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I am an MA student.
Should I be doing a PhD subject?
If you are planning to take Ph.D. courses, make sure this is what you really want to do. Some people feel they benefited by completing Ph.D. requirements quickly (especially important when graduate funding packages mean that funding is cut off completely by 5th year). Others think that they hurt themselves by doing so. Remember two things: professors may underestimate the difficulty of the course load, and good marks are extremely important for future funding (B+ is becoming "passé").
If you even think that you might like to take one of the PhD core courses, make sure you take the PhD MathStats review from the first day. As an MA (non-doctoral stream) student, you do NOT have to pass this course to get a credit for it, and how you perform in the course will give you a good idea of how well you will cope with the PhD courses themselves. If you breeze through with no problems at all, your math background is strong enough for any of the core PhD courses. If the dynamic optimization parts are the only area you’ve really lost the plot, then you will probably be alright with either econometrics or micro, but you might want to let macro go for now. Otherwise, choose between the courses based on your area of interest – but be aware that while graduate econometrics and micro usually resemble their undergrad counterparts, this is not always the case with macro.
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What electives should I take?
This of course depends on your interests and life goals. If you want to work in the financial industry, then you will probably be thinking of taking financial, monetary and trade courses. There are a lot of government jobs at the moment, which don’t have any particular subjects that necessarily go with them – but if you are attracted to this kind of work, you might like to consider public, labour or development. But finance, money and trade are all also concerns of the government.
Generally the best guide is take subjects that you are interested in – that is the best way to get the most out of your graduate experience and as a side benefit you are likely to get higher marks that way, which helps you to get a job too. And try and find out as much as you can about the subjects before you commit to taking one or another. You may find that you are more interested in econometrics courses than you expected (yes, it can happen). Talk to other grad students,
You may find it useful to look at some comments on courses by past students – these are available in the graduate students’ lounge, basement of the South House. Remember, though, that although the GEU makes these available in pretty much the form that they arrive in (we remove some duplicative comments and any comments that are either unhelpful to students or are just gratuitously nasty), these are not an unbiased sample of the opinions of those taking the course– they reflect the opinions of those who had strong enough opinions to bother writing. The silent masses may have been more or less happy with the course than the vocal minority. Please do not remove this document from the lounge. It is there for all grad students to look at, not just you.
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How do I find a job?
You might think that your first month at the university is not a great time to be thinking about jobs. You would be wrong. Government jobs usually have application deadlines by October, and the forms are not exactly a pushover to fill out. These and other jobs are posted at the Career Centre, located at the bottom of St George St near the bookshop – drop in when you’re off buying textbooks to register with them and see what the place looks like.
The jobs man this year is Angelo Melino. You will get emails from him every now and then telling you about available jobs. It is not his job to get you a job, though, just to make it a bit easier for you. Refer to his webpage for further information: http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/graduate/Jobs/ Some job ads are also posted on the notice board outside Sophie Knapik’s office.
Later in the year, there will be seminars organized by the department, with previous successful graduates invited along to tell you how they did it.
For those who want to continue into the Ph.D., it's not a bad idea to check the success of past graduates too (either in the academic marketplace or elsewhere). This will give you an idea about your own chances at the end of program. Sometimes expectations run a bit too high and the dream of "teaching at Yale some day" may require some adjustment. Think about your options carefully and realistically!
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What fun things are there to do around campus?
Sports! Do you realize you have already paid for the Athletic Facilities at U of T? Use them! Various courses are also available at Hart House or the Athletic Centre (on Spadina). The GEU organizes a volleyball team to play in one of the university’s leagues. If there’s a particular sport you’d like to organize a team for, come talk to the GEU and we’ll help out.
Seminars! The great thing about being at the Department is the number of seminars you can attend. Even MA students should really try to go to one of them during the year, just to see whether you might really want to be an academic after all, and it’s lots of fun to get to know what the professors are like (really). Some great economists drop by and chat about their recent research in what is a relatively informal environment. If this does not excite you, then you should definitely not bother doing a PhD.
The GEU organizes various social events during the year. And there are many other exciting clubs in the university that you can find out about. Check out Hart House for a start.
This Page is maintained by Julien Morissette
Last updated September 14, 2003.