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jjwong · 2009 October 21st, 02:17 AM

Hello
I am finishing a MA Economic from North Carolina state university in spring. I will have a 3.9 gpa in the program. I have done research work for a professor and will complete a thesis in labor economics.

My undergraduate degree is from Beijing Technology and Business University 3.88 (4.0 scale); Ranked among top 5%, I have published papers in China.

I got a 780Q and 480V on GRE. I wonder what level schools I would be accepted to. I have not seen many results for Chinese students with masters degrees from US universities.

Some choices:
Harvard
Georgetown
Yale
Princeton
Northwestern
Tolson
Columbia
Cornell
MIT
BU
BC
Carnegie Mellon

Also I have 3 references from US professors. One very well known in econometrics. Please advise.

Thank you!

kprinceing · 2009 October 21st, 03:01 AM

A little bit too aggressive. I guess

SlowLearner38 · 2009 October 21st, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjwong

Hello
I am finishing a MA Economic from North Carolina state university in spring. I will have a 3.9 gpa in the program. I have done research work for a professor and will complete a thesis in labor economics.

Unless the jobs of all admissions committee members were out sourced to Norway, then unfortunately only the green statements will have any marginal value to the decision made by adcoms this year.

However, you are probably fine in the range of schools you are shooting for, but 1 or 2 additional safeties never hurt anything...except me of course, that is, if your application to a safety school lands in the same e-pile as one of mine.

tm_guru · 2009 October 21st, 03:49 AM

Given your letter-writer is known for metrics, then you might have a shot at Yale, however of the remaining, I would suggest;

Harvard - no chance
Georgetown - good chance
Princeton - no chance
Northwestern - no chance
Tolson - never heard of it having a phd in econ, so you won't wanna go there
Columbia - no chance
Cornell - chance
MIT - no chance
BU - chance (no funding though)
BC - good chance
Carnegie Mellon - good chance

However, after completing your master's and your thesis (if it goes as well as you would hope), your admissions prospects will be even better :-)

If you are intent on applying and attending for Fall 2010, then I would suggest applying to 2 or 3 top schools and then apply to more programs ranked 20-50. You should be fine at places like Georgetown and BC (although BC is macro oriented)

walt526 · 2009 October 21st, 05:15 AM

I agree in general that you need a few more safeties (and possibly a few less reaches, although obviously apply if money isn't a consideration). Without knowing the content of the LORs, I don't think that's it's appropriate to label any school as "no chance," although I agree with tm_guru that majority of your schools are longshots.

Most Chinese students don't complete MA Economics in the US because they're relatively poor investment. Doing a European or even Canadian MA Economics is a better alternative (both as a signal and preparation for the rigors of PhD) or a MS Statistics. I agree with SlowLearner that your NCSU graduate GPA is unlikely to be seen as relevant by the majority of adcoms--however, a non-native English speaker successfully completing an degree in an English-speaking university is a non-trivial accomplishment. If one or more of your LORs mentions strong writing ability, then that will be an advantage.

All that being said, I do agree with the consensus that you're targeting too many elite programs and not enough Top 15-30. G'town and CMU are good targets, but their admissions class are both very small so it's difficult to bank on either. Applying to another larger program or two in the Top 20-40 as a target school would seem to be reasonable (like UC Davis), but you probably should apply to at least one other Top 30-50 program as a safety (again, although G'town is within that ranking, it's too small to count on).

My guess is that the Top ~10 programs that you are applying to (Princeton, MIT, Northwestern, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia) are very unlikely. Again, the only cost is money, so if that's not a consideration than apply to all 6. But if I were in your position, I'd probably apply to only 2 or 3 of those, but not really expect to be admitted to any of them (I'm applying to 3 Top 10 programs: Berkeley, Northwestern, Stanford, and don't expect to be accepted to any of them).

jjwong · 2009 October 23rd, 11:13 PM

Thank you all for the advice. I was not suggesting that I would be applying to ALL of those top programs, I just was wondering what my chances were.

I am still unsure why I would have "no chance" as some suggest. All professors writing my rec's are amongst the most well known ones at NCSU.

Can anyone suggest some 20-50 programs in the Northeastern area that I would have a chance of getting money at? I don't think I will get money if the school only gives TA money. So schools w/ RA are better.

Thank you all.

jjwong · 2009 October 23rd, 11:17 PM

I should also mention that I am taking the CORE classes this year. So far I have an A in both. It is not a standard MA, it is a pre-phd track. Why would an MA from the US be worse than Canada?

NB888 · 2009 October 24th, 01:52 AM

An MA from the US is not necessarily worse than an MA in Canada. The MA in econ programs in the US vary in their curriculum, and some of them have a flexible curriculum. I see no reason to conclude that they are always worse or less rigorous than the average Canadian masters in econ program. Many of the Canadian masters in econ programs have a mixture of students who will do a Ph.D. afterwards and students who won't, so they aren't designed with only academia and Ph.D. students in mind.

applicant12 · 2009 October 24th, 03:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NB888

An MA from the US is not necessarily worse than an MA in Canada. The MA in econ programs in the US vary in their curriculum, and some of them have a flexible curriculum. I see no reason to conclude that they are always worse or less rigorous than the average Canadian masters in econ program. Many of the Canadian masters in econ programs have a mixture of students who will do a Ph.D. afterwards and students who won't, so they aren't designed with only academia and Ph.D. students in mind.

