Jeremy Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 My major is quantitative finance, but I am very interested in macroeconomics and econometrics. I plan to purse a PhD in economics. Because of lack of economics theory training, I think I should go to MA degree first. And I know that MA programs leading to PhD are very limited, and I may not have a good recommendation letter (this is a big drawback). I don't know whether my RA experience in a Asian central bank helps me or not. I list some of my courses for your reference: grades are good ECON: Introductory Microeconomics, Introductory Marcoeconomics, Game Theory, Intermediate Marcoeconomics MATH: Calculus and Advanced Calculus (3 courses), Linear Algebra (2 courses), Numerical analysis, Probability theory, Ordinary Differential Equations I haven't taken any pure analysis courses, such as Real Analysis, but I will take more math courses in the coming year. STAT: Statistical Inference and Probability (2 course), Stochastic Process, Applied Linear Regression, Time Series Does anyone help me analyze my situation and give me some advice on grad school selection? Thanks a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chateauheart Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 There are actually quite a few MA programs outside of the US that can place well into PhD programs. Considering your background, you can consider HKUST, HKU, LSE, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamelben Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 So, honestly as long as you pick up intermediate micro, then I don't see a problem with your profile as long as you're looking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR14 Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 You need econometrics in order to cover some basics of linear regression, ways of calculating properties of estimators (variance, assymptotic distribution etc). I presume you statistics courses cover this sort of thing (the applied linear course and time series, that is). Might want to clarify that it does in your application, just to avoid confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chateauheart Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 So, honestly as long as you pick up intermediate micro, then I don't see a problem with your profile as long as you're looking  Bad advice. You need a MSc econ before you apply for PhDs given that you come from Asia. The content of your undergraduate record is irrelevant (and is more than enough in this case - it is obvious that OP has covered the equivalent of multiple undergrad econometrics courses in the US; I don't know what else "Time Series" could mean.). You should also not aim at Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhDPolEcon Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Serious, honest question. Why does a student from Asia need a MSc econ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamelben Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Serious, honest question. Why does a student from Asia need a MSc econ? Yeah, me too since it apparently qualifies my advice as bad.   Further, Chateau, why is it also bad advice for OP to take intermediate Micro? You really think he has a chance getting into a top 20 school with that sort of gap in theory? I'm legitimately asking because finance isn't my area. Is there some sort of overlap that I'm not aware of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Food4Thought Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Bad advice. You need a MSc econ before you apply for PhDs given that you come from Asia. . It depends on what kind of school OP aims to attend. There are plenty of Asian students who come straight from undergrad to do econ at top-40 places. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chateauheart Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 People from his country take intermediate micro in high school. Â Occasionally people from mainland China go straight into American grad schools. Not Hong Kong or Singapore. Their bachelor's degrees (such as quant finance) are not academically oriented, and so many of them are virtually unheard of in American admissions (despite being pretty rigorous degrees), and furthermore they used to be 3-year programs which often made them ineligible. A well-known master's program is needed for signaling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srslee Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 (edited) Occasionally people from mainland China go straight into American grad schools. Not Hong Kong or Singapore. Their bachelor's degrees (such as quant finance) are not academically oriented, and so many of them are virtually unheard of in American admissions (despite being pretty rigorous degrees)... A well-known master's program is needed for signaling. Seconded, albeit with some qualification. Name recognition is a problem; I'm not sure about Hong Kong (I've heard of success stories from HKU) but in the Singaporean case, I haven't heard of anyone going from quant finance to a top-20 economics PhD program without some sort of MSc at LSE in between. (Source: anecdotal evidence from peers/former high school classmates at NUS/SMU) People from his country take intermediate micro in high school.  I wish I had that option. In fact, I remember hating introductory micro in high school; in a certain part of Asia, one writes essays giving plausibility arguments for changes in supply and demand for one's A-level economics examination, sans computations or proofs. I'm glad I took econ in college... Edited May 28, 2015 by srslee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Hi, chateauhear! Thank you for your reply. I didn't take any economics courses in high school. I finished my high school in mainland China, and got the full scholarship to study in Hong Kong. Quant finance is a department under business school, and graduates are supposed to find a job after graduation. A few choose to go to graduate school. But I find I am interested in theoretical stuff rather than those taught for job seeking. My math and stat courses are taken with math or stat major students. Do you have any good master programs to recommend? (P.S.: Last year, a graduate for my major got admitted by USCD. But she has 2 recommendation letters from UCB.) BTW, do you think I need to have some academic research experiences? Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Thank you for your reply, iamelben. I want to study rigid economic theories in the future. I was told that US schools are good at it. I don't have clear idea about European MRes or MSc. Would you mind giving me some brief introduction? Like, which country, which school? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Thank you, MR14. Do you think I need to take elementary econometrics or some higher level econometrics given that my statistics courses cover many topics of econometrics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Bad advice. You need a MSc econ before you apply for PhDs given that you come from Asia. The content of your undergraduate record is irrelevant (and is more than enough in this case - it is obvious that OP has covered the equivalent of multiple undergrad econometrics courses in the US; I don't know what else "Time Series" could mean.). You should also not aim at For my case, do you think it is more likely to apply for MSc than PhD? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chateauheart Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Like I said, you should apply for a MSc first, perhaps in Hong Kong, Singapore, UK, or Canada. It is very rare to go from a professional education directly into a doctoral program. There are some previous threads on good master's programs in those countries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Posted June 2, 2015 Author Share Posted June 2, 2015 Like I said, you should apply for a MSc first, perhaps in Hong Kong, Singapore, UK, or Canada. It is very rare to go from a professional education directly into a doctoral program. There are some previous threads on good master's programs in those countries. Thank you for your advice! What kind of programs should I target on? As far as I know, there are many programs offered by top universities in UK or US etc. But most of them are applied econ degrees, which implies that they are terminal degrees and may not be helpful if graduates want to apply for PhD. Are those programs worth trying? Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.