Applying to too many reaches?

[EconDev137]

I am afraid that I might be applying to schools a little out of my range. My profile is listed below, my interests are international development and applied microeconomics. So far i think that Indiana and Arizona are matches and that colorado is more of a safety, but other than that every school is a reach (especially maryland and duke). If you guys would please suggest a few more schools that I should look at or give any advice at all it would be greatly appreciated.



Type of Undergrad: B.S. in Quantitative Economics and B.A. in Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs from midsized public with no phd
Undergrad GPA: 3.36
Type of Grad: NA
Grad GPA: NA
GRE: 770Q, 570V 4.5 AWA
Math Courses: Calc I and II (AP), Calc III (A), Linear Algebra (A), Real Analysis (in progress should be B), Probability (B+)- It was regression based statistics
Econ Courses: intro micro (C), intro macro (C), Intermediate micro (A+), Intermediate Macro (A+), Econometrics (A-), Honors Advanced Econometrics (A), Economic Growth (A), International Monetary Relations (A), Environmental Economics (B+), Economic Development (B+)
Other Courses: Took econometrics at Ohio State (A)
Econ Courses: (Masters Level) Advanced Macro and Advanced Micro (both in progress should be A's)
Letters of Recommendation: One should be very strong (northwestern), then the other two should be strong as well (princeton and purdue)
Research Experience: I worked at a public policy think tank doing research.
Teaching Experience: None
Research Interests: Development Economics, Applied Micro, international economics,
statement of purpose: Will highlight upward trajectory of grades, how i have a strong interest in development work and would like to do hands on research. Pretty Standard other than that
Concerns: I had a bad first three semesters at school (3.0, 3.0, 2.6), since then ive had over a 3.7 each semester. I went abroad one semester as well and that semester isn’t included in my GPA. I realized I wanted to do a phd a little later in my undergrad career so I decided to stay an extra semester to take the master’s level micro and macro.
Other:

Applying to: Maryland, Duke, Penn State, Boston College, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Arizona, Indiana, Colorado-Bldr, Purdue,

I also might apply to OSU AEDE, MSU ARE and Maryland AREC, but im a little afraid of ARE job prospects because I want to be a professor and not a researcher at some institution forever.

[ZomgRogged]

You can never apply to too many reaches. You can apply to too few safeties.

[walt526]

Originally Posted by ZomgRogged

You can never apply to too many reaches. You can apply to too few safeties.

Agreed. The only cost to apply to a reach is about $120 (app fee, transcript fee, and GRE score report) and a little bit of time (once you've written one statement of purpose, it's not that time intensive to tailor it for other schools usually).

[EconDev137]

I guess my initial question was stated incorrectly. I should have said that the percentage of reaches on my list is too high. I think that i've applied to mainly reaches and not enough safeties, so im looking for maybe some more matches or safties to apply to. sorry

[tm_guru]

I think you will probably get one or two offers from that list if your LoRs are strong...

[walt526]

I would be surprised if you did not get at least an offer of admission from one of U CO, U AZ, U IN, or Purdue. I'm a little fuzzy on how to evaluate your applicant profile, so it's hard to distinguish between target and safety school. It really depends on your LORs. Funding might be another matter depending on the adcoms' opinions of your undergrad institution, but you should get at least one offer of admission from that group. And a strong letter of reference could be enough to get you into one of the higher ranked schools on your list.