As an undergraduate, I collected a lot of good advice from smart people on applying to PhDs in economics, which I’m compiling here for anyone else who was in my position. Be warned; all of this is from 2021 or earlier, so it may be extremely outdated.
“So I’m thinking about grad school in economics…”
- The big picture: Susan Athey, Chris Blattman, Jesse Shapiro, John List, Andrew Johnston, Al Roth, Alex Eble
Research Advice
- General compilations - Esther Duflo, David Weil, Steve Pischke, Paul Niehaus, Matt Lowe, Don Davis
Undergrad course advice
- Any math course ever - Dexter Chua’s unbelievable notes and exercises
- Real analysis -
- Exercises, exercises and more exercises: A Problem Book in Real Analysis, Dexter Chua (part 2), MIT OCW exams and psets
- Notes - Dexter Chua (part 2), MIT OCW
- Grad micro
Predoctoral research opportunities
- About them -
- How to find them
- Many of these links might expire with time - most recent iterations should be searchable on the internet
- Econ RA Listings, NBER job board, non-NBER job board - general aggregators of RA opportunities
- Opportunity Insights, SIEPR, JPAL, EPIC - specific RA positions
- How to get them -
- How to use them -
- What makes a good RAship recommendation?
- Professor’s guide to being an RA
- What PhD programs want from your research experience
- Bonus: undergraduate research -
- Fed undergrad internship
- Standing out as an undergrad RA
- “How to use them” advice still applies
Letters of recommendation
- Standing out as an undergrad RA
- Will it be a great letter?
- How to ask for a letter
- Recommendation sample
NSF GRFP
- Application
- 2021 Solicitation and FAQ
- Compiled advice: Alex Lang, Mallory Ladd, Claire Bowen
- NSF proposal advice
- NSF winners: 1, 2, 3
Linkception
More people have made these link compilations, so - Andrew Johnston, Masayuki Kudamatsu, Alex Eble, Jennifer Doleac, Charlotte Ostergaard, Raul Pacheco-Vega (again)
Albert Alex Zevelev links resources to study material.