Man it feels good to finally be applying...
Type of Undergrad: Top 25 with a top 40ish econ program. BA in econ.
Undergrad GPA: Overall: 3.74, Econ: 3.8ish, Math: bad.
Type of Grad: Not highly ranked, top 100ish. MS in applied math.
Grad GPA (so far): 3.9
GRE: 790Q / 740V / 5.0
AWA.
Math Courses:
Undergrad: Calc III (B+), ODE (C- (Ouch, I know)), Real Analysis (A-), Linear Algebra (A). The first two classes I took my very first year in college, so I'm hoping they'll be discounted.
Grad: Analysis (A-) (taken at the summer school of a top 10), Measure Theory (A-), Math Stats (A), ODE (A*), Functional Analysis (A*)
Econ Courses:
Undergrad: Intro. Micro (A), Intro. Macro (A), Money and Banking (A), Economy of China (A-), Intro to Econ Stats (B+), Mathematical Micro (A), Intermediate Macro (B+), Econometrics (A), International Trade (A), Distinguished Majors Seminar (A), Independent Study (A)
Grad: PhD Micro I (A-), PhD Micro II (A*)
Courses marked with a * were courses in which I can get a
letter of reference saying I was the best student in the class; these 3 courses are also the 3 most recent on my transcript, which might help.
Letters of Recommendation: 1 from my PhD Micro II professor, 1 from my functional analysis prof, and 1 from the prof I RAed for. All will have very nice things to say about me, but only the prof I RAed for is well known.
Research Experience: Summer at the Fed, senior thesis, 1 year + 1 summer as an RA for a professor, RAing at the IMF while applying.
Teaching Experience: None
Research Interests: International Finance, Time Series
Note: I'm only applying to the top schools this year. If I don't get in this time around (which is what I expect) I'll spend another year at the IMF, get
LORs from economists there and apply to a wider range of schools.
Applying to: MIT, Harvard, Chicago, Princeton, Yale, Berkeley, Minnesota, Columbia, NYU.