Overview

This guide is a personal data point from my 2026 PhD application cycle. I applied across economics, applied economics, agricultural economics, and environmental/resource economics programs, with research interests centered on environmental and energy economics, applied microeconomics, policy evaluation, and causal inference.

I will start my Ph.D. in Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at The Ohio State University in Fall 2026. The reflections here come from my own application process, so they should be read as one applicant’s experience rather than a general ranking of programs or a statement about academic quality.

The main audience is future applicants who are interested in applied, agricultural, environmental, energy, resource, development, and policy-oriented empirical work. When I was applying, I found many resources on economics PhD applications in general, but fewer public examples focused on these overlapping subfields. This section is meant to reduce search costs by organizing the questions, materials, and decision points that mattered in my own cycle.

I intentionally avoid publishing private information such as detailed funding amounts, application identifiers, portal links, recommender information, faculty-match lists, and private communications. When I discuss application experience, I frame it as workflow, portal, or communication experience rather than as criticism of a specific program, department, faculty member, or individual.

How to Use This Guide

• Treat this as one reference point, not a formula.
• Compare across program types by research fit, advising environment, placement, funding clarity, and personal constraints.
• Use the practical checklists as prompts for your own spreadsheet or notes.
• Keep final judgment your own, especially when advice from rankings, peers, faculty, and online forums points in different directions.