Profiles and Results 2009

[tmdruie]

So I can get on the shiny charts!

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: B.A. Physics and Economics from a top 10 liberal arts college
Undergrad GPA: 3.14/4.0
Type of Grad: One stats class
Grad GPA: 3.3
GRE: 790Q, 600V, 5.0AW
Math Courses: Calc I-III(I took them in high school, I really don’t remember and nor do my transcripts), Linear Algebra (B), Mathematical Probability and Statistics (B-, B), Real Analyst(A, at a different school then my undergrad), Stochastic Processes (B+, grad course, at a different school then my undergrad)
Econ Courses: AP Micro and Macro (A, in high school), European Economic History (B+), Law and Economics (B), Intermediate Price Theory (B), Intermediate Macro Theory (B), Econometrics (B), Contemporary British Economy (B), Industrial Revolution-Britain (A-), Econ of Multinational Corps (A-), Thesis (labor econ)
Other Courses: Physics, which I put in my math lists. Quantum Mechanics I, Partial Differential Equations (B+), etc. I only did the bare minimum for a liberal arts major
Letters of Recommendation: 2 econ professors (my thesis advisor and the person who led my study abroad), 1 physics professor (thesis advisor), 1 economist who is my supervisor
Research Experience: RA for 2.5 years at ‘a central bank’
Teaching Experience: Tutored, graded and lab assisted for two years for physics in college
Research Interests: All over the place. Labor, policy, experimental, applied micro, development, etc.
statement of purpose: Intro, I did physics I can do math!, I wrote a thesis in economic and liked doing research, I’m working as an RA and like doing research, I took extra math and can write proofs, I was part of an econ paper reading group and like reading papers, interests (changed a bit depending on what the school had, and more policy oriented for ag econ schools). Also a few sentences about things I did that I removed or added depending on the school. The 500 word schools were hard, the 1000 word schools were easy. I also had a Personal History Statement about being a female doing math for the schools that wanted it.
Other: Applied for the NSF. I tried not to say anything to risky, and not say much about interest in policy to non policy/ ag econ schools. I like Aikido.

RESULTS:
Acceptances: Boston University (waitlist for $), Michigan State(no $), University of Essex (ISER), Ohio State (Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics) ($-Fellowship), Indiana University ($-TA), Iowa State University ($-TA)
Waitlists: University of Minnesota
Rejections: MIT, Harvard (Econ and Political Economy and Government), Yale, Berkeley (Agricultural & Resource Economics), Northwestern, NYU, U Penn (Econ and Wharton), University of Wisconsin – Madison (Econ and Agricultural and Applied Economics ), Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Caltech, University of British Columbia , Ohio State, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (Econ and Public Policy and Economics), University of Maryland (Econ and Agricultural Economics), Boston College, Johns Hopkins, University of Minnesota (Applied Economics), University of California – Davis (Econ and Agricultural Economics), Duke, University of Essex, Vanderbilt, Rutgers, Carnegie Mellon (Econ, Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Public Policy and Economics)
Pending: Toronto MA, Queen’s MA

What would you have done differently?
Gotten better grades in undergrad. When I really started understanding what the things I need to do for a PhD I think I did the best I could, took real analysis, applied for the NSF (if only to write a statement of purpose for them), read papers etc. I probably could have gotten more research experience at my job (co-author), and I defiantly could have gotten better grades and taken more math as an undergrad. But over all I’m happy.

Attending:
Boston University

[z109620]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: B.A. Economics with Minor in Math and Philosophy from a mediocre state school which does have an Econ and Math PhD (NIU)
Undergrad GPA: 3.76/4.00 (Econ: 3.93/4.00 Math: 4.0/4.0)
Type of Grad: Just two masters course Econometrics and Math for Econ
Grad GPA: 3.5
GRE: 750Q, 470V, 4.0AW
Math Courses: Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Diff Eqs, Undergrad Analysis I, and Prob. & Stats (also Undergrad Analysis II (W))
Econ Courses: Typical stuff, plus Grad Math for Econ (B) and Grad Econometrics (A)
Other Courses: A couple proof based logic courses (B,A)
Letters of Recommendation: 1 really good letter (Senior Prof., Wisconsin), 1 good letter (Visiting Prof., Penn) and 1 ok letter (Chair, London)
Research Experience: Senior Paper
Teaching Experience: None
Research Interests: My main focus is Applied Micro Development, however, within the above field I am interested in Agriculture, Trade, Behavioral, Public and Political Economics
statement of purpose: I think it is ok, talked about my Senior Paper, my passion for research and my goals for the future.
Other: I did not get into econ until junior year

