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Poeple who made it despite the odds


baffourakoto

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ok so most of us have wrapped up our applications and most closing dates have come and gone and now, we're nervously waiting for the outcome (february and march should get here already!!) a cursury walk through TM paints the picture clearly...most of us have good academic records, did brilliantly on the GREs, tried to get a solid SOP in and did our best to get some good LORs but we are still FREAKING OUT about what our chances of really getting in are!! we know competition is very tough out there and we're all pretty much aiming for the same places.

 

so i thought i'd start this thread where we can share stories of poeple who got accepted to econ phd programmes despite the fact that their academics were not so solid, their GRE scores were not so good or they couldnt get all their material in on time etc. basically, poeple who beat the odds to gain admission. if you know of any such poeple or have heard any such stories, please share. if nothing at all, it'll help ease a few minds and be a nice way to pass our time here while we wait for the results to come out :)

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One of my professors had a letter writer who didn't submit an LOR to Berkeley till well after the deadline. These were the days before applications were done over the internet.

 

Berkeley wrote to him saying that they hadn't received one of his LORs. Since this was done via snail mail, he obviously only received the letter well after the application deadline. He was eventually still admitted. In fact, he decided to do his PhD there.

 

It's important to note that Berkeley did that despite the large costs (in time, at least) associated with notifying candidates of missing materials. So given that communication can be conducted much more efficiently today, there's no reason why they wouldn't do the same this time around.

 

So seriously guys and gals, if Berkeley says they will contact you regarding missing materials, they WILL contact you. Chill out. :)

Edited by chisquared
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One person from my department got a 730 in the Quantitative part of the GRE, and he thought he was going to get rejected from all of the programs he applied to. He only applied to 4, I think, and he did get rejected from two, but he got two admits from Michigan and Washington. He's now at Michigan.

 

It probably helped, though, that he received a thesis award, did spectacularly well in his MA classes, and did good in his math classes (he got to take Calc I-III and linear algebra only though).

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The friend of a friend (hey, it's no imaginary friend, even though this beginning may sound like that, I've actually talked to him on the phone for advice) got 720 on Q GRE. He got rejected from everywhere but... Berkeley! Without funding though.

 

He had done a good/very good French Master , and he had a LOR from the most famous economist of this master. He had done his master's thesis with him but they had not sopken so much and he told me he was not very happy with his thesis. So he had really no idea what this guy would put in the letter, or if he would call someone... Maybe he did...

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Sorry, I hope I'm not hi-jacking the author's original intent, but what would be interesting for me is if anyone else knows someone who from humble beginnings beat the odds just to make it to the stage of getting a Phd?

 

The economist quoted in Freakonomics who carried out the surveys about racial inequalities in the US, and who came from a terrible background (mother abandonned him right after birth, dad violent and alcoholic, very poor neighborhood and high school, almost dropped out of school during high school...) The story told by Levitt is that he entered a university out of sportive distinction, to play futball. He then realized that he was not so good at football but that mathematics and statisitics were very interesting and he ended up doing its econ phd at Harvard!

 

I don't know more details that the ones told in the book

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The economist quoted in Freakonomics who carried out the surveys about racial inequalities in the US, and who came from a terrible background (mother abandonned him right after birth, dad violent and alcoholic, very poor neighborhood and high school, almost dropped out of school during high school...) The story told by Levitt is that he entered a university out of sportive distinction, to play futball. He then realized that he was not so good at football but that mathematics and statisitics were very interesting and he ended up doing its econ phd at Harvard!

 

I don't know more details that the ones told in the book

I never read Freakonomics (gasp), but it sounds like you're talking about Roland Fryer. He got his PhD from Penn State and is a now a professor at Harvard.

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I never read Freakonomics (gasp), but it sounds like you're talking about Roland Fryer. He got his PhD from Penn State and is a now a professor at Harvard.

 

That's him!!!

 

"Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of

School"

 

is one of his paper, this definitly what is reported in Freakonomics

 

And sorry I kind of mixed Phd university with actual one, but hte idea is there (still better with ending up being professor!)

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i really hope there are success stories out there. My under grad gpa sucks (3.0). And I got a C in one of the grad classes I took a few years ago (I got A's in the other 3 classes). I'm worried that I'm wasting my time going through the who app process. My only prayer is an 800Q. But it seems many others on this site have the same so that doesn't give me much hope.
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Guest _nanashi

A good friend of mine with just calculus I and II, applied to an M.A. in Canada (top tier 2), on the evening the online application was due. Her letters came in 2 weeks late and were asked on very short notice. Their grades were solid, but had B+ grades in key courses like Intermediate Micro & Macro. I knew better applicants that got rejected. To make thing clear, said individual only applied to this program, and it was one of those spur of the moment decisions. The people she asked for letters were very well thought out, mostly professors who knew them moderately well and had associate professor rank or better (Top 3 Canadian school with top 2 dept). The SOP was very solid.

 

I know a few people who have had transcripts sent late, or had missing materials that got offers. Generally though it depends on the school whether they will contact your or not. A lack of transcripts for one of my friends, is the reason a lot of places didn't give funding. Lower ranked schools of course are more likely to contact you about missing materials, a lot of places will probably discard your app. I think on average though having application materials coming a week or two late, aren't going to preclude you from getting offers. I think most schools make offers between february to april. That of course isn't always true and is probably dept specific, I figure that most depts are too busy with job market candidates in January.

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Although not quite "rags to riches," I've seen some CV's with some unusual undergraduate majors who definitely beat the odds in getting into a PhD program. I remember one majored in English literature and got a PhD in econ from Princeton. Also there's some guy I recently saw who's at Harvard Business School getting a PhD in strategy who majored in music. He may have been the best clarinetist in the world though, I don't know.
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Although not quite "rags to riches," I've seen some CV's with some unusual undergraduate majors who definitely beat the odds in getting into a PhD program. I remember one majored in English literature and got a PhD in econ from Princeton.

 

We English majors are actually staging a coup.

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I feel like a bit of a grouch for saying this, but I don't find these kinds of stories comforting. Thinking of positive outliers in terms of luck only reminds me of the negative outliers (i.e. those who get unlucky). I guess it's more comforting to me to think that with 25 schools on average my admittances will reflect my quality.
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I feel like a bit of a grouch for saying this, but I don't find these kinds of stories comforting. Thinking of positive outliers in terms of luck only reminds me of the negative outliers (i.e. those who get unlucky). I guess it's more comforting to me to think that with 25 schools on average my admittances will reflect my quality.

 

I have to agree. I was going to post something similar, but didn't want to be grouchy. I have faith that the system is efficient enough that you'll end up somewhere you belong. Remember that the goal is to get a PhD, not to get admitted. If your admission truly was a fluke, then you may feel out of place wherever you end up. But I don't think there are that many flukes. With a lot of the people who appear to be flukes, there was usually something outstanding about them that made the adcoms think they had potential. There are ways, though, of overcoming pretty much any hole in your profile; provided you've got the ability and a lot of extra time. Perhaps even more encouraging, then, are people who got shut out of admissions one year, took time to repair those holes, and then got into really great schools. If you meander through the old profiles and results threads, you'll find plenty.

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