Profile Evaluation (Fall 2011)

**tantivy** · 08-06-2010, 11:28 PM

Hey Everyone!

I've been reading the forums for a year or two now and have gotten a lot of helpful information. Now that it's time to start narrowing down a list of places to apply, I feel like I've hit a wall - every university seems to have something appealing about its program, faculty doing interesting work, etc. I'm interested in where you think I have a shot, but also in hearing any suggestions for schools that might be a good fit where I have a good/decent chance of being accepted.

Profile:
Type of Undergrad: B.S. in Econ, minor in Math from a small, relatively unknown liberal arts college in the US
Undergrad GPA: 4.00/4.00
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: Got 780Q, 730V on my first practice test, taking it in September
Math Courses: Calc sequence, calc-based statistics, ODE, intro to proof-based math, taking Linear Algebra and Real Analysis this fall
Econ Courses: micro/macro I and II, econometrics, policy analysis, developmental, monetary, game theory
Other Courses: Nothing too relevant, enough to also graduate with an international studies certificate, lots of Spanish
Letters of Recommendation: Two should be excellent, one good
Research Experience: fairly involved econometrics project, just finished an REU at University of Michigan, and am getting ready to start on my senior project
Teaching Experience: just tutoring, but a lot of it
Research Interests: Development (particularly Latin America), Experimental.
Other: I'm a Truman Scholar, named senior of the year for the economics department, some coding experience in ztree (experimental economics software)
SOP: standard
Concerns: Pretty minimal math, lesser known undergrad with a smallish econ dept.

Thanks for your help!

**backtotheUS** · 08-06-2010, 11:55 PM

Where does your school usually place its top students? If you don't know, try to find out!

**AREStudentHopeful** · 08-07-2010, 12:05 AM

I'd agree; knowing the past placement of your school will really help see what your possibilities are. Your math looks pretty good as long as you follow up your applications with your fall transcript (to show the grades for RA and LA), you should be fine. If I had to take a guess (mind you, this is not knowing where your school has placed), I would say you have a good shot at top 30/top 20 schools. The only reason I wouldn't say higher is due to the lesser-known undergrad, but depending on past students that may or may not be a problem. In that range, UCSD, Maryland and Ohio State all come to mind. Maybe adding Colorado, Vanderbilt and schools like that as lower-ranked target/safety schools. There are many other schools out there in this range and knowing your school's past placement will help determine if you could maybe aim higher.