Second Year Video

I absolutely LOVED second year as it honestly reminded me why I applied to the PhD in the first place. The year was filled with reading, writing, presenting, attending seminars, and of course - some of the activities that kept me sane!

My UC Davis Econ PhD Year 2 Experience

Second Year Reflections

Academics

To me, second year was all about building collegial relationships with Faculty, reading seminal papers/learning core theories defining my fields, and developing my research ideas.

At UC Davis, second year consists of taking 9 field courses - 3 in one major field, 3 in another major field, two elective courses, and one economic history course. My two fields were labor and development, and I took electives in immigration history, machine learning, and a public economics course on optimal policy. Many of the courses in labor/public economics also cross-counted, exposing me to many topics at the intersection of the two fields.

For me personally, I found that second year highlighted some of my strengths and encouraged me to continue developing skills in information processing, critical thinking, writing, and presenting.

  • Information processing - There are SO many papers to read. Before every class, before every discussion, for assignments, and just for fun because it’s interesting. I learned the hard way that it is impossible for me to properly read each paper. Even if I tried, I wouldn’t fully understand all parts of each paper! Then, there was the challenge of reading papers for all classes. Prioritization was key. A few habits that helped:
    • I would read all the intros/conclusions of required reading. If I was presenting on a paper, I would read the whole paper in more detail and annotate it
    • For each paper I read, I tried to summarize the research question, method, conclusion, and my thoughts in one paragraph of bullets in Google Docs. It’s now a nice reference! For some classes, we were actually required to do this and especially emphasize our thoughts on where the paper fell short/if it inspired other research questions.
    • I downloaded all papers to Zotero so that I could highlight them, annotate them, and easily cite them later
    • For papers I had trouble with, I used AI tools like “Notebook LM” and the “AskPDF” extension to Zotero to answer the clarifying questions I had/confirm my understanding
  • Critical Thinking - As a former debater, I absolutely loved the classes in which Professors asked us to “poke holes” in the papers we read. This required a sense of how the paper connected to the topics we were learning in class and a strong foundation in econometrics and applied methods (since I took applied micro courses). A few habits that helped:
    • I tried to avoid the “common” critiques of measurement error and external validity and think of weaknesses more specific to the paper
    • I sucked up my pride and asked econometric questions to ensure I fully understood identification. I asked myself a few key questions: (1) what format is the data in, (2) how would I run this regression, (3) what are the main identifying assumptions needed, (4) how are these assumptions tested, (5) were there other assumptions they needed. If I couldn’t answer these questions, I’d try to ask instead of shying away.
  • Writing and Presenting - I am a firm believer that communicating economic ideas is a skill everyone needs. No matter how good and technical a paper is, it does not matter if others cannot understand it. I really appreciate that most classes required us to submit referee reports, research proposals, and paper presentations. A few habits that helped:
    • I utilized office hours and spoke to my peers to discuss my research ideas. Doing so repetitively helped me feel more confident in how to frame my “pitch” and get inspired by questions to refine my proposal.
    • I attended as many seminars I could to be inspired by multiple presentation styles and develop my own.

Work-Life Balance

I found second year to be BUSIER than first year, which I didn’t think was possible! It’s a different kind of busy because there is less pressure from graduate requirements (no prelims), but more internal pressure because I was more passionate about the topics. I kept up with the same routines as first year and noted my accomplishments in a running list The list now includes more seminars, conferences, and some of my first grants awarded! Everyone’s second year experience is different - but hopefully this provides an example of that types of activities you might expect!

I’ll end on a social note. While first year had a TON of camaraderie since everyone in my cohort took the same classes and studied for prelims together, second year was socially a bit different. I am very lucky and thankful that our cohort remained close through birthday celebrations, lunches, and social events. But I was surprised that I saw many classmates less frequently if they were following different field tracks and taking different classes. Since I craved social interaction, I tried my best to make an extra effort and meet with the cohort mates not in my classes.

Overall, I am very satisfied with second year and feel anxious, but prepared for the “leap” to research!