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A chat with an AdCom!


Mathew952

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Hello Everyone,

While Urch is great, I realized that since my STATE_SCHOOL has a graduate economics program, It might not be a bad idea to just ask the graduate director of the program, who sits on all admission committees at STATE_SCHOOL, to get some more info. While obviously he'd love to have me apply here, he also wants to place undergrads as well as possible to improve the standing of the department. These are some of the key issues that are often brought up here, so here are some answers! (These answers will be paraphrases because I didn't think to take notes )

 

I am worried that I do not have enough math on my transcript. Is a math minor enough, especially if I'm still finishing it up in the spring?

I tell him that I will have Honors Calc I-III, Probability Theory, Mathematical Statistics, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Basic Concepts of Math (Our proofs course), and I've taken Statistical Methods and Concepts as well as Honors Business Stats, and plan to take Intermediate Business Stats in the spring, which is our applied course where you learn to work with different statistical packages and go into more depth about hypothesis testing. Notice I am a lunatic who failed to take real analysis.

 

Answer: Your math qualifications are enough to be competitive basically anywhere non-top ten. While it would be nice to have real analysis, you should be okay with the math you have. While math can be a signal at very top departments, many departments are primarily concerned with admitting students who will be prepared for the courses. Having an actual declared math minor is helpful because it indicates to the departments that you will definitely be taking the courses, since you need to in order to graduate.

 

(Part of a follow up to that question) Should I focus on my research skills in my SOP and letters to compensate for the math?

I tell him about a competitive research grant I won to do education econ research, which turned out very well, well enough that it got posted in the department as an example of excellent undergraduate research, as well as my research experience from my upper level econ classes, and my graduate econometrics course.

 

Answer You should definitely talk about your research, since that's not something that comes through on your GREs or transcripts.

 

What should a good SOP convey? Do they even get read?

Whether an admissions committee reads your transcript is highly idiosyncratic, even between applicants, and what they look for varies widely as well. What a good SOP can do, and this should be captured in your letters as well, is convey to me that you have a strong, genuine interest in research economics. I can see your quant skills on paper , and if you give me a writing sample, I can even see your research. But raw math skill only takes you so far. You're going to spend enormous amounts of time and energy even in your very first semester just to keep up with the course load. When you're up at 2am, cramming for a test that's 4 weeks away, and you realize you will be doing that every single night, and you realize you're alone, tired, and probably fed up with your professors, you need some motivation to keep going, and raw math doesn't tell me that. I need to see a genuine interest in economics that shows me you will keep going, and that you want to contribute to the field.

 

What should a good letter convey?

A good letter needs to be specific, and it needs to tell me what I can't see everywhere else. Too many letters, hundreds of them that we get, are purely generic praise, and they grasp for positive things to say; we get letters that brag about a student being punctual, or being a good reader. It should tell me about how you did relative to others, how you excelled in class or in research in ways that I can't see on paper, and it should also be conveying that you have that genuine interest. They can also speak to the difficulty of courses, or to what's covered in math courses. Out of any math professor you can ask for a letter, Calc III is one of the most useful, because while proofs are important, you will be completely and totally lost in your first term without a firm grasp of Calc III. Also, a professor that knows you well is far more important than a professor with credential. A good letter from that Policy professor (one of my letters is from a public policy professor who taught me two research methods courses), is much more helpful than a tepid, generic letter from a math professor.

We discussed many other things specific to my applications, but those are the soup-bone quotes I figured you guys would get a lot from. Let the pessimistic comments begin!

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