If I still want to pursue a PhD, what would be optimal for the coming years?

[Luspada]

Hello,

 

Currently I am enrolled in the Econ master at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).

Prior to this I finished a 3-years Economics & Business bachelor at the University of Amsterdam.

 

During this year in Barcelona I realised two things:

1) I would be more than happy to pursue a PhD.

2) I was very ill prepared for this master, in particular on the Math side of Economics.

 

Throughout my Bachelor I have been one of those lazy students; I did the minimum, just to pass the courses.

This attitude resulted in a GPA of 7, which was a tiny bit above the general average.

The level of math (and statistics) of my bachelor is low; we had some Lagrangians and simple matrix algebra.

The introduction in econometrics course with Stock&Watson was by far the hardest course in the bachelor.

80% of the 400 students in my year failed the exam the first time (including myself).

For other courses, failure rates were about 30%.

 

The first trimester at BGSE was horrible, I never heard of a "set" or "continuity".

Forget about understanding Arrow's Impossibility Theorem.

I worked my *** off, passing Adv. Metrics (Hayashi) with a 7, Adv. Macro (Acemoglu) with a 6 and failing Adv. Micro (Mas-Collel) with a 4.3.

Grades at BGSE are in general normalized around a 6.9, a 5 is a pass and a diploma is granted as long as the GPA is above a 5 and not more than 1 course below a 4.

Resits are not possible.

 

I was rejected entrance to the PhD, continued the second trimester with Macro and Metrics on Advanced level and switched Micro to "Normal".

Metrics 7.6, Micro 7 and Macro a staggering 3.3.

I think my Macro grade is unreasonably low, but who am I.

 

For the last trimester, I switched all but Metrics to the easier topic courses in a last attempt to increase my GPA to a somewhat acceptable level.

 

Now, about the next year(s):

 

Should I still pursue a PhD, or rather go "work"?

My preference lies with a PhD.

Then, if I stick with the PhD route what would be optimal considering my background and results?

I think I have the following options;

 

 

 

1. Apply to GradSchools in Europe for upcoming september, and if accepted follow math courses in summer.
   
2. Enrol in a one year mathematical economics master at the university of Amsterdam (or a similar master elsewhere), and apply to gradschools for 2016.
   
3. Only select certain math courses at the University of Amsterdam and try to get a RA position in an institution or with a professor, and apply to gradschools for 2016.
   

 

Current setbacks: no sufficient GRE (nor time to prepare one before application deadlines), no outstanding reference letters, no outstanding grades.

 

Any opinions and/or advice?

 

Thank you for reading.