Could Steve Levitt get into a top Ph.d. program today?
Read the debate. Steve says U. Chicago would nix him for lack of undergraduate mathematics classes. He believes that Harvard or MIT "might still take a chance on me today."
I am a strong believer in having at least one top school — Chicago once played this role — which accepts virtually everybody and lets competition sort them out in brutal fashion. I am also a strong believer in having more graduate students at top schools know economic history than real analysis. I don’t expect either of these wishes to come true anytime soon.