Quote:
Originally Posted by DismalScientist
Personally, I find working at the World Bank more fulfiling than a professorship at an Ivy league university. And I am more interested in applied economics than pure theory. And working at the World Bank doesn't really require a Ph.D. in economics from a fancy school.
As far as the GRE, you're right, it did make me ask myself whether or not a doctoral program is for me after looking at my score. In fact, I only did 17 questions before I had one minute and something left, which was scary. For the sake of discussion, however, I think a high gpa has more predictive power than how fast you can do "8th grade math".
Best
~DismalScientist
P.S. Ramlau, good luck with that tenure at Harvard. I'm sure JHU will prepare you very well.
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First, I really am not trying to start a fight, and I mean to help. I'm getting real on this whole PhD thing though.
Does the World Bank require a Ph.D. in economics from a fancy school? That depends on how you define the word "fancy." You may want to check with the World Bank on that. From the recent placements I've seen, you are a lot more likely to get a position at the World Bank coming out of a top 30 school than a top 50 school, and in turn a top 100 school. While unlikely to be a perfect proportionality, the higher the rankings of the school you go suggest the better chances you have for a place like the World Bank. I hope you know that already.
Don't get us wrong. We may sound like we are getting negative, but with all good intentions we are saying that you can score higher than 650 and you should do it for the very sake of getting into a decent program and then achieving your goal of working at the World Bank. The rankings matter much. It's that simple.
Again, the GRE is not a test on your intellectual capacity. It's just a check on whether you are serious about getting accepted.
Ram
P.S. So this is my Sherman statement: I never wanted to become a professor at Harvard, not to mention tenure.