Would Welcome Thoughts on 2011 Profile

[optimal2307]

Hey all, I would appreciate any thoughts on my profile below and what schools I should be targeting. Thanks in advance.

I plan on applying for the 2011 application cycle after having done 2 years of investment banking as an analyst (top rated analyst in group and bank). I had a priori to graduating decided I was going to go to econ grad school, but wanted to gain some real-world business exposure before doing so. I'm now taking a year off prior to applying (necessitated by personal situation) and will be doing some part-time work for a hedge fund in the meantime (to stay cash flow neutral), as well as reviewing econ and math texts (Chiang, MWG, Romer, Greene, etc.). Below is my profile:

Type of Undergrad: Top 10 overall / top 20 econ
Undergrad GPA: 3.5, Econ Major with High Distinction/ Math Minor - Econ GPA: 3.8, Math GPA: 3.7
GRE: 800Q/670V/5.0AWA
Math Courses: Calculus Sequence, Linear Algebra, Ordinary Differential Equations, Linear Programming, Adv. Mathematical Probability/Statistics, Measure Theory, Real Analysis I
Econ Courses: Macro sequence, micro sequence, econometrics, law and economics, health economics, honors seminars, other electives
Other Courses: Other humanities, some sciences, writing and jazz, ...
Letters of Recommendation: One from very well-known health economist with ivy phd (did my thesis with), one from econometrics teach who I TA'd for 2 semesters also from ivy, one from statistics teach who I TA'd with for 2 semesters and took 2 courses - all should be very strong
Research Experience: Honors thesis was it - high distinction and published in undergrad journal for what it's worth...
Teaching Experience: 4 semesters - Prob/Stats (2 sems) and Econometrics (2 sems) TA'ing (won teaching award for econometrics)
Research Interests: Health and econometrics
Other: 2 years of investment banking analyst experience - top rated analyst in group and across the bank - hopefully will be somewhat of an instrument for discipline, maturity, and ability to perform under pressure situations
Concerns: Time away from academia, lower overall GPA (due to non-relevant-to-econ course grades)

Again, would appreciate any advice the collective wisdom has on my profile, target schools, and anything else constructive.

Thanks to all.

[dsdoodle]

Seems like your recommendation letters will make the difference between a top 10 admit and a top 20 admit, imo. You have a decent profile bar the lower GPA, but a pretty solid math/econ GPA. I don't know how much working two years will really help you. Perhaps it will show your maturity and ability to work under pressure but it may end up hurting you more because in the end it's still time away from coursework and may reflect negatively. I think you have a great shot at a school on the edge of the top 10 and most likely schools in the top 20. I don't know enough about specialties of each school to make a recommendation though.

[backtotheUS]

What bank makes you want to back into academia, if I may ask?

[jachno]

My understanding of IBs is that they work you to death. If that's true, your experience in your time away from academia would be invaluable in the first year of the PhD sequence. I've talked to two recent hires at my school (new PhDs from Ohio State and Texas A&M), and both recommended working in the real world before going to a grad program; the idea is that the 9-5+ hours per day of work better prepare you for the time you need to put into grad school.

Your lower overall is still decent enough, and your econ and math grades are definitely good. I don't think adcoms care if you got lower grades in nonsense humanities courses (just don't fail them).

Hopefully that helps with your listed concerns

[BigPink]

You're in a great position. The only thing I can suggest is that you work hard to convey your passion for economics in your SOP, since you're trying to convince the adcom that you're okay with spending the next 5 years in relative poverty.

Also, if the group you worked in focused on the healthcare industry, be sure to emphasize that (you probably would have mentioned that in your post if that were the case, but anyways...)

[optimal2307]

Thanks for the advice all -

While I would not rather list the name of the bank, I will just say that it was tumultuous two years filled with layoffs as "rightsizing" due to a "necessary merger" prevailed the culture. Overall, the lack of intellectual stimulation combined with a lot of incompetent people consistently pulling massive power trips (for the large part to hide their incompetence) and pushing down hard on their subordinates was not fun. I did become extremely proficient at Excel and VBA though, which was a nice corollary.

I did work in the healthcare group (forgot to mention that in my profile...but nice call BigPink). In the drafts of my SOP I've been writing I've attempted to weave that into how it relates to my interests, real-world experience on topics I briefly touched on in my thesis, etc...