Advice posts for PhD students
Managing the academic job market
What follows is a summary of what I see as the key advice, with links to other resources that go into more depth or do
Everything you need to know about letters of recommendation
Will a professor write you a letter of recommendation? My answer: Writing student recommendations comes with the faculty job, and I usually write if asked.
FAQs on PhD applications
I’m asked about PhD admissions a lot. I’m going to give some advice and demystify the process of US admissions a bit. I also address the
How I manage PhD and post-doc advising
A note to new PhD applicants I often get emails from prospective students asking if I would be their advisor if they joined a PhD program here.
Interested in a pre-doc position or working on one of my projects?
UChicago students I occasionally hire part-time research assistants. If you are looking for work, please email me with a CV and transcript. Please also describe
PhD applicants: Writing your statement of purpose
I’ve read a lot of personal statements for PhD applications. I sat on admissions at UChicago, Columbia, and Yale, mostly in economics, political science, and
Students: How to email to your Professor, employer, and professional peers
A third of student emails make me cringe. Not from scorn (well, maybe a little scorn) but mainly sympathy. Distressing sympathy. Here are 12 pieces
Pam Jakiela’s economic job market advice
I reprint Pam Jakiela’s advice in full. She was the first person I sat next to in grad school. Read it and you will see
When are you too old for a PhD?
A fewf years ago a reader wrote me to ask how old is too old to start a PhD. Will schools penalize your application, and
Negotiating your academic job offer
Updated December 2014 You’re finishing a PhD and you’ve just gotten a phone call with a verbal job offer. Congratulations! And welcome to the bottom
How to pick a dissertation project (and why it should not be a field experiment)
I have pointed students to advice on how to start a thesis. I have also posted my thoughts on what to do (and not to
PhD Students: Writing an NSF application
Judging from the average application I have seen (and their ugly cousin: the PhD application letter), more students could benefit from advice. I have six key pieces,
How to pick a research project
Lets start with a first fact: Most of economics is boring. No, I don’t mean this in the way that the public at large means
Economics PhDs and the political science job market
I hear a familiar question from economics PhD students as every August rolls around: “Should/how do I go on the political science job market?” In
Should student researchers go to conflict zones?
It’s nearing summer and tens of thousands of American and European students are preparing for a month or two abroad to write a senior essay
The discussant’s art
A colleague and I were lamenting the state of paper discussants the other day. Seldom do we faculty teach graduate students how to be professionals.
Dear graduate students: Don’t lose hope
Someone using the nom de guerre Thorsten Veblen asked me for a comment on his rant against development economics: While I can understand the views of Development
Doing quantitative research in the field
There has been a lot of talk about surges lately. It seems to be everyone’s favorite metaphor. Well, there is a surge happening in comparative
Field work in the tropics
As I prepare for summer field work, here’s what I tell my research assistants to bring to Liberia and Uganda: One very nice set of
Going from research assistant to co-author
A reader poses a good question. I paraphrase: I am close to closing a deal that will send me to Africa to manage a randomized
