Profile Evaluation for PhD in Economics

[GamerGuy]

Hello!

 

I am interested in the top 20 PhD economics programs. Here is my profile for your review. Please be realistic and unbiased based on *real* knowledge.

 

Attended a top Canadian university.

2 years experience working as Analyst at a fund.

 

Undergraduate: Overall GPA is 3.4 and double majored in economics and mathematics.

Didn't do well in my first and second year ;( (including my Analysis courses!).

 

Intermediate Macro - B+

Advanced Econometrics - A

Advanced Microeconomics - A+

Bunch of 3rd and 4th yr economic courses: mostly A's and A-'s.

Also took MA econometrics with A.

 

Not really interesting. But here is my math:

 

Calc 1 - A+

Calc 2 - A+

Calc 3 - B

Chaos - A+

Algebra 1 - A+

Algebra 2 - C

Analysis I - C+

Analysis II - B-

Real Analysis - C+

Linear Algebra - B

Time Series - A

Combinatorics - B+

Geometry - A+

Advanced ODEs - B

Probability - A+

Statistics - A+

 

and some more math (forgot the marks for a lot of them). The idea is that I have a large variance for math grades! My overall math grade is around 3.5 or something like that.

 

To be frank, I did not find my undergraduate in math hard. I just didn't really study that much and didn't know that I wanted to do a PhD back then. Will my math grade kill my chances at a top 20 institution in the US? (Since all I see are A's in every profile that is evaluated here on URCH.) Also, since I am a Canadian, will US institutions, and especially the public ones, disregard me because of my nationality?

 

My research interests lies in empirical financial economics. My DREAM school is UPENN PhD in Economics program. Can I realistically make? What is the probability? And, if not (prob less than 40%) what are some good schools in financial economics in the US that I have a chance in?

 

Thank you!

Edited March 25, 2014 by GamerGuy

[Food4Thought]

US institutions will not disregard you because you are Canadian. In America, we generally like Canadians, with your flip top heads and constant singing and whatnot. Just kidding... forgive the South Park joke.

 

I am not familiar with Canadian schools. So, I can't say whether it is likely that your degree will be discounted, if at all. Also, I don't want to make a guess at how recoverable your profile is, given my ignorance about how your degree would be viewed. However, I am pretty confident in saying that your profile, as it stands now, will not get into U Penn or a top-20 institution, without some serious damage control (i.e., Master's degree, etc.). Please someone else comment if they disagree.

 

When you listed your Econ courses, I was intrigued by the Advanced [insert econ subject here] courses you took. What were these courses? Just advanced undergraduate courses?

[GamerGuy]

Theyre adv undergrad courses. Will a masters really help me? I'm thinking of lse msc economics, utor, Ubc, Ucl and oxford. However since my gap is only 3.4, will this auto disqualify me? E.g. Oxford asks for a first. Also, is the uk admissions the same for international and domestic apps? Thx

[Catrina]

It seems clear to me that this isn't even close to being a top-20 profile.

 

OP, pretty much all of us would like to go to the top 20 and started out with that as a goal at some point, but eventually many of us realized that it wasn't realistic. Take a look at the profiles of those who got into top-20 PhDs, then look again at yours. Yes, the amount of Bs that you have will almost certainly kill your chances at a top 20, and the GPA may not get you past the minimum requirement at some places. As of now, I would guess that you could get into a top-50 if you have decent letters and apply widely.

 

Would you still want to do a PhD in economics at a lower ranked place?

 

Given that you are Canadian, I think that your best bet is to apply to Canadian MA programs since they seem to be more lenient in admissions for Canadians. While I would still doubt that you could get into a top 20 PhD (but maybe you could with perfect performance and stellar letters), it would certainly help you a lot.

[setsanto]

When you listed your Econ courses, I was intrigued by the Advanced [insert econ subject here] courses you took. What were these courses? Just advanced undergraduate courses?

 

At my Canadian school, each of Micro/Macro/Metrics had 3 semester-long courses past the intro level: Intermediate I/II and Advanced. It makes it a fair bit harder to get grad classes in due to the time constraints.

 

Will a masters really help me?

