|
On October 28 2010 18:31 Karliath wrote:
What do you guys consider extracurriculars? For us, anything outside of class, including
Speech and Debate
Mock Trial
Academic Quiz/Decathlon
Junior State of America
Playing in a (relatively) renowned symphony
Varsity sports
all count. So you can see why some of these are important. Especially if you can say, "I'm the president of the speech and debate team of our school, and we went to state last year." That's obviously impressive, showing you are intelligent, hard working, wtv wtv.
If these also count as extracurriculars for you guys, what do you write about if not this?
Any extracurriculars that are related. President of speech and debate team will look great on your personal statement if you are applying to, say, Law, but if you are applying to some Music degree, that's not really relevant. Community service is also not really highly regarded, unfortunately. You could say that the Brits are pragmatic to a fault, but outside of America few people really care about who YOU are, and more of WHAT you do/can do for the school and why you want to study your degree.
|
|
|
I have a bunch of friends going to both UCL and LSE and I highly advise them for doing economics! I know you said LSE was a longshot, but if you have 4 a levels (I assume high grades since you got a 2280 on SAT) then I don't think you should sell yourself short. Also London is a wonderful place! 
|
If you have half-decent grades and you're Asian you actually have more chance of getting into LSE than a non-asian. No joke.
|
I've heard very very good things about ANU, especially for ugrad.
|
that's a good list
any school with a great grad econ program is going to have a strong undergrad program as well
So what are you going to do after college? Do you want to go to business school? Or just make money in IB? Or what? Maybe you haven't thought about it so much, but having some idea helps when you're applying to undergrad schools
|
On October 28 2010 17:16 Milkis wrote:
"Austrian School of Economics" is utter nonsense and should be avoided. Any econ department that is austrian will be completely worthless in preparing you for any career that involves Economics.
Milkis, i knew i liked you, but this made me like you even more.
God, i can't stand Austrian schoolers. They're generally willfully ignorant about contemporary economics, statistical methods, and, well, pretty much everything. They reduce the incredible complexity of actual economics to a univariate view of the world that sees central banking as the cause of all the worlds ills, and define central banking so broadly that it basically constitutes "the existence of anything that looks remotely like a government."
The worst is when they make evidential claims to support their view, but when you provide evidence contrary to it, they go and say economics is a priori and evidence doesn't matter.
Other than that, i second most of whats been said here.
|
On October 28 2010 17:21 Karliath wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2010 17:16 Milkis wrote:
"Austrian School of Economics" is utter nonsense and should be avoided. Any econ department that is austrian will be completely worthless in preparing you for any career that involves Economics.
Most of the top schools have pretty good undergrad econ programs. Just because a given school is reputed to have a good econ program doesn't mean it has a good undergrad program -- since most professors who will be teaching you are lecturers and assistant professors since you're an undergrad. In the end, though, it depends heavily on the courses you choose to take that this university that makes the good programs. Make the most of it. I can definitely tell you Uchicago undergrad econ program has pros and cons, but I'm not 100% certain how it is compared to other schools other than the biased rumors I'd obviously hear around here.
Can you tell me a bit about UChicago's undergrad econ program? I'm applying there as well.
It's the best undergraduate economics set-up I've ever heard of.
I'm currently an econ major at uchicago, and it is really really good. Compared to almost all US schools, it has a much more rigorous math requirement/level, and there are lots of avenues to go way beyond even the higher general level that's required here. Classes are really good, in particular the math-intensive/honors/harder classes. And it's hard enough that it isn't an easy/filler major like it is at most schools.
|
did anyone else read "give me good economic units"? i was like wtf...
|
MIT's economic grad school is the best in the world hands down. The people I've talked to who took the Econ program were very happy with it. Boston is also a great college town.
honestly though, you're better off looking for an undergraduate school on its other merits rather than soley its econ program. Pretty much any school you're going to apply to is going to be more than adequate for your undergraduate purposes.
ofc anything with more math isn't* going to waste your time.
|
On October 28 2010 18:28 Karliath wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2010 18:22 Nytefish wrote:On October 28 2010 18:19 Karliath wrote:
UK doesn't care about extracurriculars? Well I'm jealous. [DELETED] (who knows, they might be anal.) Well they expect you to have a few lines on that stuff. They only want you write more if you can somehow relate them to your academic interests. Or use them as examples to support the things you're saying "I have a very competitive mindset... I can work well in a group... This is what helped me achieve my gold medal at the 2008 olympics etc." In general though, people who write a lot about extracurriculars tend not to be as successful. Although it might be a case of cause/effect being confused. Wow okay. Here, at competitive schools, it's pretty much: Grades and test scores look okay? Great, that's 80% of applicants. Now let's see if you've been a leader of several groups, participated in many different types of activities outside of school, stayed committed to the activities throughout your high school career, given back to the community, done something worthwhile (winning SC tournaments does not count), etc. etc. SUCH a pain. But my journey is almost complete ><
Though I guess it depends on which uni in the UK you apply to I'm under the impression they don't care all that much about the personal statement at all, it's more for weeding out the complete idiots.
Candidates are selected at interview, which is entirely focused on your knowledge of and passion for your subject. (As well as general intelligence I guess)
As for OP, I don't see why you are so pessimistic about your chances at LSE? Also I don't see why you aren't applying for oxford or cambridge as well, I mean you could very well fail at LSE and succeed at cambridge or vice versa so in the end it's just one more interview you could potentially do really well at.
General presonal statement tips, Focus on why economics is important to you and why you want to study it. If possible reference things outside of school where you have learnt economics (maybe a published paper you found really interesting or whatever) , or perhaps used your knowledge of economics in a real world situation.
|
5003 Posts
On October 29 2010 03:02 theonemephisto wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2010 17:21 Karliath wrote:On October 28 2010 17:16 Milkis wrote:
"Austrian School of Economics" is utter nonsense and should be avoided. Any econ department that is austrian will be completely worthless in preparing you for any career that involves Economics.
Most of the top schools have pretty good undergrad econ programs. Just because a given school is reputed to have a good econ program doesn't mean it has a good undergrad program -- since most professors who will be teaching you are lecturers and assistant professors since you're an undergrad. In the end, though, it depends heavily on the courses you choose to take that this university that makes the good programs. Make the most of it. I can definitely tell you Uchicago undergrad econ program has pros and cons, but I'm not 100% certain how it is compared to other schools other than the biased rumors I'd obviously hear around here.
Can you tell me a bit about UChicago's undergrad econ program? I'm applying there as well. It's the best undergraduate economics set-up I've ever heard of. I'm currently an econ major at uchicago, and it is really really good. Compared to almost all US schools, it has a much more rigorous math requirement/level, and there are lots of avenues to go way beyond even the higher general level that's required here. Classes are really good, in particular the math-intensive/honors/harder classes. And it's hard enough that it isn't an easy/filler major like it is at most schools.
I definitely don't feel that way regarding the undergrad classes here.
First, most of the electives are nonsense. You are just repeating what you have done, or the teacher absolutely does not give a damn and teaches word per word off of a text book or another source. There are a very few classes that are actually worth taking, and most people seem to dodge them since it's supposed to be "difficult", although these classes are usually "just right"
The math/stat requirement for the average econ major is a joke, and honestly, they don't really learn anything.
Basically i had to take grad classes/high end stat courses before I actually felt like I was doing econ.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
