Profile Evaluation / Please Recommend some additional schools to apply to!

[bobloblaw]

Hi, I have been lurking around here for about a year now. I've read through most of the recommended threads and thought I'd finally put my profile up here to see what the collective wisdom is on my chances.

I would really like to find some good Masters programs to apply to in addition to the usual range of PHD programs. I am planning to apply to Tufts but suggestions for others would be great.

Also, I am really interested in Education. Any recommendations for schools doing great things in that area would be much appreciated.

I will be graduating in fall 2011 (I started during a spring semester) and I am planning on applying then, so I have some flexibility for additional Math / Economics courses to take over the next two semesters (mostly I just have Gen-Eds, etc. to finish up after this semester). Suggestions on ways to round out my math and economics background would also be apreciated.

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Flagship State University with top 50 Econ PHD program. Econ/Math double major.
Undergrad GPA: 3.9
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: 790 / 710
Math Courses: Calculus I, Calculus II, Multivariable Calculus, Advanced Calculus, Ordinary Differential Equations, Calculus Based Statistics (two semesters), Introduction to Proofs, Linear Algebra, Introduction to Modern Analysis, Mathematics of Finance, Non-Linear Dynamics.
Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro Theory I, Macro Theory I
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Introduction to Micro, Intro to Macro, Intermediate Micro, Intermediate Macro, Writing in Economics, Game Theory, Independent Study, Honors Thesis
Other Courses: Nothing super relevant.
Letters of Recommendation: Two tenured Econ Professors, both graduates of top-twenty programs but neither are particularly well known. Third will be from a Math professor who I had for differential calculus and have TA'd for ever since. All should be good recommendations, but I'm not sure if they will be "best student in career" good.
Research Experience: Honors Thesis in economics of education
Teaching Experience: TA for Pre-calculus
Research Interests: Education!
SOP: I am an Iraq war veteran, and I talk a little bit about that but otherwise its pretty generic.
Concerns: letter of recommendation's from professor's who aren't particularly well know. No graduate level analysis. My undergrad Econ department is not particularly prestigous, and my school is well regarded but is not an Ivy. Nothing in my profile pops out to differentiate me from the masses of would be economists. No econometrics. Funding is a major concern.
Other: Preference to live in the Northeast, but could move for the right opportunity.
Applying to: Dream schools: MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Boston University, Boston College, Princeton, NYU, Tufts. Recommendations for more realistic schools would be very welcome - I'm just not sure which programs line up best with my interests. I have a meeting with an adviser to discuss some other schools to apply to coming up, but I'd love to have some additional names to talk to him about going into that meeting.

Thanks very much everyone. This board is great. I've learned a lot reading here. Hopefully I'll go to a great school and get a chance to contribute some!

[whatdoido]

Why is not having graduate level analysis a concern? Honestly, I really don't think you need to bother with a masters, unless your not totally sure about getting the PhD yet. You have an excellent GPA, good math, graduate level econ. courses, and good recommendations. I think you have a nice set of schools there (could drop tufts) and I think you could probably do with adding one or two more in the 15-30 range and maybe a safety in the 30-50 range. I don't know anything about education so I don't think I could recommend any schools for it.

[Liwanyo]

I definitely agree with tossing more 15-30 type schools into the mix. That's where I'm targeting (fingers crossed) and your profile seems substantially better than mine (more math, grad econ). It seems like top 5/10 competition can be pretty insane, whereas 15-30 it seems to me that you shouldn't have any problems.

For schools that are strong in education, I don't know either but it's definitely not a problem to ask your professors about it. They'll definitely be able to help you out-- it's not really reasonable for you to already know that kind of thing imo since education is not a big field as far as I'm aware, so I wouldn't worry about sounding naive or unprepared.

[bobloblaw]

Maybe I should clarify about the Education interest. I am interested in all economics fields, and I realize that there most likely aren't many (any?) places that really specialize in applying economic analysis to education issues, but I know there are professors out there doing a lot of great cross-disciplinary research in this area. Most of the inspiring papers and books I've read on the subject seem to come from the Harvard / MIT nexus, but if anyone knows of other schools that have professors doing interesting research along these lines I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks for the votes of confidence on 15-30 schools. Given that I am going to need funding, this is probably where I'll end up.

As far as the Masters programs go, I am 95% sure about pursuing a PHD, but like most people on this board, I'm more interested in doing research than teaching. If I don't get into the right program or receive good enough funding, I'd like to have some Masters options available to try to bolster my application for subsequent cycles.

Thanks again for the responses.

[AREStudentHopeful]

I think I remember hearing that Michigan has a couple of people doing education (the grads at Michigan here can fill this one in more).

[asquare]

I think I remember hearing that Michigan has a couple of people doing education (the grads at Michigan here can fill this one in more).

True. Brian Jacob, Sue Dynarski, and Brian McCall are all economists who specialize in education. Other labor economists at Michigan who have done substantial work on education are John Bound, Jeff Smith, and Kevin Stange.

[The MAN]

I think I remember hearing that Michigan has a couple of people doing education (the grads at Michigan here can fill this one in more).

Michigan State has a program specifically for Economics of Education (headed up by Wooldridge). It's probably a lower tier school than what the OP is looking for though.