PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Public, Top 40 Econ PhD program
Undergrad GPA: 4.0, Economics (Honors) and Political Science
GRE: 800Q, 740V, 5.5AWA
Math Courses: Calc I-II (AP test), Multivar. Calc (A), Math Stats I-II (A, A+), Linear Alg. (A+), ODE (A+), Undergrad Real Analysis (A+), PhD Real Analysis (Withdrawal).
Econ Courses (PhD-level): Micro I w/MWG (A)
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Standard intermediate and field courses (A/A+'s), Econometrics (A+)
Letters of Recommendation: Should be very enthusiastic I think. One from PhD micro prof./informal thesis adviser (Stanford GSB PhD), one from current boss (Harvard PhD), one from well-known metrics prof. (Fellow, Econometric Society & ASA).
Research Experience: RA for econ prof (lit rev.), Honors Thesis (Simple game theory application), RA at economic think tank (some in-house discussion papers + potential co-authored journal submission)
Teaching Experience: Limited tutoring.
Research Interests: Public, Environmental, Development, Applied Metrics
statement of purpose: Focus on learning more and more rigorous methods to work on the types of problems I've encountered in my job.
Concerns: My "W" in PhD Analysis, but I hope the combination of previous math grades,
letter of reference's, and my performance PhD Micro will quell some of the related doubts.
Applying to: MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Yale, Michigan, UCSD, Maryland, UT-Austin, a couple more top 10s/top 20s, plus a safety TBD.