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PhD Profile Evaluation


purlea

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Hi guys, please help me find the programs match my background. I posted my profile months ago but I would like to repost it as I have some information to update.

 

Type of Undergrad: B.S. Math and Econ, minor in Stat at a flagship state university with top 20 math and econ department

Undergrad GPA: 3.83

Type of Grad: Will start doing master next semester in a similar school

Grad GPA: N/A

GRE: 168Q 155V 3.0AW(:upset:)

Stat Courses: Intro to Stat and Prob (A), Data Analysis(A), Statistical Analysis (A), Math Stat I/II (B+,B+), graduate Stochastic Process w/ Application(A), Regression Analysis(A), Time Series(A)

Math Courses:Intro to Proof (A), Complex Analysis(B- retake B+), PDE I/II (B retake A, A), Stochastic Process(A), Prediction and Filtering(A), Numerical Analysis I/II (A,A), Abstract Algebra I (A),Topology (A), Real Analysis I/II (B-:sorrow:,A), ODE(A)

Econ Courses: Intermediate Macro(A-), Intermediate Micro(A), Game Theory(B), Econometrics (A), Financial Economics(A), Money and Banking(B+), Mathematical Economics(A), Development(A)

 

Letters of Recommendation: 1 econ professor who I have worked with as a research assistant (very strong), 1 math professor who is the advisor of my research project(very strong). Also expecting letters from master program but I don't think they are going to be very strong.

Research Experience: 1 math research project about numerical analysis. Econ RA for 2 semesters. Senior paper on game theory.

Teaching Experience: Precalc TA for 1 semester

Research Interests: Finance, Micro Theory, IO, Development

SOP: Will talk about research experience and personal interests

Concern: Retake two math classes because I suffered from personal issues that semester. Two B+ in Math Stat sequence and B- in Real Analysis I.

 

Any suggestion is welcomed. I appreciate your help very much. I was not able to get any offer last season so please help me get everything right this time.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Are you interested in simply finance or financial economics? How high are you wanting to try to aim?

 

With you interests, a few of the places I would consider would be: MIT, Yale, Brown, Northwestern (econ), UCLA, Wisconsin, Duke. Without knowing how high you want to aim, it is difficult to give suggestions.

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Thank you for your reply :)

 

I will try to apply one or two top10 schools. But as my GPA is on the lower side and my undergrad institute is not particularly prestigious, I won't expect getting anything from them. It will be great if I can get in any top 20 schools. I didn't made it last round and I don't know how adding a B- in Analysis is going to hurt my chance in top 20. Top 30 seems more reasonable for my background.

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I know someone from my undergrad (a lower ranked school) who did worse in math than you, and he got into a top-25 program, so I would not sell yourself too much, especially if your research experience and letters of recommendation are very strong.

 

I still don't know how someone can be interested in finance AND development AND micro theory, but given that your interests are so broad, you would probably benefit from going to a program with a very large department.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you very much Food4Thought. I didn't realize you replied so long ago, I think there is a bug on the counter of reply. It stops at 3 and I thought nobody has replied to my post since then.

 

For my research interest, I am currently doing micro theory and financial economics. However, after reading a few papers on development and I find them rather interesting and I am willing to dig into them a little bit more. I cannot say for sure which area I will focus on because I think I haven't tried enough to find which one I love the most. For me macro might be the thing I definitely want to avoid. All other areas seem indifferent to me. Maybe I should fix my interest as soon as possible.

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I wouldn't say that. In fact, I would suggest the opposite. Since your interests are so varied now, there's no telling what you'll be interested when it comes time to taking field courses, writing papers, etc.

 

Like I said, I would really search for large departments, because they are the places that will have a lot of people doing a lot of different kinds of research.

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