Advice

Advice for Undergrads

Mostly a compilation of advice I’ve been exposed to over the years…

• Susan Athey’s Professional Advice page
• Reed Walker’s slides on paths to graduate school (see slide 8 in particular)
• Don’t be afraid to take time to explore before going to graduate school. However, if grad school in economics or applied economics is your #1 choice right now, make sure you use your gap year wisely to keep your options open — see slide 8 of Reed Walker’s slides for the opportunities that will give you the most valuable experience for getting into graduate school.
• If you are sure you would like to go to graduate school early on, go get advice from a professor as soon as possible. Try to start doing research with someone early and often. One of the most important factors in a grad school application is the quality of the letters of reference, so you want to give a professor as much opportunity as possible to learn about you and see your dedication. Ask early on what classes you should take, and then take them. Ask early on what programmatic skills you should develop, then develop them. Understand that it will take years for you to develop the skills to be of help on a real research project, so be diligent in developing those skills and be modest and hard working in the mean time.
• Not everyone wants to go to graduate school or knows yet if they want to. It is your goal in college to discover several potential career paths that will be fulfilling to you and then develop the skills necessary to be successful in that career. However, if you are reading this now, you are likely interested in quantitative research. If so, a sure place to start is by taking statistics and programming classes — those will be of use in almost any quantitative job.

Advice for Grad Students

• Scott Cunningham’s interview with Rocío Titiunik, Political Scientist and Quantitative Methodologist. Focuses on her journey to grad school and how she developed an interest and career in RD methodology and political science. (great listen in your second or third year)
• Hal Varian’s How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time (suggest reading once a year)
• Claes Bäckman’s resources site
• Steve Pischke’s Resources for Economics PhD Students
• Unofficial guidebook on surviving the PhD (the guide was developed for a specific university, but much of the advice in it is general and useful to most PhD students)