Yes, undoubtedly. I would go so far as to say that you have little to no chance of getting a T20 admit right now, and that your only hope is getting a masters.

 

 

I'm thinking of lse msc economics, utor, Ubc, Ucl and oxford. However since my gap is only 3.4, will this auto disqualify me? E.g. Oxford asks for a first. Also, is the uk admissions the same for international and domestic apps? Thx

It's tough to say. Your GPA is not good, but you have a lot of advanced math classes. That said, you performed poorly in the entire analysis sequence as well as Calc 3 and your only linear algebra class, all of which are important classes. Your A+'s in Probability and Statistics will definitely help, as will your scores in your advanced econ classes and the MA metrics class. I would encourage you to apply broadly in Canada (e.g. UofT, UBC, Queen's, UWO, McMaster, Waterloo) to MA programs as well as apply to a couple of UK institutions. If I had to guess, I imagine your results will be quite noisy due to the large number of math classes with the high variance in marks.

[GamerGuy]

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

Suppose I get in a top 4 Canadian MA with stellar GPA (e.g., 3.8+ GPA). I say this because I took a MA graduate course in economics and I definitely know I can do well in it. Would this make me a better candidate or just marginally better?

 

If just marginally better than I will just apply to top 50 PhDs in the US (I will have had 3 years of work experience when I start school next fall). If I do a MA, I will have to wait another one-to-two years to apply.

 

Also, due to my experience in the private sector, will this be positive for PhD in finance? (I am also thinking of PhD in finance since my ultimate goal is to be placed within a b-school). Thank you!

[GamerGuy]

Hi Catrina,

 

I saw your profile which says "While I did get As in both semesters of real analysis and some other classes, some of the rest of my math grades aren't great. My biggest concern may be the overall noisiness of my profile."

 

I think my profile will prob be a very good replica of your profile.

 

What was your overall GPA? What were your math grades in "core" math classes? Did you double major in math and econ? Also, where did you do your MA? Thanks! (I need to get an idea of where I place lol).

[Catrina]

Hi Catrina,

 

I saw your profile which says "While I did get As in both semesters of real analysis and some other classes, some of the rest of my math grades aren't great. My biggest concern may be the overall noisiness of my profile."

 

I think my profile will prob be a very good replica of your profile.

 

What was your overall GPA? What were your math grades in "core" math classes? Did you double major in math and econ? Also, where did you do your MA? Thanks! (I need to get an idea of where I place lol).

 

I agree. My profile probably is the closest match to yours, but there are a few differences.

 

How my math grades compare depends on how the admissions committees view +/- grades. I went to a school with no +/- grading, so all of my grades are just the letter grade. My school also had less grade inflation than most US schools (maybe yours did too), but I somehow doubt that the admissions committees realized that. Overall, I think that I had more Bs than you, but just one C, so I would guess that my math grades averaged out to being similar to yours. I did double major in math and econ.

 

My masters was at the same school as my undergrad, a school that is decent overall (well-regarded regionally but not well-known nationally), but has no PhD program. I had straight As in the masters going into the fall semester. I also took PhD micro at a top-25 PhD program, and a number of schools told me that it was part of the reason that they admitted me.

 

So, basically, I would consider the math part of my profile to be similar to yours. However, when I asked some of the programs that accepted me why they did so, they typically replied that it was due to my PhD micro grade, my letters, and/or my research experience. Basically, other parts of my profile made up for my math performance, and in your case I don't see anything else that stands out. Work experience really doesn't count for much--grad programs want to see research experience. Also, your letters of recommendation matter a lot, so you would need to get stellar academic LORs, which you may be able to get at a MA program.

 

Also, keep in mind that even with very strong research experience, great letters (not from famous people, but one of them is top 5% in some Ideas rankings), and a good grade in PhD micro, I still didn't get in anywhere close to the top-20. However, you did attend a better undergrad, so I don't think that top-50 is currently unattainable for you, particularly if you apply to a lot of schools in that range and get some decent letters. With a masters from a top-Canadian program and excellent grades in it, you will probably do somewhat better than I did.

 

But that is just my best guess.