Which school to apply?

Try to decide 100 schools to apply. Manage to select 45 schools (including six of top 10 schools) so far. At the same time, create an Excel spreadsheet of postal addresses which I will send Mark who will then creates address labels. In this process, I find that the application procedure differs slightly from school to school. A factor contributing to the complication is online application. Some schools require online application only (which can be either filling in an online form or emailing all the documents in the PDF format), some prefer online to postal application, some allow both, some require online "pre-application" in addition to postal application which includes a print-out of the filled-in online pre-application form, and others accept postal application only. This is MAD.

Find the job market information webpage for Harvard job market candidates. Also find that the December 2003 issue of Journal of the European Economic Association features articles on the rankings of economics departments in the world.

Goldin and Fryer (2006b) --- one of the job market guides on the Harvard website --- say "Don't apply to places that you would never consider. But do apply to places that are reasonably good but perhaps not in the right location or not with the best faculty. You don't know at this point ... whether this place will be useful in other ways (e.g., strategically or over the long haul --- you are always in the market)."

Fill in the online application form for NYU Department of Politics, because "applications received by October 15, 2006 have the best chance of being fully considered." The deadline for political science departments is earlier than economics departments. Following Tim's advice (see 10 Oct.), I decide not to apply for political science departments except for NYU. Why? NYU seems to me the most approachable to someone with economics background as several faculty members write papers with economists.

Can't attend Yuri's Japanese dinner party. Instead I eat sandwitches for dinner in front of the computer...