Value of CS when applying to a PhD program

[Adamah]

I graduated in January with a double major in Math and Computer Science, and a minor in Economics. My GPA was 3.95 and I received an 800M/600V/5.5 GRE score. My school's Math/CS departments are about #25 nationwide, but the Econ department is around #50.

I want to pursue a PhD in Economics and plan to apply at the end of this year. However, I'm not sure if I can make it to a top 10 school. While my GPA and GRE score are competitive, I have 0 research experience and probably can't get a letter of recommendation other than "Did well in class".

I'm going to do research this summer with a professor, but it's CS research and not Economics. The topic involves machine learning of game theory, so it will overlap to an extent, but the professor is a CS professor (and a well known one, but I don't think he'd be well known in the Economics world).

So my question is, will this research still be a big help for Grad school, even though it's for Computer Science? Also, will graduate schools like the Computer Science major? I don't think many students that apply for an Econ PhD have one, so I'm hoping it will make me a more "diverse" candidate.

On a side note, do top 10 PhD programs care about teaching experience at all? I was a pre-calc TA for 3 semesters and also gave some presentations on Game Theory for a gifted students summer program, so I was hoping to use that in my application.

[OneMoreEcon]

My guess is that your best option is to look for a year-long full-time RA position. Your CS experience should help, since it shows you have relevant computational skills. In return, beyond a salary, you should get a strong letter of reference from an econ professor. However, that may not happen before you have to submit applications in the fall.

Letter from CS prof? My guess is that few, if any, economists read machine-learning papers, so his rep in CS - unfortunately - won't help unless he's just plain famous even outside the field. Letter will help, but will still be discounted since he "doesn't know" economis.

TA for pre-calc means nothing. I was paid to TA a course in an econ program that I was totally unqualified for, and they knew it, but I was paid to show up twice a week regardless.

Overall, you should like a very good - but not GREAT - applicant and should expect a decent outcome. But my definition and your definition of "decent" might be very different.

[KGkhan23]

I can't speak to the benefit of a CS major or research. Off the top of my head though, Susan Athey and Sendhil Mullainathan studied it at the undergrad level, and they've done alright for themselves. I do think that any adcom will look at your transcript and know that you had a tougher route through undergrad than an econ/math major.

I think you have a shot at some top 10s, but grad school admissions were mad hard this year and some people are expecting them to get worse. I would also apply to several 10-25s, and safeties in the 25-40 range, if you're willing. If you are set on a top 5, then consider doing a masters in econ (LSE, Oxbridge, and Queens and Toulouse come to mind as places with good placement records) or getting an RA gig. These will help you secure letters. I think the latter would be a better option, if money is an issue. But the bottom line is that nobody can be certain about getting into a top 5 or even a top 10 school, so don't beat yourself up if you don't make it.

[economía]

I completed my undergrad degree in CS at one of the top Canadian universities and am now pursuing the economics route. From my experience, I have found very little overlap between the two disciplines (my undergrad degree was more related to CS-theory...languages, algorithms, etc) but the discipline required to succeed in CS bodes well for undertaking studies of economics. The strong math background associated with a Math and CS degree should put you in good stead, in general.

Though I don't have much experience with applying to top 10 US schools, I know it's extremely competitive. Doing well in a tough but un-related discipline may not be enough to show up on an adcom's radar. If you are able to before applications, try to involve yourself with something related to economic theory that you can present in your application (either through LORs or courses). Showing you can translate your success in CS/Math to Economics will be something the adcoms will be interested in.

[slightlyconfused1]

I agree with almost everything the other commenters say here, and I'll add to OneMoreEcon's suggestion of an RA gig: if you have good coding chops, you may be perform very well as an RA. Many RA jobs (though not all) involve a lot of coding in statistical packages like Stata, SPSS, and R, or applied mathematical software like Matlab or Gauss. This coding is pretty trivial (with a little practice) to people who are experienced programmers, and if it's the main focus of an RA position, you may be able to outperform even people with a much more extensive background in economics.

I don't want to make any false assumptions: as someone with some background in academic computer science but very coding experience outside a few algorithm-heavy programming contests, I know that "computer science major" does not imply "devoted hacker," and most advanced computer science bears zero relation to the programming you'd do as an econ RA. Depending on your background, though, it may be a good option to consider.