{"id":835,"date":"2011-04-27T10:03:47","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T14:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/?p=835"},"modified":"2011-04-26T10:08:50","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T14:08:50","slug":"guest-blog-the-economics-advising-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/2011\/04\/27\/guest-blog-the-economics-advising-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blog: The Economics Advising Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings from the Economics Department Advising Office.\u00a0 As the largest concentration at Harvard, we in Econ have a dedicated team of advisors (a.k.a., The A-Team) to assist undergraduate economics concentrators.<\/p>\n<p>What is the &#8220;advising office,&#8221; you wonder? With around 800 concentrators, doling out advice and helping said concentrators can be a bit daunting.\u00a0 Enter: the Ec Advising Office, where some interesting people can help you find your way around our lovely Department. We also have a steady supply of coffee, tea, chocolate, and an occasional puppy.\u00a0 Yes, that&#8217;s right\u2014we have puppies.<\/p>\n<p>Who is in the advising office, you wonder?\u00a0 We have five dedicated advisors, our Undergrad Program Assistant Emily Neill (who doubles as a fashion consultant), and the Director of Undergrad Studies Professor Jeffery Miron.\u00a0 Jeff doesn&#8217;t live in the advising office like the rest of us, but he visits a lot (\u2026mainly for the coffee and puppies).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What happens in the advising office, you wonder?\u00a0 Our Advising Office is the hub of excitement in the Economics Department.\u00a0 Throughout the year, we host a variety of events for concentrators.\u00a0 On a typical day, we answer all sorts of questions, sign forms, engage in deep conversations about economics and the world, and help people select a flavor of tea.\u00a0 Here is a non-random sample of our conversations with students this week.\u00a0 For anonymity, names have been changed.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jinyuan, a senior, wanted to know when he\u2019ll get his honors exams result.\u00a0 Patience, dear.\u00a0 It&#8217;ll take a few weeks and you have papers to write. We\u2019ll be in touch.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Maria, a junior, wants to take some graduate level Ec courses during her senior year and wondered what math background she needs.<\/li>\n<li>Guy-in-a-red-shirt couldn\u2019t find the bathroom.\u00a0 Out the door, to the left, then a quick right at the elevators.\u00a0 No worries.<\/li>\n<li>Josh, a grad student (gasp!), came by to steal some coffee.\u00a0 It&#8217;s not even that good, dude!<\/li>\n<li>Brian, a junior, wants to write an honors thesis and was wondering what he can do over summer break to prepare.\u00a0 We had a lovely talk, and he is pumped to get started on research.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0Throughout the academic year, we get a huge variety of questions.\u00a0 Some A-Team favorites:\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0<em> &#8220;OMG am I, like, totally going to be lost in the sea of Ec concentrators?&#8221;\u00a0<\/em> Well, you could, like, totally get lost in the shuffle&#8230; but you don&#8217;t have to get lost in the shuffle.\u00a0 You can absolutely have meaningful interactions with faculty, get to know them, and have them get to know you.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In fact, many Econ professors\u2019 office hours are often empty.\u00a0 Most professors enjoy interacting with students. You should totally take advantage of office hours.\u00a0 You can invite your favorite prof to a faculty dinner and have a nice chat over a delicious meal.\u00a0 You can attend one of our many weekly seminars and chat with a prof afterward.\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<em>Does being an Econ concentrator mean I have to work on Wall Street after I graduate?&#8221;\u00a0 <\/em>No.\u00a0 While many of our students pursue careers in finance, so do many students from other concentrations.\u00a0 You can focus on any of a number of Ec subfields: game theory, labor, development, environmental econ, political economy, health, psych and econ, and more.\u00a0 Or, you can study Ec while you&#8217;re a student just because it&#8217;s super fun, and then do something completely different when you graduate!<\/li>\n<li><em>&#8220;What GPA in Econ will guarantee me an awesome job when I graduate?&#8221;\u00a0 <\/em>First: relax.\u00a0 Consider taking up yoga.\u00a0 Second: no GPA can guarantee anything.\u00a0 When you look for a job someday, you are a package; your GPA is only one part of that.\u00a0 You also have a personality, interests, extra-curricular accomplishments, character, hopes, dreams, and more.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t get so focused on a number.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, there you have it: a glimpse into the Econ Advising Office.\u00a0 Why do we all spend our time here, you wonder?\u00a0 Economics provides a fascinating way of examining the world.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a way of thinking about how people, companies, and countries work, and why we observe certain phenomena.\u00a0 There are many opportunities here at Harvard to learn economics from some of the world&#8217;s best economists.\u00a0 There are also many opportunities to put what you learn into action via student groups, studying abroad, interacting with amazing visiting speakers, researching questions important to you, and much more.<\/p>\n<p>Our office helps students interested in Economics make the most of their time here and get ready for life beyond Harvard.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a pretty neat thing to be a part of, and is why we&#8217;re all here (\u2026though we like the coffee and puppies too).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings from the Economics Department Advising Office.\u00a0 As the largest concentration at Harvard, we in Econ have a dedicated team of advisors (a.k.a., The A-Team) to assist undergraduate economics concentrators. What is the &#8220;advising office,&#8221; you wonder? With around 800 concentrators, doling out advice and helping said concentrators can be a bit daunting.\u00a0 Enter: the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2492,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29776,37316],"tags":[15599,415],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-admissions-office","category-guest-blogger","tag-advising","tag-economics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions\/838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}