PhD Program Suggestions in Financial Macroeconomics and/or Econometrics

[kekecib]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am an international student who received his master’s in economics with a minor in mathematics and started a new master’s in statistics this Fall after getting shut off from nearly all schools I applied last year. Being a lot more cautious this year, I applied or will apply to PhD programs in Economics listed in my signature for Fall 2012. However, considering my profile below, I wonder if you have some suggestions for schools that are good in financial macroeconomics and econometrics. My school range is, I guess, between top 25 and 75.

 

PROFILE:

Type of Undergrad: BA from Tourism Administration from a university within top 3 in my country.

Undergrad GPA: 3.54 (Graduated second in my class with high honors)

Type of Grad: MS in Economics (completed) and MS in Statistics (currently enrolled) from nonranked universities in USA.

Grad GPA: 3.82 (MS in Econ) and 4.00 (MS in Statistics)

GRE: 800Q 690V 4AWA

TOEFL 110 overall (out of 120). Reading 28, Listening 28, Speaking 26, Writing 28( all out of 30)

Undergraduate Math & Stat Courses: Business Math 1-2 (B+, A-), Cal 1-2 (A+, A+), Multivariate Calculus (A+), ODE (A+), PDE (A+), Real Analysis 1-2(A+, A+), Operations Research (A+), Linear Algebra(A+), Quantitative Techniques (A-), and Research Methodology (A-)

Graduate Math & Stat Courses: Probability (B+), Statistics (A+), Matrix Theory (A+), Mathematical Statistics 1 (A+), Statistics in Research (A+), Graduate Stat Seminar 1 (Bayesian Nonparametrics, A+), Mathematical Statistics 2 (Spring 2012), Multivariate Data Analysis (Spring 2012), Graduate Stat Seminar 2 (Spring 2012), and Computational Methods of Linear Algebra (Spring 2012).

Undergraduate Econ Courses: Principles of Micro & Macro (B+, A+), Intermediate Micro & Macro (A+,A+), Tourism Economics (B+), Introduction to Finance (A+), and Investment Management (A+)

Graduate Econ Courses: Mathematical Economics (A+), Advanced Micro & Macro (B+,A+), Open Economy Macroeconomics (A+), Econometrics (A+), Advanced Econometrics (A+), Time Series Econometrics & Forecasting (A+), Panel Data Econometrics (A+), Empirical Econometrics (B+), Special Problems 1-2 (Panel Data Analysis-A+, A+) and Thesis (employed a newly developed panel data test, A+)

Other Courses: Various courses from Humanities to Ancient Civilizations and from Management to Ethics but I think they are quite irrelevant to ad-coms.

Letters of Recommendation: 2 very strong LORs from my thesis adviser (also my econometrics prof.) and my thesis committee member (also my panel data prof. and I TAed for him) and one strong LOR from my real analysis prof.

Research Experience: I had been a RA for 2.5 years in my former econ department. I have finished my thesis in which I will publish two papers in 2012. One of them is actually in preparation for submission to Journal of International Economics for February 2012.

Teaching Experience: I have been tutoring students in Pre-calculus, Calculus 1, 2, and 3, Statistics, Probability, and Ordinary Differential Equations at the university mathematics lab for 1 semester. I also tutored students in Intermediate Micro & Macroeconomics for 4 semesters.

Research Interests: Econometrics (time series analysis and panel data analysis) and financial & open economy macroeconomics

SOP: 3-page statement that gives information about my research interests, my achievements, my thesis, my efforts to improve my profile over the past year and my extracurricular activities.

Other: I am very active in campus-based clubs and holding positions like secretary. I also have been awarded many scholarships and fellowships during my entire education life.

Concerns: Degree from nonranked econ program and LORs from not-well known professors.

 

Thank you in advance.

Edited December 31, 2011 by kekecib

[LSLP]

What do you mean by Financial Macroeconomics?

Is it Monetary Economics (like papers in this list http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/~rwright/courses/money.pdf), Macroeconomics with Financial Factors (http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/gertlerm/gertlerboereadinglist.pdf ), or Asset Pricing?

[kekecib]

Asset pricing.

[Guest 8675309]

Your Aiming too low. I would skip texas Austin in favor of other top 20-30 schools. I know that Minnesota would at least look at your application. Virginia also may take you. You really need to play ball in the top 30-60 range. Your running out time so I'd send these applications sooner than later, and ask your letter writers to mail them quick.

 

 

 

 

. I would try Arizona State, take off texas tech, deleware, MTSU. Indian University might also be worth a look, University of Western Ontario in Canada. Your competitive for top 30-60. I know profiles from unknown places who've gotten to some of the schools I've mentioned. The profile in question was double major math/econ with R.A. no stats masters and no econ masters from unknown school. In your case your probably going to manage to get into a top 30-50 range and have outside chance at top 20. Career prospects are much better from these places. Don't waste money on low ranked schools

 

I would get rid of deleware, Georgia State, Texas Tech, Austin (they seem to have infighting between micro and macro groups that causes uncertainty about quality of departments macro faculty), Kansas, MTSU, Delware.

