Applying to Economics Programs

If you can, start early enough that you don’t have to take more than two math courses at a time. They require time and thought. Taking field courses (IO, Labor, etc.) will be a great help to you in thinking of questions early and often and reducing uncertainty when it comes time to choose in grad school.

Grades are important—you need to have five A’s for every A- coming from BYU for a clear shot at a top-five school. However, mastery is more important. Especially in real analysis, master the material in its entirety. Understanding the framework will open economics to you. Avoid math classes like Abstract Algebra and Complex Analysis which are interesting but have little economic application. The opportunity cost is that you could be taking higher-level real analysis, programming, or theory. The Math Department is working to remove those requirements for economics double majors. If this is not the case at the time of your reading this, please email me (acjohnston3@gmail.com) and Dr. Grant (grant@math.byu.edu). He’s been working on this in our behalf.

2. Letters of recommendation

Letters are the quiet cues professors use to select the promising among students who all appear identical or to sink the grade grubber who doesn’t show any signs of economic genesis. The fact is that 500 of the thousand students applying to Princeton each year look statistically identical: They all have a perfect GRE quant score, a 3.80-4.00 GPA, math and economics double majors, undergraduate research experience, letter-writers selected based on personal favorability, and a boring personal statement. Admissions committees look to the letters of people they know or whose work they respect. That’s the only way to separate a bunch of people who all look identical. Compiling early who has friendships where is helpful if you have strong preferences for certain schools. The most observable connection to young students is the school each professor graduated from.

Doing research well requires time. You will many times do hours of concentrated work to answer a short, perhaps peripheral, question. Be available, responsive, and make turn-around time as quick as possible. Come up with your own research ideas and talk to your professors about how to pursue them after you’ve developed the idea. It is better to concentrate your interactions with professors who will write your letters so their

letters can be more descriptive.

Letters from non-economists are generally not helpful to admissions committees.

3. Personal Statement

In the summer of 2011 Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that he was on the Admissions Committee at Princeton the year previous and wanted to make a rule that every student who said he or she was “passionate about economics” was automatically rejected. Instead of stating in several ways that you are converted to economics, look for unique statements that demonstrate your interest and capacity. They want to know

• You're a capable researcher with interesting research ideas,

• That your interests are a good fit for their program.

• You can communicate well

Susan Athey (Harvard) wrote:

“It’s 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…Be as specific as possible. It may be helpful to discuss your thesis or research assistant work…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.”

If you are aware of a school that you think would be an especially good fit for your interests, read the papers from the professors at that school you’re interested in working with (it would be best if they were senior faculty (tenured) who are not the department hot shot—knowing the not-hot-shot is a better for the school since everyone already wants to work with the hot shot). Say something early in the personal statement regarding how you believe that particular school is the best fit to your interests. For instance:

“I'm interested in how electronic education might improve equity in rural and inner-city regions th

at have trouble attracting quality teachers. Claudia Goldin and Larry Katz' preliminary work in this area is the first of its kind. I have devised of the following identification strategy…We can apply the methodology to…using [such and such] data…to answer the question…”

In order for a signal to work it has to be costly to fake. Digging deep with a couple schools is a great signal for this reason. This communicates that you prefer their school, have interest complementarities, and can think well about research. Be friendly, to-the-point, and omit all unnecessary words. It’s best if it reads like a research proposal without being one.

Also talk about your preparation in research and coursework. Explain that BYU is vigilant on grade inflation and thus the average economics GPA is a 3.01. William Nordhaus (Yale) was surprised when he found out and suggested we do a better job making this known. Talk about your role in the research projects you’ve participated in.

Berkeley's admission director, David Card, said:

"Regarding personal statements, remain focused on your interests and your research experience. And to be honest, there is a lot of variation in how we read applicant files."

I take that to mean that th