Wei Xie,
WISE 2006 MA Student, USC 2009 PHD Student
Time flies fast. Three years ago when I entered WISE, I was ignorant of what my future would be. Now, when I begin my PhD study at University of Southern California, I am thankful for WISE. It is the dense academic atmosphere at WISE that helped me to discover my interest and to accumulate self-confidence. Below I’ll try to compare the study at USC with WISE, which may help WISE to improve its existing teaching style. I hope that some of my statements here can really in some sense contribute to our WISE family.
By now, I’ve been in LA for two months. On the second day of my arrival, I was asked to attend the campus-wide TA training for international students. During the weeklong training, the university provided us with free accommodations on campus, which facilitated our transitions to the new environment.
The instructors for the TA trainings are faculties from various disciplines. They taught us how to perform in front of classes, how to encourage students, how to handle many kinds of difficulties with the students, and how to master the resources and equipments. We were led to some current TAs, who shared with us their teaching experiences and helped us to answer our concerns, and we were also led to some current students, who told us their expectations about TAs. Recall my experience of being a TA at WISE last semester, I realize that it would be a good idea to hold a similar TA training for all the new TAs, which would help the new TAs to identify their responsibilities and acquire many practical skills.
At the same time of the TA training, the Economics Department started a Math Camp for all incoming PhD students. The contents covered in the Math Camp were similar to what I was taught in the “Mathematical Economics” class at WISE. The professor talked about key concepts in linear algebra, multivariable calculus, optimization, probabilities and statistics, real analysis, etc. Due to the time limitation, the Math Camp did not go deep in these fields, but it helped us to have a quick review of many important math tools for economics. I like the professor’s way of teaching, which not only introduces formula but also introduces their origins, extensions, variations, and applications. In addition, he often used geometric interpretations or intuitive explanations to help us understand these abstract concepts.
From the end of August, the new semester started here, when our lives as first-year PhD students turned busy. Every week, our schedules are fulfilled by lectures, TA review sessions, discussion sessions, and mountains of homework assignments. This semester, I am required to take Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Probability and Statistics, which is the same arrangement as my first semester at WISE except that at WISE there were two additional courses (“Mathematical Economics” and “Scientific Socialism”). Due to the trainings I received at WISE, it makes my study here easier with more confidence.
This semester’s microeconomics is focused on game theory. In class, the professor pays a lot of attentions to train our analytical thinking. Instead of asking us to take notes unstoppedly, there are more chances for us to think about the questions together. It is the advantage our small class, in which the professor have a lot of interactions with us. The lectures are not hard to understand, but when it comes to the homework, we really have to make efforts, because none of the questions are simple modifications of textbook examples. Instead, many of the questions are extracted from journal articles, which require knowledge beyond what we learn in class. So we usually need to read more in order to solve one problem.
In the macroeconomics class, before introducing the classic models, the professor talks about the stories behind these models, like how these assumptions come about and how the models are related to empirical findings about the real economy. We are also taught how to turn the theoretical models into Matlab applications. I remember that one of the most difficult courses I felt at WISE was “SAS and MATLAB”. It was difficult for me because I hardly understand how I would need these softwares. Here, each week the TA teaches us how to use Matlab to solve macro problems, such as solving steady states of differential equations with different algorithms. By having a chance to put the models we learn in class into Matlab experiments, I feel it easier to encourage my interests in the theories and to learn Matlab more efficiently.
Besides the two “core” courses, one more course that I am taking this semester is “Probability and Statistics”. In the first semester at WISE, I have learnt “Probability and Statistics” with Professor Hong’s lecture notes. The 2005 version of Professor Hong’s lecture notes on Probability and Statistics is already quite advanced and comprehensive. I remember when I took that course at WISE, I reviewed the lecture notes many times to find it a great reference book. But in the “Probability and Statistics” class here, the professor adds a lot of measure theories, which were not emphasized during my previous study and thus are new to me. All the basic definitions such as expectation and independence are now restated in terms of measure theory, with which many obvious properties are combined with rigorous proofs.
This year we have 10 incoming PhD students at USC. I met all my new classmates during the Math Camp, and by now we have become friends with each others. I am one of the four Chinese students in my class, and the rest of the class come from India, US, Brazil, Argentina, and Turkey. I am happy because it is the first time for me to study in a class of so diverse backgrounds. My international classmates are very active in class. They ask all kinds of questions about the classes, from clarifying their understandings to questioning the usefulness of concepts such as Nash Equilibrium. I am used to listen to lectures silently in China, but here we are expected to ask and interact. So, I am learning to seek questions, which I feel helpful for me to keep concentrated through the class and resolve my doubts immediately.
Because most of the homework questions are very difficult, the professors here expect us to discuss the problem sets in a group (but we are required to submit homework individually). Therefore, every week we do our best to solve the questions by ourselves first, and then we come together to discuss them. In case that no one solves a question, we discuss to find out hints for solving it. In case that we dispute over a question, we discuss to find out the reason why one solution is right and how the others go wrong. I am finding group discussion to be a good way for me to digest knowledge, because even if I can solve a problem by myself, I can still learn how different people think about a same problem and what techniques they are employing through the discussions.
A last thing that I want to mention is the research seminar here. I came to know what research seminar is when I was at WISE. I remember that in the very beginning I felt forced to sit in seminars, because I could not understand much of the speakers. But later I got to know that although I may not need to understand every detail of the speeches, it is a good way to find out at least interesting research topics and how these authors present their work by listening to seminars. Every week, the Economics Department at USC holds regular theory seminars to invite external and departmental scholars to present their research work. As a first-year PhD student, no one requires me to attend seminars any more, but now I wish to listen to every seminar which I am interested in.
In all, the three-year training at WISE laid down solid foundations for my PhD study. Now, I am at the beginning of my PhD years. At USC, we need to pass the core exam before entering the second year and during the whole program complete up to 60 units of credits, two research papers plus one degree dissertation. I know that the next 5 years is going to be a new challenge for me, and I will work hard toward the realization of my dream as an innovative researcher in the years ahead.