RESULTS: (all masters programs)
Acceptances: UC Davis ARE (partial tuition and job as grader), UBC (partial tuition), UPF (no$), Cornell AEM (no $), Purdue ag econ (no $), UIC (no $), U York, U Bristol, U Sussex, USF (20k over two years)
Rejections: Wisconsin AAE and Toronto Doctoral Stream
Pending: Queen’s MA

What would you have done differently?
Well I wish I would have known that I wanted to do Econ earlier, as well as gone to a more prestigious undergrad. However, besides that I feel that I did very well, especially considering the tough year. I am very happy with UC Davis ARE, I plan to work really hard and advance to their PhD, seeing as there program is probably one of the best in the world given my prefers.

Attending:
UC Davis ARE masters

[chestnut.cc]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergraduate: BA Economics from a Top 10 college in my country (south east Asia) with math and stat minors
Undergraduate GPA: Currently (Final Year) 84%. We don't use the GPA system so I'm unsure of how much that translates to. It's similar to a UK percentage system though
Type of Graduate: NA
Graduate GPA: NA
GRE: 760V, 800Q, 5.5 AWA
TOEFL: 119
Math Courses: Three Year long Industrial Mathematics courses. Audited Real Analysis, Linear Algebra of the more rigorous sort.
Statistics Courses: Three Year long Applied Statistics courses.
Economics Courses: Economics Specials I II III IV. Basically intermediate micro, macro, international trade, history of economic thought, monetary, development economics.
Letters of Recommendation: Head of Department, Senior Lecturer, no one known, will serve my purposes.
Research Experience: NA
Teaching Experience: NA
Research Interests: Political Economy, Game Theory, Mechanism Design, Micro theory.
statement of purpose: Short, Simple, just tried to signal course content, courses audited, interests.
Applied to: LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Toulouse, UPF BGSE, Tilburg, Erasmus Mundus
Acceptances: LSE EME(2 yr), Toulouse M1, UPF, Tilburg (MPhil), Erasmus Mundus MMEF1, Cambridge PG Dip (Econ)
Rejections: Oxford, UCL, Erasmus Mundus QEM
Attending: LSE

[wtcracker]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: B.A. Economics from mid-ranked private college with no econ PhD program
Undergrad GPA: 3.63/4.00 (Econ: 3.91/4.00 Math: 2.83/4.0)
GRE: 800Q, 670V, 5.0AW
Math Courses: Calc I-III (A,A,C), Linear Algebra, Diff Eqs (D), Real Analysis (B), Stat (B), also W for Calc III and PDQ
Econ Courses: A's in Intermediate Micro and Macro, Game Theory, Econometrics, et c, B in Environmental, B+ in Math Econ
Other Courses: Liberal Arts
Letters of Recommendation: 3 good letters from Dept Chair, Thesis Adviser, and Micro Theory/Econometrics prof
Research Experience: Senior Thesis, lots of conference experience including refereeing for an undergrad conference
Teaching Experience: 4 years of tutoring principles 1hr/wk
statement of purpose: Pretty good, talked about my desire to do applied, policy-relevant research
Other: Need to be in the Philadelphia area for 4 years while my wife goes to med school there

RESULTS:
Acceptances: Temple PhD ($$), Delaware MA (no $)
Rejections: none

Attending: Temple PhD

What would you have done differently?
1) Better math grades, my glaring weak spot. I could never get myself to finish problem sets even when they were graded.

