OK guys, you might be wondering – what are UEA seniors doing? Maybe you’ve seen them wandering around campus looking dazed and lost, or have heard them making inhuman noises while they’re holed up in their rooms. Well, I’ll tell you a secret – GRAD SCHOOL APPS!! They’ve taken over our lives! We’re incessantly stalking our recommenders, writing and editing (and editing and editing and editing) personal statements, and filling out little forms online until we’ve all gone a little loopy. But, we’re happy to do it because we’re keeping the end goal in mind: 5 or more triumphant years… slaving away 24/7? Maybe it’s best not to think too carefully about all this!

Well, in all seriousness, this is grad school season. Most applications are due between Dec. 1 and Jan. 1, though fellowships like the National Science Foundation might have earlier deadlines. Basically, the process is very similar to applying to MIT. You submit essays, recommendations, transcripts, and other info, and some magical process occurs which tells you your fate. So, what kinds of things are grad schools looking for? If we knew that, none of us would be going insane. But, many auspicious people before us have attempted to answer this question:

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/05/advice-for-aspiring-economists.html

http://www.stanford.edu/~athey/gradadv.html

http://www.sba.muohio.edu/craighwd/GraduateSchool.htm

On a personal level, why did I choose to apply to grad school? Well, mostly, because I totally LOVE econ. When I do problem sets, I get really excited about problems and feel like doing a happy dance! When I’m running regressions on Stata and getting absolutely awful results, I actually dance around a bit! I find the whole process of research and economic thinking to just be cool, and I can see myself being happy doing it all the time. Now, everyone has different interests in economics. But, whether you like development or macroeconomics or auction theory or econometrics, the key is feeling like you could really work on it all the time, and be pretty satisfied! I may or may not be right about my own predictions, but game theory tells us that we must make the most rational choice we can, given our beliefs.

So, I’m applying for graduate school and will hopefully hear in the next 3 or 4 months about acceptances (and other things we don’t talk about ). I think all the little forms will end up being totally worth it! Good luck to everyone else in the process right now! And, if you’re an underclassman and this sounds appealing, ask the UEA about it. Ask your advisors! Look around the internet! You  might find that grad school is something you want to do too.