1st thing I check is whether you’ve submitted the requested writing sample and a SoP. No paper or SoP?

Reject.

I need to know that you can write. If you’ve just been taking math classes you may not know how to write (even as a native speaker).

16// GRE/TOEFL scores.
I check these because we get app's from around the world. I need to have some “minimum” cutoff. If any of your GRE scores are below 65%, or your TOEFL scores are below 23 that’s a rejection as well.

I never look at or consider these scores again.

17// Classes.
The program begins with the first year PhD sequence coursework. Multivariable calculus is mandatory. You must have at least one of Linear Algebra or Real Analysis (I’m willing to count a “writing-proofs” math course).

18//You should also have at least one Economics course above principles/intermediate. However: Maybe you got to the major late, maybe the schedule didn't work. If you don’t, your SoP will have to do an excellent job convincing me you understand and are interested in Ph.D. Econ.

19// Grades?
Fun fact not enough undegraduates appreciate: Not all schools use a 4.0 scale. Some use a 5.0. Some a 10.0. Or just report the percentage of the total course score. Or the rank in the course. Trying to use GPA to figure out quality suuuuuuuuucks.

20// Just…don’t get mostly C’s. That’s an instant reject.
A combination of A-/A is fine. Even a combo of A’s and B’s *can* be good enough: courses are difficult to compare across institutions/faculty.
I do reject straight-A applications with bad writing samples and statements.

21// Side-note: Research Experience

Having it is helpful, and may tip the scale if I’m undecided. It is not enough to cause me to accept/reject your application. It will/should help with letters of recommendation.

22// OK: Those are the things that everyone talks about. Let me hone in on the two parts where applications really begin to differentiate themselves: the personal statement (variations are the research statement, statement of purpose, and the narrative), and the writing sample.

23// Writing sample.
You are applying for an MA program that demands a thesis paper in 1 year. The writing sample is also the only part of your application where *we* get to directly evaluate your training.

You need to provide an economics research paper.

24// Your heart may sink when you read that because you are thinking about the research papers you’ve read (if you’ve read any!!) written by Ph.D. economists.

You are not at the level. Those are not the papers we expect from you.

25// Here’s an undergraduate economics research journal: econreview.berkeley.edu/editions/. Here’s another: digitalcommons.iwu.edu/uer/.
If you can write at this level, your paper is good enough.

26// You may be tempted to throw a kitchen sink of methods into your paper because you think an OLS with a FE isn’t “serious” or difficult enough. A paper that has OLS with a FE is more acceptable than one that uses a Diff-in-Diff but doesn’t check for parallel pre-trends.

27// What I’m looking for in the paper is a coherent question, with a relevant methodology that is correctly executed, with results that are correctly interpreted.

*Note: I don't evaluate pure theory papers, so I can't speak to that.

28// A literature review, or a purely descriptive paper (one where the tables have only averages/standard deviations) is not good enough.

Why? We need to see that you can apply your economics training in a non-textbook setting to succeed in this program.

29// This is also where the highly trained math students/straight-A students can sink their applications.

In some schools, getting an A requires good test-taking. Being good at test-taking, and being able to do an economics PhD is not the same thing.

30// Side-note.

*Gets microphone* *taptaptap*

Faculty.

If you have a student that tells you they want to do a PhD, make sure they understand that this involves 5-7 years writing three 30-50 page papers of original work. And that's just for the PhD.

Thank You.

31// A word on papers with null results.

A null result paper is one in which you have a clear question, you run the regressions and you get…nothing. No statistically significant outcome. But…you need a paper!!

Is this a null a “good enough” result? YES. YOU HAVE A RESULT.

32// Null result papers are usually not publishable, but you learn a lot from them. Is the null result robust? Why does it exist? Why does it contradict what we expect? Maybe it doesn’t? Writing a null result paper can show just as much skill as a paper with results.

33// Whatever you do, don’t try to p-hack/fake your results.

I have better econometric skills & data set knowledge than you. Chances are good that I will see it. And then I will reject your application b/c falsifying results is a dangerous impulse and an unacceptable practice.

34// A well-written paper will elevate an application with mediocre grades to an accept. A poorly written paper will sink an application with otherwise excellent grades.

35// The statement of purpose (SoP).

Does the SoP state that your goal something different from a PhD? You’re out, this is not the program for you. Does it have to be a PhD in economics? Personally: I’m flexible on that given how many other fields economists dabble in.

36//
Note to applicants: There are slight differences between a narrative, statement of purpose, research statement, etc. For this thread, I'm using SoP because it has a short, easy abbreviation and Twitter.