2) Applied earlier than March to get funding, and to be able to apply at all to Lehigh, Drexel, Penn

3) But really nothing, since Penn is the only school close enough that is significantly better than Temple, and I don't think better math grades and an early application would have been enough to get me in there

[DreamFactory]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: BBA (minor Econ), International applicant, not top but one of the best schools in my country.
Undergrad GPA: 3.83/4.00 after rescale, summa cum laude (within 2% of the graduates, but the transcripts doesn't offer the rank anymore)
Type of Grad: Same school, MA econ - major:Economic theory (expected aug. 2009)
Grad GPA: 4.0/4.0 after rescale
GRE: 800Q, 670V, 4.0AWA
Math/Stat Courses:
Calculus I (B+),II (A), Intro to Probability (A+), Differential Equations I (B+), Linear Algebra I (Aced all exams, A+), II (A+), Analysis I (A+), II(A+), Topology I (A+), Stochastic Processes (A+), grad Real Analysis I (A)
Econ Courses: undergraduate - Principles I (A+),II (A), Biz Econ (A), Monetary (A), Financial (B+), Micro (A+), Macro (A), Metrics (B+)/ graduate - Micro I (A+) II (A), Macro I (A), II (A+), Metrics I (A+), Financial Economics (A), Micro Seminar (A+), Public Sector Economics II (A+)
Other Courses: Bunch in biz. especially in finance (mostly A's or A+'s in finance)
Letters of Recommendation: 2 econ (both micro), 2 biz (both finance), 1 math (analysis 1,2, topology 1), all very strong but not so famous
Research Experience: RA for 2 semesters (participated in a project), 1 working paper, conference participation etc.
Teaching Experience: grad Micro I (MWG) - 2 semesters
Research Interests: Behavioral Finance/Economics/Experimental, Market Microstructure, various topics in Micro Theory......actually almost everything in Finance and Economics since most of them are interesting (I'll choose them after I get to know more)
statement of purpose: no idea how it look like to the adcoms.
Other: External fellowship.(5 years of tuition+health+18k)

RESULTS:
Acceptances/Attending: U of Chicago (Econ, very late admission!)
Waitlists: none
Rejections: 4 econ (actually I was rejected from Chicago econ in March) - Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia
17 finance - Booth, Kellogg, Wharton, Stanford GSB, Sloan, Stern, Haas, Fuqua, Tepper, Simon, Anderson, UIUC, OSU, UMinn-TC, Eli Broad, Wisc-Madison, Johnson
Pending: LSE MSc Finance and Economics (Applied after all those dings)

What would you have done differently?
I would've concentrated more on my SOPs. Should've had different major in my undergrad (changing major is not allowed in my alma mater, and Biz major had toooooooo many required courses back then). Also, I should have gone for exchange student in the U.S. when young...get some LORs from famous faculties there...BUT I DON'T CARE ex-post, I got into one of my favorite school!

[Mobius Strip]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: B.A. Mathematics and Economics from a top 10-15 liberal arts college
Undergrad GPA: 3.87/4.0
Type of Grad: NA
Grad GPA: NA
GRE: 800Q, 570V, 5.0AW
Math Courses: Calc I-III, Linear Alg, Modern Alg, Adv Modern Alg, Real Analysis, Game Theory (in Math Dept), Topology, Chaos Theory. Received department honors in Math.
Econ Courses: Basically all of them, 4.0 GPA, Thesis (A), Department Honors, Brownell Prize for Distinction in the Study of Political Economy
Other Courses: NA
Letters of Recommendation: 2 from Federal Reserve, 1 Math from Undergrad
Research Experience: RA for 3 years at FRB in DC. Co-authored published paper on racial discrimination in credit markets.
Teaching Experience: NA
Research Interests: Labor (Education), Real Estate, Financial Markets
statement of purpose: Talked about my volunteer activities in tough, urban schools and how it shaped my interests in research in education. Transition to work at the Fed regarding discrimination in the credit markets. Final, throw-away paragraph naming some profs at schools who I'd be interested in working with.
Other: Crushed by NSF

RESULTS:
Acceptances: U Michigan (off waitlist, after 0-14 start)
Waitlists: NA
Rejections: MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, Princeton, Chicago, Chicago Booth, Northwestern, Wharton, U Penn, NYU, Columbia, Duke
Pending: NA
Outside Fellowship: Received a $20k fellowship from undergrad college to supplement lack of funding from UM

What would you have done differently?
After receiving NSF results and reading Jeeves's posts, spelling out the broader impacts to make it easier to checklist. I scored fairly well on intellectual merit, but only average on the broader impacts.