 

I would add to your list Western Ontario, University of Washington, Arizona State, Minnesota, Virginia, Indiana. I know students without masters degree from schools that are more unknown (no m.a. program non researhc universitY) who got looked at by Minnesota and accepted to Virginia. My observation has been for students from unknown places its hard to break top 25, but they are happily picked up by places ranked from 25-50. Don't undersell as your career prospects are significantly worse from non top 50 places and you may be unemployed with a Ph.D. from MTSU.

 

For econometrics add Michigan State to your list. Also apply to USC's Marshall School of Business (Business Economics)

[kekecib]

First, I thank you so much for your time and consideration. I found your information very useful. From the list you provided, I will apply to ASU and UVA. I cannot apply to University of Washington and Indiana because I am late. I will not apply to Minnesota because I really do not think I have a chance there. Indeed, I applied to NYU and Rochester since they are my dream universities and do not want to say what if in future. As for UWO, I am not sure. I applied to their program last year and got rejected. I improved my profile but I do not know if I can get into their program with funding.

 

One of the toughest thing now for me is to choose which one of the universities in my list I should get rid of. Probably, I will delete MTSU and Delaware. I seriously do not want to delete all from my list because I want to start my Ph.D. next Fall and except Texas Tech the others are ranked at least. Thinking my needing funding, I think it is a good idea to keep them in my list as back-up schools. MSU is in my list (first university I applied in this cycle indeed) and if I get into MSU, I would be very very happy since they are great in econometrics. If I can delete one more university, I can also apply to Uni. of Pittsburgh. However, how good they are in econometrics is debatable.

 

I hope I will end up with one of the universities I applied + some funding until April 15 after all these years I spent in economics.

[Guest 8675309]

I think you have a chance at Minnesota, simply because the candidate I knew was wait listed

 

Their profile is something along these lines

 

B.A Math/Econ from unranked R1 satellite university (only R1 because of a med school) with no graduate program

GPA 3.92

LSE Summer Program 4.00 (Econometrics I)

Conference publication in health sciences journal

Letters : Strong letters 3 Unknown professors

 

Its a top school in the areas your interested in and I think its worth a shot. I know macro departments fairly well and the schools I recommended you drop are ones that don't actually have people working in the area. Texas-Tech, Georgia State also fall into this category (Georgia State is strong in public finance). If your going to aim for top 100 schools you'd probably be better off at somewher like Alabama or LSU which have a joint economics and finacnce department. Alabama has good time-series people (Walt Enders, Junsoo-Lee) and their macro faculty isn't terrible. They hired a professor from MTSU who was the one decent macro theorist at that school. Lsu seems have to some good monetary people.

 

Low ranked departments tend to specialize in weird ways so if your heart is in financial econometrics/macroeconomics you need to target schools that actually offer this. I also definitely think you should try UWO. They recruit people with strong quantitative backgrounds, and I think they'll consider you strongly because of the STATs M.A. They are a big 4 canadian school and they have solid reputation for putting people into academia, better than UBC or U of T. Among Canadian schools UWO also probably has the best name on the corporate world due to location, and its business school (Richard Ivey).

[kekecib]

I checked the webpage of the department of economics at Minnesota and learned that I missed the application deadline, which was December 15th. However, I finished applying to ArSU, UVA, and UWO. I decided not to apply UofK, MTSU, and UofD but I will keep GSU since it is a decent program overall and there are some econometrics and financial econometrics people (but not well known) and keep TTU as a backup.

 

I would be very surprised and happy if I get in one of these later added universities. Thanks for the great posts, Economists. I hope you can get in your dream school. Take care.

Edited December 30, 2011 by kekecib

[hotdogday]

may be unemployed with a Ph.D. from MTSU

 

Uhm...

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6328[/ATTACH]

[Guest 8675309]

Uhm...

 

 

http://www.www.urch.com/forums/attachments/phd-economics/6328-phd-program-suggestions-financial-macroeconomics-econometrics-isthisreallife.jpg

 

 

I doubt their unemployed, but they are unlikely to obtain employment in jobs where Economists are doing the hiring. MTSU is not a predominantly research university and their program is perceived as being in the bottom 5 programs. This may change in the future. Their program is also quite new.

 

Reality of the schools in top 50-100 is your probably going to find a job on the private sector or as Tenure Track at a 4 year bi-directional or regional teaching college. If your lucky you'll get placed at a satellite campus to a major university. (Benefits of the latter is you may have a 2,3 load and will have the same resources in terms of access to data as at a larger school). Your other option is private sector.

 

If your at a school ranked outside of the top 100, your probably looking at a job on private sector where the economists aren't doing the hiring. Or an adjunct. If your lucky you might find a permanent teaching position at near by university. Also keep in mind job oppurtunities for foreigners are more limited. Firms have to pay extra to sponsor foreigners, as do schools. If a financial institution still has TARP money , they can't hire foreigners.

 

If your considering schools well outside the top 50, you may want to think about whether this is what you want to do. In my personal case, I'm coming back after spending time on the private sector and realizing I'm not suited for it. I work in the positions where they'd hire an Economics Ph.D. to essentially be my direct manager.