PHD in Business Economics and profile eval

[Kevs]

Originally I was considering getting a pure economics PHD. I got my GRE scores and my quantitative score was 159 (750), which is a tad low for pure econ. My verbal was 160 (600) and analytical was 5.0/6.0. So overall scores quite good, and I just got an email from Harvard about their business economics program. Im rather interested in industrial organization and game theory, so beginning to think business econ may be more suited to me than pure econ. Thoughts? I dont know much about these types of programs.

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Midwestern Private Uni; B.S. Math, B.S. Economics (double major)
Undergrad GPA: 3.86 overall, 4.0 economics, ~3.9 Math
GRE: 159Q, 160V, 5.0 AWA
Math Courses: Calc I (B), Calc II (A), Calc III (A), Discrete I (A-), Discrete II (A), Differential Equations (A), Linear Algebra (A), Real Analysis (A), Probability and Statistics (A), Statistics (A), Abstract Algebra (currently taking and doing well), Game Theory (will take it in my final semester)
Econ Courses: Standard undergraduate classes including econometrics, all A
Letters of Recommendation: Should be really good. Getting a math professor whose PHD is from Berkley. He taught me real analysis and I got the second highest grade on his calc III final in 20 years. My senior thesis adviser/guy I'm a RA for will write a good one. And another econ professor that I know very well will write a good letter too.
Research Experience: Senior Thesis on industrial organization using game theory, all of which I have had to learn independently. It is potentially publishable and nearly complete. I'm also an RA doing exports/imports stuff for one of my professors.
Teaching Experience: Have been a tutor for 3 semesters for intro economics and calculus
Research Interests: Industrial organization, game theory
SOP: Not written yet
Concerns: I dont know business econ well enough to have concerns...

[CSFive]

That quantitative score is also low for business econ from business schools, but there is also a lot of variation in who gets into business PhD programs. However, I was at a PhD open house at NYU Stern recently, and one of the professors was asked about low quant scores. He replied that they know what's on the test (basically high school math), and if your score isn't great, but you have a lot of advanced math courses with great grades, they aren't likely to worry about that. Your quantitative studies look great to me (another prospective student, who is worried because I have a higher score, but fewer quant classes). That being said, if you're interested in economics generally, and your concern is about getting in, you might still want to take a stab at the econ programs. Econ programs in business schools are still very competitive. Here are some statistics: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/programs-ad...tics/index.htm (NYU Stern puts out a lot more data than most schools, but the other top schools are not any easier to get into).

[ffsmaster]

That seems competitive profile. You may want to try Kellogg MEDS as well. However, if I were you, I would not only apply for business econ. Many of these programs do not take regular students every year (like in WUSTL-Olin). And given their size, they care much more about how your background/interest fit with their faculty. This leads to higher variance in admission. I would also apply for some pure econ with strong IO.