Professional Development and PhD Application guide - ganong-noel/lab_manual GitHub Wiki

This document describes how we do two-way feedback and support you in your growth beyond gnlab. It draws heavily on gslab’s PhD Application document.

We are interested in helping your professional growth whether that is a PhD in economics, another advanced degree, or public service.

Even if your primary goal is to do a PhD, we will ask you to spend some time thinking about what you will do if you do not enroll in a PhD program.

Both of us worked as RPs before starting our PhDs in economics. Pascal was a resident tutor for five years in Adams House at Harvard mentoring undergraduate students interested in public service and economics. Peter took a year off in graduate to school to work for the City of Boston.

This document has a lot of detail on the PhD Application path simply because it is fairly routinized. We are committed to spending time helping you map out next steps and introduce you to relevant contacts in whatever your chosen area of interest is.

Two-Way Feedback

Once a month during your first summer and at the end of each academic quarter, we will have a meeting to discuss:

  • RP work.
    • What work are you most proud of or excited about?
    • Where do you see room for you to improve?
  • Classes. Other decisions/issues related to your PhD application.
  • Your research.
  • How can we do a better job?

We will schedule this meeting with you. By 5pm the night before the meeting, please update our shared google doc with any of the following information that is relevant:

  • Grades from any courses you have taken at UChicago or other institutions in previous quarters.
  • A list of courses taken in the current quarter with whatever information you have on grade outcomes (exam grades, problem set grades, etc.)
  • A brief summary of the main areas of RP work you have been involved in over the past quarter (or month, if this is a monthly meeting).
  • A list of what you think is going well with your work and where you can improve in your work
  • A list of what you think we as managers are doing well and, more importantly, where we can improve
  • An outline of any other issues you wish to discuss regarding your progress or other questions you have

Please also send a link in slack to your updated google doc. This lets us know that your pre-checkin notes are ready for review.

Note that these meetings are meant to guarantee a minimum to the frequency of our interactions on the topics listed above, not a maximum. We are always happy to discuss aspects of your progress.

After the meeting, please post to our shared Google doc a brief summary of what we discussed and again send a link in slack so we know you have updated the document. We will write back and confirm or amend your understanding as needed. This way, we can be sure to stay on the same page.

PhD Application Overview

Top PhD programs want to admit candidates who will (i) perform well in the coursework in their program and (ii) excel in independent research.

The primary way of evaluating (i) is to look at the history of courses the candidate has taken. At a minimum, this should include good performance in undergraduate-level proof-based mathematics courses (e.g., real analysis, linear algebra). At best, it will include good performance in challenging PhD-level economics courses at a top school.

The primary way of evaluating (ii) is through letters of recommendation. The best letters are from well-recognized faculty at top institutions and speak not only to the candidate’s proficiency in research tasks but also to their creativity in developing and executing independent research ideas. The best candidates can supplement these letters with concrete independent research, from an undergraduate thesis or other independent project.

During your time as an RP you can improve how PhD programs will evaluate you on both of these dimensions. It is our job to design the work you do as an RP to ensure that, in addition to getting our own work done, we also put ourselves in a good position to evaluate your research skills in our letters.

The rest is largely up to you. However, we can contribute to the other aspects of your application by advising you on courses, providing feedback on application materials, and giving you guidance on independent research. In addition, our letters allow us to make credible statements about “softer” elements of your application, such as the quality of independent research you have done.

Advice for writing a personal statement

We suggest that your personal statement be:

  • <10% personal narrative. This should be minimal unless there are facts in your personal background that are truly unusual and may change how people think about your file.
  • 10-20% description of your past record & accomplishments including RP work. There's no need here for extensive detail about what you did in your RP work; our letters will flesh that out. A high-level summary is fine.
  • 20-30% summary of prior independent research. By far the most important thing to communicate is your ability to think clearly and independently about research. This is the hardest thing to tell from the rest of your application. You want to show that you can articulate a research question, motivate why it's important, and lay out a credible strategy for answering it.

