Katelyn Heath

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I am currently a third year Economics Ph.D. student at Cornell University. My research focuses on the economics of education with an emphasis on special education. In my third year, I conduct research, attend seminars, and work as a teaching assistant. My past courses have included Labor Economics, Public Finance, Economics of Education, and Applied Econometrics. At the end of my first year I successfully took three qualifying exams in Macro, Micro, and Econometrics, which I needed to pass in order to continue in the program. In the first year I was supported by a fellowship, and I have since worked as a TA for a variety of courses. At the beginning of fourth year we are required to pass an oral exam in which we present the research topics for our final dissertation.

My mathematics major at St. Mike’s has been essential to my success in graduate school. My first year econ coursework consisted of as much math as economics, and the courses I took at St. Mike’s prepared me well for this. We have consistently used optimization theory, multivariate calculus, linear algebra, and real analysis. Working closely with professors at Saint Michael’s both in and out of the classroom gave me the opportunity to master the mathematics topics in my undergraduate courses which I am now able to apply to my graduate studies in economics.