Back in early April of 1988, I made my first visit to the University of Chicago to attend its Recruiting Day. I have fairly clear memories of that day but it is hard to believe that 25 years have passed. As I speak to admitted UCLA students who are considering attending graduate school here in 2013, I flash back to my Recruiting Day. I remember Robert Lucas walking into the room and telling the impressed students that "at Chicago, the faculty took economics seriously". I didn't know what he meant but I knew he meant that I didn't know. (good sentence?)
That day, I met Ed Glaeser and Erzo Luttmer and my future wife. I immediately saw that this was a peer group I could learn from. I still remember Glaeser quizzing me on the substance of my undergraduate thesis at Hamilton College and his detailed discussion of his own thesis he was completing at Princenton. I was more impressed with his thesis on Paul Volker and Federal Reserve Bank than my thesis on Lucas' island economies and exploiting the Philips Curve.
25 years ago?
