关于跳板校的一些情况和现实

bsybenUID: 2988063

这不是一个新帖，是我在stan8888同学帖子里面的留言。大家对这段留言感觉很赞，我觉得有必要单独贴一下让以后的新人可以看到。
原帖地址：https://bbs.gter.net/thread-1820300-1-1.html

首先，所谓高冷校和大众情人校的区别最多是AD发的数量，而不是其他的质量问题。就像蛤神说的那样，现在别说UWM这种菜鸟新手校，就连Duke都在扩招，所以基本上北美已经没有你所想象的教授学生一家亲的NB硕士项目了。至于大家海发AD的原因，除了缺钱之外，还有别的重要原因。其次，我不知道国内的教育是什么样的，因为我是美本，美硕，美PhD一路读上来的。美国学校，甚至美国社会有一条基本的规则就是凡事靠自己，搞砸了你也自己担着。所以美国这边不会有人安排你去干这个干那个，反正资源是有限的，大家自己去争取。怎么说服老师给你个RA，怎么说服老板给你个工作，这都是靠你自己的。至于你怎么做到的，学校觉得只要不是违反法律规定的他们都不会干预，但是也不会去帮你。第三，Econ Ms找工作难，我觉得这应该是你决定读Econ Ms开始就应该明白的道理。你换位思考一下就能明白为啥用人单位不愿意雇佣你。Econ本专业的核心课程都是理论课程，企业是不会雇佣理论家的，更别说半吊子的理论硕士。说白了，Econ这条路本身就没给找工作为主的外国人留出任何的余地。最好的结果就是走到头，或者你坚持不住自己去转行。想赚钱找工作的话MFE之类的学位有很多，大可以去报这种硕士，何必非和Econ Ms坚持。Econ Ms其实就像Econ Postdoc一样，是现在学界的预备站。你要是一心想工作的话我觉得大部分Econ Department其实都帮不了你。别忘了，这些地方的教授可是觉得PhD去业界都是些不好的学生，他们又怎么可能再业界placement上给你下什么大工夫呢？第四，从第一届的学生来看，很多人都是清北的不假，但是这些人并不是清北的top，而是中上游的人。包括去Yale的大神，在光华也并不是前十的。你说有学长说平台不重要，那怎么解释去Booth的大神第一学期用自己过去的资料+第一学期MA课程又reapply一次，结果仍然全部被拒，但是今年申请就去了Booth？这难道不是系里面推荐的力度起作用了吗？跳板校只是跳板，你用力他就弹的高，他不是火箭校，你坐上去抱紧就飞到Top 30去了。最后我说一下我个人对这个水法AD的理解。其实这也是一个很简单的现象：优胜劣汰。Econ是一个很特殊的系，他的本科和研究生知识严重脱节，以至于很多本科时候跃跃欲试地学生上了研究生之后满肚子苦水无处倾吐。原因就在于实际上很多本科毕业的人根本不知道Econ研究是怎么做出来的。UWM第一届入学的时候，90%+的学生向系里表忠心，要申请PhD。结果一年下来，这个人数锐减到50%一下。原因就是很多人在学习的过程中发现自己既没有天赋，也没有耐心，更没有自己当初想的那样热爱学术。我觉得其实每一届真正适合读并且想读PhD的人真的没有很多，所以就算水法AD，剩下来的总人数不会变得，大不了就是更低的MA-PhD转换比率。
没有别的意思，希望大家能明白这个过程是什么样的。Know your limits。

莣蔚UID: 3491011

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cheesechanUID: 3505689

How to value a program?

1. Class size. The teacher / faculty ratio matters, especially for those want close interaction with faculty, and thus strong reference letter for PhD application. It sometimes also matters for those plan to work (for some Major) as it will be more likely to be benefited by the persoanl Network of the prof. is the class size is small.

It is indeed Kind of non-linear indeed. class size of 15 differs a lot with that of 45, and then that of 90. but 90 is somehow similar to 190 or 290......

2. Selectivity: selectivity is important, or not important. it is important that a more selective class will have a better academic (or Job preparation for professional one enviornment), and a better local program reputation. but one important Point is......at the end, the enviornment is kind of treatment effect, but the original Quality of the applicant (while selection) is the same.
It will be better to forget about the feeling of Feeling good to be selected into a selective program though, but just on the effect of that.
a bigger class =/= bad indeed......a bigger class => more alumni => more network somehow indeed......kind of tradeoff for sure.

