Which school to apply???

Morning:
Register the ASSA Meeting, costing 35 US dollars.

Cancel a hotel room in Chicago (see 5 October for why).

Receive email from Tim on the abstracts on our joint research in progress, modify my CV acccordingly, and send it to Mark again.

Replace the CV in the HTML format with the CV in the PDF format on my website, following advice from my supervisor.

Look for teaching evaluation, which I need to give Oriana for helping her write a teaching reference. But I can't find it, and so ask Mark for a copy.

Receive an Excel template address spreadsheet from Leila. She's an assistant for three of my four referees. When she sends recommendation letters to the schools I'm applying for, she needs the addresses of these schools. But she has her own preferred way of managing addresses. That's why she gives me the template Excel sheet.

Afternoon:
Talk to Torsten, visiting LSE this term. He gives me several useful suggestions for the revision of my job market paper.

Try to decide which school to apply. But I'm overwhelmed... The October issue of JOE (this is where you can find job openings for economists) lists hundreds of schools. I begin with 30 schools or so from which I'm sure I would accept a job offer. Then I try to increase the number of applications to check department websites etc. because my referees advise me to aim for 100 schools. Indeed, 25% of economics job market candidates should apply for more than 100 schools (see page 14 of Cawley 2006).

Evening:
Revise the data appendix and abstract for my job market paper.

Email Rocco, a previous year LSE job market candidate, to ask how he chose which school to apply. His answer: "Apply anywhere you would accept an offer, if it was the only one you had." An exception to this is top schools for which he said, "Talk to your referrees frankly."