…consider the options. There is a deep divide between "freshwater" and "saltwater" schools – not in terms of quality, but in terms of philosophical approaches (non NYT link here for those without subscriptions.  

Where you go to school will crucially influence how you explain the great recession…

"That is, freshwater schools tend to explain all downturn (including the great recession) as the result of a great forgetting of technological and organizational knowledge, or as a great vacation as workers suddenly develop a taste for extra leisure. this characterization is no joke. Of course if the two type of schools disagree on the origins of the crisis, imagine how different the policy prescriptions are to resolve the great recession.   

Krugman piles it on, and Cochran replies. Unpleasant mudslinging, but the philosophical divide is real and will play out in your grad school education.