  • 50% outlining your research agenda for grad school and beyond. Include a detailed description of one or more proposed research projects. You will not be committed to actually doing what you propose once you get to grad school. What is important is the thinking and understanding that's revealed in laying out a plan. But if you have made some concrete progress on these projects, that's a bonus, and you should make it clear.

Some other principles:

  • Avoid wasting space repeating things that will be clear from other parts of your application. Use this to communicate things the rest of the application won't, or to add emphasis to very important aspects of your file.
  • We usually recommend against including names of specific faculty or other content customized to individual schools. The upside is small -- anybody decent applying to these programs is capable of looking up names on a website -- and the downside risk of making a mistake can be large.

Timeline

Below is a list of the elements of your application that it will be useful for us to know about. Adhering to the deadlines below will allow us to write the strongest possible letter for you and to give you informed and timely advice on other aspects of your application. Ultimately, of course, it is your application, and (with the exception of deadlines for recommendation letters) you are free to ignore these suggestions.

  • Intermediate Summary. By September 15 of the year in which you are applying, please post to our shared Google Drive folder the following information so that we can provide feedback:
    • A spreadsheet listing the top 50 economics PhD programs along with an indication of whether you plan to apply to each program and any notes you have on the reasons for your decision. You can use the US News and World Report list as a starting point.
    • It is essential that you apply to 3-5 “safety” schools not in the top 50, meaning schools for which you are over-qualified.
    • A draft of your personal/research statement.
  • Final Summary. By September 30 of the year in which you are applying, please post to our shared Google Drive folder the following information:
    • A list of the programs to which you are applying, along with the deadlines for recommendation letters for each program.
    • A list of people writing letters for you.
    • Final transcripts from undergraduate and any other courses you have taken.
    • A draft of your personal/research statement and any other essay materials (e.g. writing sample) you will be submitting with your applications.
    • A draft of your CV.
    • A list of what you see as your most impressive accomplishments in your RP work. Please provide links to specific Github tickets, memos you have written, or numbers of JIRA tickets.
    • A list of the main things you think you’ve learned / main ways in which you’ve improved in your RP work.
    • After you send us these materials, you should contact us to schedule a meeting so that we can have a final conversation about your application.
  • Ongoing. After September 30 please keep us posted in real time on:
    • Any exam or course grades for courses in which you are enrolled in the fall quarter of the year in which you are applying.
    • Any other new information that you think might be relevant for our letters.
    • Any program decisions (acceptances/rejections) that you receive.

Applications for Jobs

When sending a request for a letter of recommendation, please post to our shared Google Drive folder the following information:

  • A list of the programs to which you are applying, along with the deadlines for recommendation letters for each program.
  • A list of people writing letters for you.
  • Final transcripts from undergraduate and any other courses you have taken.
  • A draft of your personal statement and any other essay materials (e.g. writing sample) you will be submitting with your applications.
  • A draft of your CV.
  • A list of what you see as your most impressive accomplishments in your RP work. Please provide links to specific Github tickets, memos you have written, or numbers of JIRA tickets.
  • A list of the main things you think you’ve learned / main ways in which you’ve improved in your RP work.

Application Logistics

PhD applications generate a large volume of emails to those writing reference letters. Peter and Pascal will ask their assistants to submit the reference letters. You should check with them to get the appropriate email address and use this address rather than their regular email on all applications.

Please create a google sheet in your application folder where each row is a school, one column is school name, one column is application deadline, and one column is whether the letter has been uploaded (to be updated by our assistant).

If Peter is writing you a letter, you should use the email address [email protected] and you should share the spreadsheet with Cynthia Taylor ([email protected]). Be sure to provide edit privileges to Cynthia.

If Pascal is writing you a letter, ask him what email address to use and with whom the spreadsheet should be shared.

If you are applying for NSF-GSRF funding

  • Letters need to be sent to the writing PIs academic email (and not a different address)
  • Remind letter writers that letters are max two pages