MIT First semester

So everyone here takes at least 4 courses in the first year, the core micro, macro and metrics + a field course. I took Industrial Organization.

First Quarter Micro - Parag Pathak was a very good lecturer. It was MWG from preferences, classical demand, robust comparative statics (No calculus comparative statics ala Athey Milgrom and Roberts), partial equilibrium and general equilibrium. We had problem sets every week which were usually pretty instructive, but didn't count for the grade. Had a final exam at the end which was ungodly horrible. Everyone in the econ department passed, but it wasn't pretty. It was at that moment that a classmate of mine (who is also an military guy) said he didn't have PTSD, but he sure had MITSD.

Second Quarter Micro- Game theory with Glenn Ellison. Glenn is a fantastic lecturer with a good sense of humor, he's really supportive and clear. Granted, the topic wasn't terribly difficult for me, but he made it very enjoyable.

First Quarter Macro- Guido Lorenzoni was tons of fun. Basically this was just a tools class where we learned dynamic programming from SLP. Exam was hard, but he graded it really easily. Again, everyone in the program passed.

Second Quarter Macro - Daron Acemoglu is an amazingly smart guy who very clearly wanted to convey a lot of information to us. The result is we did his ENTIRE economic growth text book in 6 weeks! Incredible. Problem sets took ages (easily double the amount of time on all other classes combined) and the exam was very difficult. Still no idea the outcome. Definitely material worth learning from a giant in the field, but I wish we could have had a whole semester rather than just a quarter.

Metrics - Generally an easy class. I didn't do great in it mostly because of my own laziness, but Anna Mikusheva and Victor Chernozhukov were both clear and friendly.

IO - Again with Glenn. Again, Glenn is amazing. This was basically a theory class where we learned all of the classic models and some of the cutting edge models in Industrial Organization. On the way, he gave us empirical papers about the models, both structural and reduced form and was able to put it all into context very nicely. One of the best courses I have ever taken. Of course the downside is that it was really hard. The midterm was a disaster, and the final today wasn't easy either... But no regrets at all. I'm very happy with my decision to take this class

Overall Quality of Life
This one I've got effects going in both directions. First, I really like the people in my class. They are all brilliant and we have really great conversations when it isn't about problem sets. We got out together maybe 4 or 5 times during the semester. The flip side is that they are all extremely hard workers. So when I want to slack off and do something more fun, it imakes me feel especially like a slacker. That's not so big a deal though.

It took me a while to get used to the fact that doing below the median on a test wasn't the end of the world. I am, in fact, being compared to some pretty amazing people. But the week between taking the micro final for the first quarter and finding out that I passed (I was certain I had failed) were some of the worst days psychologically.

Generally for the program, I think Macro dominates the first semester way too much. I'd rather spend more time on game theory than growth, but that's just the way it works here I guess... I look forward to next semester, though I haven't exactly decided which field course(s) I will take.