This page is meant to provide general guidance to students that might:
Want me to write a letter of reference on their behalf.
Be interested in writing their MA essay or Honours thesis under my supervision.
1. Reference letters
In a typical year, I act as a reference for a number of students that I had an opportunity to get to know well.
Ideally, here is how the whole procedure should unfold. If a student will not follow these indications, I might decline an invitation to be a reference.
Before getting in touch with me, ask yourselves if I am in a position to accurately assess your work, your potential and your qualities (as a prospective colleague or graduate student).
A generic letter, written by someone that knows you superficially, might work against you. As a principle, my letters are very transparent, and reflect accurately every aspect of my interaction with the student.
In light of these considerations, if in ECON 457 you received a grade lower than A, it is unlikely that my letter will be very supportive. Similarly, if you got a good grade, but I didn't have a chance to interact with you, I will have to write so. Since ECON 204 is a second-year course, typically it is not in the best interest of students applying to reputable graduate programs to have a letter based on their performance in that course (unless it was quite exceptional).
If you decide to ask me for a reference letter, please prepare these documents in pdf format and attach them to your email:
An up-to-date copy of your CV.
An up-to-date copy of your transcripts.
A list of the schools/jobs you are applying to (including the related deadlines).
If you are applying for an MA/PhD program, include a copy of the essay/thesis that you might have completed in your studies.
The research statement/study proposal (if applicable).
After you get in touch with me, I will let you know whether I will write the letter. If I were to decline your request, do not take it personally. I take these matters seriously, and I typically suggest some potential alternatives. Do not overlook how long it takes to both write a careful letter and take care of the implied admin steps. As a rule of thumb, you should aim at giving your references a time window of several weeks.
I expect you to keep me updated on your situation/needs. If something were to change, e.g. you want to apply to more programs, please let me and the other references know promptly.
When you start sending out your electronic applications, do your best to lump them together. It is much easier, and time effective, for your references to fulfill the required steps for many applications at once.
Once the selection procedure is complete, it is always appreciated when the students let me know what was the final outcome of the applications. This also provides me with a chance to "update my priors," collecting more information on how likely it could be for other UVic students to succeed in similar circumstances.
To conclude with, my policy is not to write letters over several rounds on behalf of students that declined offers of admissions to reputable programs. Rejecting those offers is extremely damaging to both my reputation and the future cohorts of UVic students. If a student applies to a program, the implicit assumption is that they will accept the offer, if it were to be their best opportunity.
2. MA essay/Honours thesis supervision
I typically enjoy advising students. If you are contemplating working under my supervision, there are a few things you should consider before coming to see me. You may also want to have a look at these slides.
In general, I am willing to supervise quantitative projects (with a mix of theory and empirical methods), purely empirical projects, and on occasion purely theoretical ones.
However, my own research is time consuming, and requires quite specialized skills. It is unlikely that your deadlines for a timely graduation will allow you to undertake projects similar to what I tend to work on.
Before setting up an appointment, you should have a research idea in mind. Or at least know in which field you would like to work.
In the early stages, I might ask you to develop two different ideas. This way, if the main project were to turn out not to be feasible, you would have not wasted too much time.
I usually refrain from providing prospective advisees with ideas for their project. It is the student's piece of research, hence it should make this person interested/excited.
I tend to be flexible with the topics, but if I know too little about a specific issue, I will let you know and suggest other potential advisors.
If you are still in the "shopping" phase, I encourage you to browse the volumes of some less technical outlets, such as:
These resources are typically written in an accessible way by some leading scholars in a field. They are an excellent way to learn what the literature has found, what are the open questions, and why these might be hard to address.
Do not overlook the time commitments of a research project. I usually suggest the MA students to fulfill the full course requirement, with the implicit assumption that they are going to complete an MA extended essay, rather than a thesis.
An MA thesis is substantially more demanding, and requires the involvement of an external committee member (outside of the Economics department). Although there are always talented students that are capable of successfully complete an MA thesis, that journey is much less predictable. And more involved in terms of the required formal procedure.
Since I tend to be risk averse, I prefer to start with the goal of an extended essay in mind, which might be upgraded to a thesis if the student's performance will meet the expectations.
To conclude with, typically your committee will want to see a novel and original piece of research. However, if your time horizon is really short (say because you have already found a job), be open about it. Replicating someone else's work with more recent/different data is always a possibility, which is explicitly allowed by the departmental guidelines. Although less satisfactory from an intellectual curiosity standpoint, also a thorough, well organized and carefully written literature review is acceptable as an extended essay.