<p>“For the most part though, all the students from the elite privates have a good idea of grad level research and study by the time they get to the PhD school – at least in econ.”</p>
<p>Perhaps this is true of the individual students who “make the cut” and get selected into your PhD Econ department.</p>
<p>However I doubt that the masses of econ majors at many of these schools have any connection to research whatsoever. Certainly not at my alma mater. This is apparent by just looking at sheer numbers of econ majors vs. the number of profs. And remember that all these profs. have grad students to do their research. in any event.</p>
<p>None of the econ majors that I personally knew and remember from my own school did any undergrad research, so far as I can now recall.</p>