Other than that, it's hard to say. I had nearly a 3.9 GPA with a Math and Econ double major, 3 years at the Federal Reserve, a published paper, and a presented working paper. I did spend 3 years in the private sector at a major bank, which probably hurt my admissions results, but gave me a broader personal, real-world experience that I do not regret taking.

Attending: U Michigan - Ann Arbor

[AREStudentHopeful]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: BA in Econ from a medium-sized public university in the Southeast
Undergrad GPA: 3.4/4.0
GRE: 740Q, 510V, 5.0AWA
Math/Stat Courses: Calc I & II, Axiomatic Systems, Linear Algebra
Econ Courses: Intro to micro and macro, intermediate micro and macro, advanced macro, econometrics, managerial, natural resource, environmental, developmental, comparitive systems and money/capital markets ...all A's or A-'s
Other Courses: many environmental science courses
Letters of Recommendation: 5 econ professors (1 Berkeley ARE, 1 Chicago, 2 NC State, 1 UVA)
Research Experience: a final paper for metrics on gas pricing and some limited experience RAing for professors (mostly surveying)
Teaching Experience: tutoring
Research Interests: environmental and natural resource
statement of purpose: pretty standard

RESULTS:
Acceptances: Colorado State ARE MS ($), UNLV MA, UNM MA, UNCG MA ($)
Attending: Colorado State ARE
Waitlists: none
Rejections: Berkeley ARE PhD, UMD AREc PhD, Oregon State ARE PhD, Colorado-Boulder PhD, UMass RE PhD, UC Davis ARE PhD
Pending: NCSU MA, Ohio State AED MS, URI ERE MS (I have retracted all of these)

What would you have done differently? I would *definately* have started taking math classes a year earlier so I could fit more in. I also would have not screwed around as much as a freshman which screwed up my GPA. Overall I feel I'm better prepared now for two years down the road when I do this again for my PhD.

[morgan918]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: BA Economics , around top 10 in China
Undergrad GPA: 87 out of 100
Type of Grad: None
Grad GPA: None
GRE: 600V+800Q+3.5AW
Math Courses: Caculus, Statistics, Linear Algebra, Real analysis, stochastic process, dynamic optimization
Econ Courses: Micro, Macro , Econometrics, Labour, Financial Econ
Other Courses: STATA programming, MATLAB
Letters of Recommendation: 2 from China, 1 from Hong Kong
Research Experience: None
Teaching Experience: None
Research Interests: Micro


RESULTS(All Master):
Acceptances: McGill MA($), UBC MA(no $), Alberta MA(Canada, $), SFU MA(Canada, $)
Waitlists:None
Rejections: Iowa State, TAMU
Pending:None

What would you have done differently?
maybe some writing samples will be fine

[ariel1987]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: International student atbadly Ranked Canadian University - B.Sc Mathematical Economics. Highest average among all economics students in my university.
Undergrad GPA: 3.96/4.00
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: 730Q/560V/4.5 ; 780Q/410V/4.0
Math Courses: Calc I-IV (A+, A+,A+, A+), Linear Algebra I-II (A+, A+), Intro Probability (A+, A+), Mathematical Stats I-II (A+, A+), Ordinary DEq (A+), Topology (A-), Mathematical Econ I-II (A+,A+), Stats for Econ (A+)
Econ Courses: (All A+) All micro and Marco Sequence, Econometrics I and II, Public Finance, Research Thesis, Research Methods for Economics.
Other Courses: Lots of Arts in first year, and some political Science
Letters of Recommendation: 3 really good ones from unknown profs
Research Experience: RA for my econometrics prof. CUrrently co-authoring a paper that will be sent to a not very highly ranked journal
Teaching Experience: TA, Marker, Tutor for Econ & Math
Research Interests: Labour Economics, Economics of Education
statement of purpose: Standard, nothing special.
Other: Undergraduate full scholarship throughout my 4 years, 3 other internal scholarships,4th best average in all university among graduating students

