The purpose of this list is to provide a gathering place for grad students (and aspiring grad students) in Economics, Finance, Math, Statistics and related disciplines. Students in these disciplines share some meaningful common experiences:

a) brutal competition to get into good programs

b) grueling first-year coursework and qualifying exams often meant to "weed-out" a significant proportion of the incoming class

c) skills, aptitudes and interests that can be easily turned to one's advantage in the private sector (hence, serious decisions about how to concentrate one's studies to keep all options open while maintaining an eye, perhaps, toward the academic job market)

d) disciplinary cultures -- esp. at the grad level-- which are bit less than "warm and fuzzy," and profs/fellow-students who may be dearly wanting in some of the more important interpersonal skills etc.

e) research activities which are neither laboratory-based (as with the lab sciences & engineering) nor library-based (as with the softer social sciences & humanities)

Ideally, this will become a vibrant forum where students from a cross-secion of related disciplines at many different universities might share their questions, concerns, frustrations and insights in a setting of relative anonymity and comfort.