Got 790 Q and 600 V, From Bangladesh, ARE Masters or Econ Masters or Econ Phd?

**muaztrek** · 12-03-2008, 03:31 PM

Gave my GRE recently and thankfully ended up with a good score of 1390. I am confused as to where i should apply. My primary focus is PhD in topics related to development economics. I have been working in an international Development project for 3 years almost.

My undergrad CGPA was 3.73, which was in Business administration with minor in economics. Subsequently i enrolled myself in MSc in Economics and currently am in the last semester, CGPA in MSc is around 3.97 (out of 4 ofcourse) . I have few coauthored articles in some of the well-known local journals like Bangladesh Development Studies (I doubt it counts).

Got A in all the major grad econ subjects like Adv Macro Adv Micro Adv Econometrics and Mathematical Economics. As a matter of fact my only A- in MSc in Econ was in Contemporary Econ Thought

Now given my profile I was thinking of applying to ARE/Applied Econ programs at MSU Wisconsin Mad Ohio and Econ progs at UBC Queens and UFT. They are all MSc programs. After my second MSc i thought i should go for Phd rather than aiming for Phd now. So my questions:

1) Apply to Phd or MSc
2) Apply to ARE/Applied or Econ programs if focus is, topics in Development Economics
3) Am I targeting the right schools or being overly optimistic about my chances or (I HOPE) overly pessimistic LOLz.
Regards

**jeeves0923** · 12-03-2008, 03:41 PM

What kind of math background do you have?

**studentecon** · 12-03-2008, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by jeeves0923

What kind of math background do you have?

Why should this matter? Being able to read Stokey and Lucas should be a sufficient statistic for math preparation. If the OP has performed well in advanced economic theory courses, I really don't see why an adcom should care how he got there, except perhaps if the intended field of study in grad school is theory. Of course the issue is how advanced courses at the master's level are, but the point I am trying to raise is that sometimes people here go mad with the math requirements. This seems to contradict my (admitedly limited) understanding of how things work in my department and also my reading of JList's posts.

**jeeves0923** · 12-03-2008, 05:24 PM

It certainly matters what the familiarity with math is. I never said "If you don't have X,Y,Z, you don't have a chance." I simply asked a question. Goodness...sorry if I offended you...

**leguan** · 12-03-2008, 05:59 PM

A good topic, though. This forum really seems to overstate formal math coursework. As far as I know, if you managed to do graduate coursework in economics, this is seen as sufficient by adcoms that your math background suffices for a PhD. How you got to your math, I doubt that somebody cares.
Of course, if you got an A+ in something like topology, this will still impress adcoms.

**studentecon** · 12-03-2008, 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by jeeves0923

It certainly matters what the familiarity with math is. I never said "If you don't have X,Y,Z, you don't have a chance." I simply asked a question. Goodness...sorry if I offended you...

I sincerely apologize for making my point by quoting you. That your first reaction to the OP's question was ''what are your maths?'' instead of ''what were your adv econ textbooks?'' or ''what is your class rank?' is, in my humble opinion, representative of the tendency of this forum (and by all means, not your's only) to overemphasize some requirements for admission. Sometimes reading this forum makes me think that even a PhD in Econ with some publications is not good enough for admission if you don't have real analysis

. As I have said in the past, real analysis is good, but many people pick up things along the way and this is sufficient for the majority of fields in economics.

**muaztrek** · 12-03-2008, 06:23 PM

Bingo I was expecting a question along that line (Math) but not so soon,lolz. Anyways my math background, imo, is adequate if not picture perfect.

I did two courses on Statistics ( i know not math) two courses on calculus. Basically in my ugrad i had an introductory calculus course and i aced it. Then during my Grad i took the second highest level ugrad calculus course (calculus III) and aced it too. then i took grad level math econ course which was a hotchpotch of real analysis (minimal), calculus, optimization, the usual DEAL.
next semester, for fun, i am planning to take engineering math and real analysis (they did not offer it before), unfortunately i cannot use them to impress adcom.

as for class rank, if anyone interested lolz, i was 3rd in ugrad and 1st now. But i guess that hardly matters when you are coming from the far flung of the globe.

**jeeves0923** · 12-03-2008, 06:26 PM

I think you could get into some PhDs with your stats. Your math definitely seems sufficient for admissions purposes. I think there are a few others on this board from Bangladesh who might be more qualified to speak on the reputation of your uni and journal.

I say, why not at least try a few PhD's, and then have a few MSc's as well just in case? Given your interest in development, ARE schools would probably not be a bad idea.

**muaztrek** · 12-05-2008, 12:57 AM

Thanks Jeeves but can you suggest few names in MSc. What concerns me is that although UBC is ranked somewhere around 20ish, their placement (MS program) is not that good!! Whereas surprisingly Queens, somewhere around 60, has great MS placement record! Second, any idea on US MS programs?

With my current profile targeting a high ranking Econ Phd program is "irrational" and so I was wondering what if i go to a great ARE MS program and then apply to a top PhD in econ program? I mean i already have an MS in Econ, albeit from Bangladesh, and I can always take the extra Grad level Macro course which is not covered in ARE. So guys any thoughts on this wacky idea?

**asianeconomist** · 12-05-2008, 04:57 PM

Firstly, I think before dishing out any advice to the OP, it would be especially useful to remind ourselves of the the advice of John List on the multitudinous applications that are expected in this cycle.

With the OP's profile, I do not think that he will be able to get into any good ARE PhD programs. Places like Berkeley, Maryland and Davis are certainly out of reach. Getting a Masters from a ARE school doesn't sound like a great idea though. IMHO, the OP would be much better off doing a regular Masters in Econ while concentrating on Dev Econ courses.

As an aside, I would also strongly advise the OP to look at places like Oxbridge and LSE. The developing country background might just get you a funding opportunity at those places.