I agree with this. Although Canadian master's programs may be more rigorous in coursework, after talking to the graduate director at my school, I think it all depends on the flexibility of the programs themselves. That is, whether they will allow you to take math courses to boost your chances of being accepted to good PhD programs

jjwong · 2009 October 24th, 05:35 AM

Yes, this degree has been very rigorous compared to others possible routes even at my own school. I have taken Mathematics for Economists (Simon & Blume text), PhD level econometrics, and Real Analysis, among many other courses.

2009 October 21st, 02:17 AM	#1 (permalink)
jjwong I JUST got here. Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 7	Evaluation Please Hello I am finishing a MA Economic from North Carolina state university in spring. I will have a 3.9 gpa in the program. I have done research work for a professor and will complete a thesis in labor economics. My undergraduate degree is from Beijing Technology and Business University 3.88 (4.0 scale); Ranked among top 5%, I have published papers in China. I got a 780Q and 480V on GRE. I wonder what level schools I would be accepted to. I have not seen many results for Chinese students with masters degrees from US universities. Some choices: Harvard Georgetown Yale Princeton Northwestern Tolson Columbia Cornell MIT BU BC Carnegie Mellon Also I have 3 references from US professors. One very well known in econometrics. Please advise. Thank you!

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2009 October 21st, 03:01 AM	#2 (permalink)
kprinceing Dreaming of flying Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 23	A little bit too aggressive. I guess

2009 October 21st, 03:49 AM	#4 (permalink)
tm_guru TestMagic Guru-in-Training Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 635	Given your letter-writer is known for metrics, then you might have a shot at Yale, however of the remaining, I would suggest; Harvard - no chance Georgetown - good chance Princeton - no chance Northwestern - no chance Tolson - never heard of it having a phd in econ, so you won't wanna go there Columbia - no chance Cornell - chance MIT - no chance BU - chance (no funding though) BC - good chance Carnegie Mellon - good chance However, after completing your master's and your thesis (if it goes as well as you would hope), your admissions prospects will be even better :-) If you are intent on applying and attending for Fall 2010, then I would suggest applying to 2 or 3 top schools and then apply to more programs ranked 20-50. You should be fine at places like Georgetown and BC (although BC is macro oriented)

2009 October 21st, 05:15 AM	#5 (permalink)
walt526 TestMagic Guru Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 1,309	I agree in general that you need a few more safeties (and possibly a few less reaches, although obviously apply if money isn't a consideration). Without knowing the content of the LORs, I don't think that's it's appropriate to label any school as "no chance," although I agree with tm_guru that majority of your schools are longshots. Most Chinese students don't complete MA Economics in the US because they're relatively poor investment. Doing a European or even Canadian MA Economics is a better alternative (both as a signal and preparation for the rigors of PhD) or a MS Statistics. I agree with SlowLearner that your NCSU graduate GPA is unlikely to be seen as relevant by the majority of adcoms--however, a non-native English speaker successfully completing an degree in an English-speaking university is a non-trivial accomplishment. If one or more of your LORs mentions strong writing ability, then that will be an advantage. All that being said, I do agree with the consensus that you're targeting too many elite programs and not enough Top 15-30. G'town and CMU are good targets, but their admissions class are both very small so it's difficult to bank on either. Applying to another larger program or two in the Top 20-40 as a target school would seem to be reasonable (like UC Davis), but you probably should apply to at least one other Top 30-50 program as a safety (again, although G'town is within that ranking, it's too small to count on). My guess is that the Top ~10 programs that you are applying to (Princeton, MIT, Northwestern, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia) are very unlikely. Again, the only cost is money, so if that's not a consideration than apply to all 6. But if I were in your position, I'd probably apply to only 2 or 3 of those, but not really expect to be admitted to any of them (I'm applying to 3 Top 10 programs: Berkeley, Northwestern, Stanford, and don't expect to be accepted to any of them).

2009 October 23rd, 11:13 PM	#6 (permalink)
jjwong I JUST got here. Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 7	Thank you all for the advice. I was not suggesting that I would be applying to ALL of those top programs, I just was wondering what my chances were. I am still unsure why I would have "no chance" as some suggest. All professors writing my rec's are amongst the most well known ones at NCSU. Can anyone suggest some 20-50 programs in the Northeastern area that I would have a chance of getting money at? I don't think I will get money if the school only gives TA money. So schools w/ RA are better. Thank you all.

2009 October 23rd, 11:17 PM	#7 (permalink)
jjwong I JUST got here. Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 7	I should also mention that I am taking the CORE classes this year. So far I have an A in both. It is not a standard MA, it is a pre-phd track. Why would an MA from the US be worse than Canada?

2009 October 24th, 01:52 AM	#8 (permalink)
NB888 Within my grasp! Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 108	An MA from the US is not necessarily worse than an MA in Canada. The MA in econ programs in the US vary in their curriculum, and some of them have a flexible curriculum. I see no reason to conclude that they are always worse or less rigorous than the average Canadian masters in econ program. Many of the Canadian masters in econ programs have a mixture of students who will do a Ph.D. afterwards and students who won't, so they aren't designed with only academia and Ph.D. students in mind.

2009 October 24th, 05:35 AM	#10 (permalink)
jjwong I JUST got here. Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 7	Yes, this degree has been very rigorous compared to others possible routes even at my own school. I have taken Mathematics for Economists (Simon & Blume text), PhD level econometrics, and Real Analysis, among many other courses.

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