IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jeduce/v46y2015i2p174-188.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Undergraduate Origins of PhD Economists: The Berkeley Experience

Author

Listed:
  • Martha L. Olney

Abstract

The University of California, Berkeley sends more undergraduate students to economics PhD programs than any other public university. While this fact is surely a function of its size, there may be lessons from the Berkeley experience that others could adopt. To investigate why Berkeley generates so many economics PhD students, the author convened and interviewed two groups: economics student services staff and a self-selected focus group of twelve economics undergraduates who plan to apply to PhD programs. Four factors came up repeatedly in these conversations: math preparation, advanced track for theory courses, research opportunities, and availability of information. A fifth factor was implicit in the conversations: peer effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Martha L. Olney, 2015. "The Undergraduate Origins of PhD Economists: The Berkeley Experience," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 174-188, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jeduce:v:46:y:2015:i:2:p:174-188
    DOI: 10.1080/00220485.2015.1015189
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220485.2015.1015189
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220485.2015.1015189?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura W. Perna, 2004. "Understanding the Decision to Enroll in Graduate School: Sex and Racial/Ethnic Group Differences," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 75(5), pages 487-527, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bedard, Kelly & Herman, Douglas A., 2008. "Who goes to graduate/professional school? The importance of economic fluctuations, undergraduate field, and ability," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 197-210, April.
    2. Toby J. Park & Stella M. Flores & Christopher J. Ryan, 2018. "Labor Market Returns for Graduates of Hispanic-Serving Institutions," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(1), pages 29-53, February.
    3. Annika C. Froehlich, 2016. "Does the curricular structure affect doctoral enrolment?," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 86(9), pages 1067-1089, December.
    4. Annie M. Wofford, 2021. "Modeling the Pathways to Self-Confidence for Graduate School in Computing," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(3), pages 359-391, May.
    5. Yonghong Jade Xu, 2016. "Aspirations and Application for Graduate Education: Gender Differences in Low-Participation STEM Disciplines," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 57(8), pages 913-942, December.
    6. Rong Chen & Peter Riley Bahr, 2021. "How Does Undergraduate Debt Affect Graduate School Application and Enrollment?," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(4), pages 528-555, June.
    7. Colombo, Daniel Gama e, 2021. "Access to Graduate Education in Brazil: predictors of choice and enrollment in master’s degree programs," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 75(2), September.
    8. Ching-Hui Lin & Jyun-Hong Chen & Eric S. Lin & C. Owen Lo, 2022. "The Effects of College Student Experience on Degree Aspirations for Graduate Education," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, August.
    9. Paulina Perez Mejias & Roxana Chiappa & Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela, 2018. "Privileging the Privileged: The Effects of International University Rankings on a Chilean Fellowship Program for Graduate Studies Abroad," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-23, November.
    10. Ana-Maria Zamfir & Cristina Mocanu & Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu, 2021. "What Encourages Longer Educational Careers in Tertiary Education? A Three-Level Approach for the Case of Romanian Universities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-25, December.
    11. Abdulaziz Abdulmohsen Alfalih & Abdullah Abdulmohsen Alfalih, 2021. "The Impact of Background Characteristics on Graduate School Attendance: Evidence from a Developing Economy," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(1), pages 363-383, March.
    12. Johnson, Matthew T., 2013. "The impact of business cycle fluctuations on graduate school enrollment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 122-134.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jeduce:v:46:y:2015:i:2:p:174-188. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/VECE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.