A Decision

I am going to Purdue.

I got into Virginia, which was the school to which I originally wanted to go when I started applying to places. Honestly, Purdue was just about the bottom of the list. OSU was the last school, and once I got into a school other than OSU, it was off the list. So once I got into Virginia, the schools I had to choose between were UVa and Purdue. Comparing the two by location, Virginia is the obvious winner. It's in Virginia and I like Virginia. Meanwhile, Purdue is in central Indiana a bit north of Indy. I know similar terrain quite well and am looking for something different. Of course, I put too much weight on location since in grad school I've heard there isn't much time to do anything other than study. So I discounted that by saying I can have fun anywhere, and if I can have fun in Oxford, then it's probably true. Based on academics, the US News and World Report rank Purdue at 42 and Virginia at 28. But there are other rankings. If you rank them by placements, one of the most important stats when looking at grad schools, Purdue and UVa come out about the same. Plus, a Purdue professor said that UVa doesn't do as much micro foundations of macro, which I think is pretty cool. He also wrote that UVa doesn't do as much finance/monetary research, which I like. Both departments look very well rounded, and Purdue has a decent experimental econ program. So academically, Purdue has a big enough edge on UVa to win this category. Another difference between the two is that I've heard Purdue has a more welcoming, friendlier, "collegial" atmosphere than UVa. Since Purdue professors are calling me and the Krannert School sent me more information about Purdue (even before I was accepted) than any other school, I can definitely see this. UVa is also slow in their admissions process, it seems. I got their acceptance letter well after I got everyone else's. To boot, a Purdue econ professor called me saying they were behind schedule on their funding decisions the night before I heard from UVa. He wanted to make sure I hadn't gotten any offers that would trump Purdue (read: MIT), so he wouldn't waste an funding offer on me. Purdue is giving me a "half-time" offer, which is $18,000 for the year and I have to work for a professor grading or doing data collection or whatever for about 20 hours a week. When Purdue has the academic edge, it'd be stupid to turn down that offer.

Purdue sent me a packet to review for next year. It's 155 pages long. Luckily, though luck has little to do with it, I've seen almost all of the material before. So the review should be pretty fun and easy.

I'm really looking forward to graduating from Miami and beginning my studies at Purdue. It'll be a relief to get out of Oxford for good.