orientation

I'm in Ann Arbor. The first few days of classes were a hyperspeed review of the Real Analysis course I took at GW. So far the people who have run class or orientation sessions have spent far more time than I expected massaging egos--saying things like "you deserve to be here" and "don't worry if it seems hard, you'll be fine". Apparently impostor syndrome is common among graduate students.

The econ program at UM styles itself as a collaborative program. The administration wants everyone to work together and succeed. This is apparently different from some other programs, where individuals in each cohort are ranked and the lower half are rejected after several years.

The administration put us in suggested study groups, which are intentionally diverse. Mine has a Filipino man, a Chinese woman, an Indian woman, and a man from Missouri. Second and third year students told me their study groups became more homogeneous eventually, but so far our study group has worked out very well.

The general paradigm at UM is that PhD econ students take two years to complete course work and three years to write a dissertation. It seems like most students here are now taking at least four years to write a dissertation. I think students are taking extra time to avoid entering a crummy job market. Hopefully that won't be a factor for me.