37// Does your SoP “make me believe” you want to do a PhD in Economics?

I always hated when people would say fuzzy sentences like that. What am I looking for?

38// First of all, this is not the document where you talk about your hopes, and dreams, and life story. A SoP can be just a page long and have everything you need to convey.

39// It’s not about whether you read Karl Marx at age 7 and then Adam Smith at age 10 and knew forever more that you were going to go into economics because hearts and stars and amazingness. (These get boring by the third or fourth time, please do not do).

40// It’s not about how you went to <place>, engaged in <project>, realized that the economy matters, & now you will learn, & then YOU WILL CHANGE THE WORLD, you world savior you. (If it were easy, it would already be done.*)

*Not always true, but always true for SoP stories.

41// The perfect SoP contains a research question, & identifies people on campus who can mentor you in answering it in the year you are here.

It then links that question to the PhD program(s) you are interested in applying to (maybe after being an RA for a year or two).

42// You will not be able to write the perfect SoP.

Seriously, if you have a perfectly formulated research question AND know which data set/model you are going to use to answer it AND have an idea of which faculty member you want to work with I will be *so very impressed*.

43// How can you decrease the distance to the perfect SoP? It depends very much on the SoP. I'm going to use a specific example to help illustrate.

As with everything else in this thread: the caveat is that this works for me, in this program.

44// Assume you have a 1 page SoP: first paragraph tells me your first three words were "separating hyperplane theorem", the next two paragraphs tell me about China’s Belt & Road Initiative, & the last says you want to study BRI.

How can you improve this SoP?

45// First of all: I’m eye-rolling my way through that first paragraph but I understand that you feel you need to write it. As much as I dislike those paragraphs, I'm not going to hold it against you, as I realize undergraduate university applications train you to do this.

46// The meat of the improvement is the remaining paras.
What aspects of the Belt Road Initiative are relevant to your interest? What economic part of the Belt-Road Initiative do you want to study? Just dumping the history on me is not a research statement.

47// Do you want to study the impact of the BRI on Kenya? USA? Canada? Mexico? Japan? Exchange Rates? Rail trade? Agriculture product trade? Political Corruption? Impact of Distance? Difference between Local/Foreign firms? Investment and local health?

48// Maybe there are two or three aspects of it you are interested in. That is fine! (Back-up plans!)
What if your research idea changes entirely by the time you arrived? It almost always does. The point is to show me that you have the skill set to develop your own new idea.

49// To rewrite the SoP: instead of 2 general paragraphs, limit your description of the Belt-Road Initiative to one or two sentences of historical context (when was it started and why) and then explain the rest of it only as needed to motivate the part you want to study.

50// Address whether you think your results will generalize to other scenarios, or just the case of BRI. Are there faculty members who have relevant papers (You’ve just mentioned potential faculty member(s) you can work with!).

51// This SoP shows me that you have a research idea for your MAPSS project, will be able to self-select relevant classes, have a sense of which faculty you want to work with, and have a reason to go on to get a PhD if this program works for you.

52// Letters of Recommendation
These are usually outside of your control, except by selection. Most letter writers have only known the person for one or two classes & have only limited informative value.

53// I've reached the point where I think the reason applications ask for three letters is to make sure you've discussed/filtered your decision/ambition with three different people who are vaguely at least relevant to the process.

54// Do use your selection power though.

If your letter says that they told you they could not write a good letter and you asked them to write one anyway…
If a former employer writes a letter that says “we can’t wait until he returns with the degree to be our the new VP!” …

55// If you are submitting a paper co-authored with someone else that person MUST be a letter writer and say what part of the project you were responsible for. There was very clear regional variation in whether people did this (Europe and the USA usually yes, China usually no).

56// They also need to be very clear about what part of the paper you were the principal writer for.

Reading their letter I need to understand: What decisions did you get to make? What insights are you responsible for? What represents your writing skill?

57// For letter writers:
The most helpful letters say what the student has done, and how well they did it. How do they compare to other students? How do you think they’ll do in the MA program? What do you think they'll do?

Applicants: Have these discussions with your writers!

58// FYI: I take note of people who are jerks as letter writers because WTH?
If you do not have the courage to tell a student that you cannot write a good letter, you are not comfortable w/your ability to access people’s skills. So, I’m definitely not trusting your evaluation.

59/END//

OK: That was a long thread, and you survived it. Hopefully it was helpful.

Key things: don't freak out (too much) about grades, write a paper, think about the SoP. Talk to your letter writers. Oh! And this reflected my thoughts, and my opinions only.