Questions about transfering to a new Econ PhD program

[curious applicant]

I guess my question really is do people transfer from one Econ PhD program to the next? Going into the whole application process, I knew I didn't have enough math to get into any really good Econ programs. I did get in somewhere and was wondering if getting a Masters there and doing well would help me if I re-applied to the big boys later on. Would a Masters from a lower-tier school help me gain admission somewhere better? Also, would I be able to transfer any credits or would I have to start from scratch? Thanks for any help/advice.

[econphp06]

Originally Posted by curious applicant

I guess my question really is do people transfer from one Econ PhD program to the next? Going into the whole application process, I knew I didn't have enough math to get into any really good Econ programs. I did get in somewhere and was wondering if getting a Masters there and doing well would help me if I re-applied to the big boys later on. Would a Masters from a lower-tier school help me gain admission somewhere better? Also, would I be able to transfer any credits or would I have to start from scratch? Thanks for any help/advice.

you can do this... but it is diffucult to get reference letters from your profs. I think they dont want to write a reference letter to a student who will left their program....

[Panda77]

Yes I second econphp.
Unless you have an excellent reason to transfer to another school (say for example after a year you realize you want to specialize in labour econ, but the place you are @ doesn’t have people doing research in that area) I think it will be kind of hard to have good rec letters and this will severely hurt your chances of admission.