Please evaluate

[tomal1134]

CMU and caltech was my dream schools. But its just a dream right now. Will it be possible to be admitted with fund in any school i listed above(considering my AWA score)?

[AREStudentHopeful]

I would bet you'd have a good chance at funding at OSU, ASU, UK, Iowa St. and Wyoming. Some schools have odd preferences for good AWA/TOEFL vs. not...so NCSU and Cornell ARE might be possibilities too, depending on how much they care (I don't claim to know).

[tomal1134]

Thanks AREStudenthopeful I am considering Wyoming as a safety.

[Gecko]

Purdue has a Vernon smith experimental lab i strongly advocate that you retake the GRE, then add some higher ranked places.

[tm_guru]

Originally Posted by walt526

Hmm... I haven't worked out the statistics, but I would think that one would need n>2 to statistically rule out a 800 from an applicant who scored 780 or 790 on two tests.

Agreed, it wasn't a statistical analysis, it was more of a verbal argument... i.e. given that 780 is 90th percentile, 790 is 91st, and 800 is 94th percentile, a single score of 780, given the trend of improvement in repeat candidates scores, makes it likely that they will or can score 800 if they take it again, which means that not scoring 800 is worse than not taking it again... or something like that. I can't remember where on earth I read this but it makes a certain amount of sense.

Essentially, if you hit 760+ on your first attempt, you are playing with fire to take it again. The logic must be that if you've had so much practice and can't score 800 the second time round that you are not as good as someone who just takes it once and scores 780.

[tomal1134]

@Gecko:

Now i am doing my masters here. And the courses are pretty rigorous, specially econometrics and micro. Econometrics is being taken by MIT phd who is following Microeconometrics by Trivedi for panel data. And for micro MWG is being followed.

Because of these pressures and uncertainty about doing much well next time, i have postponed my plan of retaking. I will sit for it again after my masters. By that time i will know the admission decisions. This time i just need to be into some place with fund. If next attempt happens to be a lot better, i will reapply some good places for 2011's fall.

[tomal1134]

What about West Virginia university as a safety? I have found their placement record in academia is decent, even though not in top 50 schools.

http://www.be.wvu.edu/phd_economics/placement.htm

[Gecko]

good luck

[walt526]

Originally Posted by tomal1134

What about West Virginia university as a safety? I have found their placement record in academia is decent, even though not in top 50 schools.

Overview

I was talking to one of my professors about possible safeties a few weeks ago and was surprised when he mentioned that their recent hiring committees have been impressed with WVU job market candidates (although they didn't hire any). His impression was that WVU really pushed their PhD students to publish from very early on in the program, much more so then comparably ranked programs.

[tomal1134]

I am also thinking about applying to some masters programs in US. Can anyone please mention some programs those fund well and have decent placement record in PhD programs?. Those not necessarily should be top programs.