Grad courses during undergrad

[backtotheUS]

Heya,
A lot of you folks seem to take a good amount of graduate (econ) courses during your undergraduate studies, correct? Well, I would like to know what kind of signal the following sends in your opinion:

In my third year undergrad Math/Econ,
undergrad course GPA=3.95 (4.0 Econ, 3.9 Math)
graduate courses: Micro 2nd part of a 3 part series=B+, Real Analysis, 3rd part of a 3 part series=A; hence GPA=3.65.

The Micro course I got a B+ contained some of the stuff I want to do for my PhD eventually (mechanism design, organization theory, bargaining). My questions:

(1) How bad is the B+ considering I did not fulfill any requisites (mathwise, although I study Math, but also missing the first part of the series)?
(2) For the statement of purpose, how much should I stress my performance at the grad level, especially Real Analysis?
(3) How many grad classes are you guys taking during your undergrad? If any, in what year of your studies? Should I take another one?

Cheers

[slightlyconfused1]

I don't think it is possible to provide a meaningful answer without knowing:

1. Where does your school's economics Ph.D program rank? (You can fuzz it and just give us a range if you don't want to reveal your school.)

2. What kinds of economics Ph.D programs are you aiming for?

[slightlyconfused1]

Regarding your third question, I completed (I think) 14 ph.d classes by the end of my junior year... but I am a rather extreme case, and we'll need to wait until March to know how it plays from an admissions standpoint.

Speaking *very* generally, I think most domestic applicants to U.S. programs complete at most a handful (0-3) of graduate classes before applying to grad school. (This excludes master's classes, of course, which are generally nowhere near the level of ph.d classes and should never be conflated with them.) In this light, I think your coursework is fine, and the graduate real analysis will be quite valuable.

If you think you can do better, however, you should try to take some more of the core Ph.D economics classes to redeem yourself. Your performance in them serves as a very direct comparison of your ability to that of a group of students at a Ph.D program (of whatever rank) and may be weighted heavily in admissions decisions. If you are a junior and appear in your application to have been scared off after one semester of Ph.D micro, it won't look good.

[JosephKeith72]

The B+ is not going to hurt you since it was a grad micro course (assuming your school is at least decent). As the previous post suggested, additional information would be useful here.

[Gecko]

Don't worry the B+ is a neutral signal

[backtotheUS]

Thanks!
School is top 10 on the econphd-archive and ranks higher on Theory. They restructured the course that year to make it "more competitive".

I have an interest in Micro Theory/I.O. and will apply to Econ PhDs within the usual top 10.

In this light, would enrolment in a grad course on "Mathematical Finance" help at all? My resources are kind of limited...

[jkl]

Based on personal experience a B+ in grad micro while in undergrad does not hurt.

[Gecko]

Mathematical finance if I'm not wrong deals with asset pricing and the Black-Scholes stuff - which is not really relevant to your IO