RESULTS:
Attending: UBC MA ($$$) Acceptances: SFU MA ($$$$), LSE (MSc Econ)
Rejections: Queens (only accepted two int'l students), Berkeley, Cornell, Michigan, UCSD, Chicago
Pending: UofT (MA)What would you have done differently?
1) Taking Math earlier: Basically started taking math in 3rd year and overloaded to get my degree.
2!) Going to a better university: Couldn't get good references. But again, I have no money to pay for int'l tuition in Canada, and I was fully funded.
3) Not applying to LSE --- I don't know how I was expecting to be funded by them.
4) Not Applying to Queens: Horrible treatment towards intl' students

Overall, I am very happy with the outcome. UBC is a fantastic place for my MA and probably my PhD!

[lovertothemoon]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: B.A in Economics, B.A. in International Relations, minor in French from U of California Davis
Undergrad GPA: 3.33
Type of Grad: entering first year phd in economics
Grad GPA: n/a
GRE: 680 verbal, 720 quantitative, 5.5 writing
Math Courses: Calculus 1(B), 2(B+), 3(A), vector calculus(B), differential equations(C+), linear algebra (A), set theory(B+), real analysis 1(B+), 2(B), 3(C), applied linear algebra (C), mathematical statistics (C+), probability theory (A).
Econ Courses (undergrad): macro 1 (B+), macro 2 (B+), micro 1 (A-), micro 2 (A), world economic history 1 (A), world economic history 2 (A), game theory (C+), topics in macro economics (A-), econometrics (C), international macro (B+), international micro (A), east asian economics (A+), individual research (B+)
Other Courses: lots of political science regarding the international arena, french, and 19th/20th century history courses
Letters of Recommendation: 1) one of the top economic historians, who also was my research adviser and department chair. 2) ecn professor who pushed me to go to grad school and really liked me. 3) ecn professor who also acted as research adviser.
Research Experience: research in monetary history for a two quarter independent honors research course
Teaching Experience: nothing beyond french tutoring
Research Interests: macro, growth theory and development, economic history, and international economics
statement of purpose: standard, focused on research experience and dropping a french major to take math classes my senior year to be prepared for ecn.
Concerns: bad math grades and gre score
Other: Female, worked all throughout college,

RESULTS:
Acceptances: U of Washington, George Washington U, both without funding
Waitlists: (ultimately rejected from all) U of California Irvine, UMASS, Notre Dame U, Texas A&M
Rejections: MIT, Caltech, Stanford, U of California Davis, U of Michigan, Michigan State U
Pending:noneWhat would you have done differently?
1)I would have applied to less schools in the top 20 and more lower ranked schools, because i wasted money applying to schools i never had a chance at. also would have applied to more schools in my home state of california.

2) started my calculus series early and taken the right one first, so that i didn't have to take business calculus, and then real calculus. I also would have given up french altogether and just gotten a triple major in international relations, mathematics, and economics.or at the very least, begun my math earlier so i could have taken that 1 last class i needed for a math minor. taking all your math in the last 4 quarters was not good planning. oh, and probably would have taken more statistics classes.

3) probably would have actually studied for the gre, rather then just going in an expecting to do calculus, not geometry.

in reality, i have no idea how i got in. my gre scores where horirble in comparison to the rest of y'all, and my grades were not nearly as good. i think i only got in because i took so many math classes (even with the bad grades), and i had a couple of REALLY good recommendations and a nice statement of purpose. so, never undersetimate the power of good relationships with professors and the resulting recommendations.

i'm going to University of Washington's ecn phd program without funding, and hope that the lack of money only lasts the first year. wish me luck