3. Location: Location does matter for those plan to work, but not those plan to go PhD. the closer to the a Business Center (of the target career), the better it will be. Again, this is nonlinear. one have to concern about the traveling time indeed. One hour away from a financial Center is totally fine (and dont have big difference to those in the center exactly), but three hours away is a horrible idea.

4. Ranking: ranking will be a joke to be looked into detail. just look into tier will be enough. e.g. one wont really care if PKU or tsinghua is no. 1 (Overall)........the difference is so small s.t. the effect of other stuffs dominates.

5. Reputation: look into the reputation of the target industry indeed.....General ranking and reputation is for those outside the circle. of course it means the reputation in the desired location.

6. Program difficulties: importance depends.........ranging from totally not important (for those planning for a general career, e.g. bank MT), to very important (a technical one, e.g. any STEM stuffs) to next to the only consideration (e.g. PhD in academics......)

7. Historial Placement: either Job / academic /  whatever, historial Placement are just for reference. similar to stock analysis, bear in mind of the disclaimer: pass performance doesnt imply furture one. but that's for sure a good refernece as the intake quality should be familiar across time (but remember to check this assumption.....)

8. Faculty: key point indeed. look at who are teaching. for PhD preparation, top research professors are expected for good program (at least for quite some course), for Job preparation, a good mix of Professor and practitioner are the best.

9. Tuition: tuition is an important consideration. education is kind of Investment on human capital, and the return on Investment are realized by working. therefore a School with better reputation can Charge higher tuition, and a more $$-earning Major charges more too. (think of an MBA....) and thus it worth to pay a higher one if one are planing to go on a high-paid career (definitly not those in academic, time frame too long), and it is a crap idea to pay tuition to a School in a poor location without reputation outside the Region (e.g. southern europe for career purpose)

Conclusion: there are not unique measure of good/bad program, one have to define the own metric for it. and the own metrics depends on one's career goal, which should already be well-considered while selecting a major for master study.
i.e. own academic interest / ambition / live goal / personality / background ---> career plan ---> Major selection ---> school & program selection ---> application
one should already have roughly a list of preference for school applied before the result arrives indeed....

trajtjyUID: 3335643

冷水要浇，梦想也要有。顶一下

bsybenUID: 2988063

trajtjy 发表于 2015-4-13 22:29
冷水要浇，梦想也要有。顶一下

浇不灭的是梦想，浇灭的都是幻想

trajtjyUID: 3335643

bsyben 发表于 2015-4-14 04:33
浇不灭的是梦想，浇灭的都是幻想

所以这俩才能共存

bsybenUID: 2988063

trajtjy 发表于 2015-4-14 10:53
所以这俩才能共存

是啊，这两个东西很多时候都很难分辨，只能留给时间去考验了。

牛奶bbUID: 3609304

对于像我这样要去读Econ人来说···楼主的话简直是值得我深思 跪谢了~~~~~~~

奔跑的、蜗牛UID: 3612606

看完以后发现第一步own academic interest就不知道，无从选择了。。

tom9089UID: 3413700

赞一下，求转载许可~

rockerUID: 2462165

So glad that Econ PhD application is less and less cloudy.

豌豆芽UID: 3272311

楼主说的UWM是哪个学校啊？
UW Milwaukee?
之所以这么问是因为看到有人把UW Madison也缩写为UWM……而直接搜UWM出来的是Milwaukee...

Spotty!UID: 3507585

豌豆芽 发表于 2016-5-21 03:42
楼主说的UWM是哪个学校啊？
UW Milwaukee?
之所以这么问是因为看到有人把UW Madison也缩写为UWM……而直 ...

在本版 UWM = UW Madison...

seanzycUID: 3685755

非常发人深省

LStellarUID: 3527532

发一个Milwaukee的placement吧

"We will let you take some maths courses as long you you take the mandatory classes from the economics department. As far as placement to a PhD program is concerned, we have placed students to UW Madison, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Colordao-Boulder in the recent history."