FinAnalyst Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Hi everyone, an honest evaluation of my profile would be helpful, or even just a link to similar profiles. I've gone through the last few years of results but am not sure how relevant anything before 2010 still is due to increasing competition. Also, I work full time, but any advice for what I can do between now and December to help my chances would be great too. I've heard showing up and singing qualifications to admissions committees can be helpful.... Type of Undergrad: B.S. Business Administration, Concentration in Economics from medium-sized private Catholic university. Math classes have since been taken at a large state school, not highly ranked. Undergrad GPA: 3.94 (Summa Cum Laude); Econ: 3.88; Math: 3.67 (all A’s except C in Calc II); including all classes I’ve taken since my undergrad: 3.90 Type of Grad: NA Grad GPA: NA GRE: Q-166, V-165, AW- 4.5 Math Courses: Calc I (A), Calc II (C, explaining in SOP), Calc III (A), Intro to Differential Equations (A+), Intro to Linear Algebra (A), Intro to Probability (A), Intro to Real Analysis I @ grad level (A) Econ Courses (grad-level): NA Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Micro (A), Macro (A), Money and Banking (A), Game Theory (A), Econometrics (A), Intermediate Micro (B+), Intermediate Macro (A-), Independent Study/Thesis (A), Economic Development (A-), Honors Econ Seminar (A), History of Economic Thought (A), Other Courses: Honors Program and Business Core Curriculum Letters of Recommendation: My thesis advisor- He has a lot of published work in sports economics. We coauthored a paper that was presented at a conference based on migration in Census data using Stata. My game theory professor- she has a lot of published work in supply chain management. My probability professor- He has a lot of published work in biostatistics. I was a research assistant for him for a semester working on various projects using R. Research Experience: Co-authored thesis on migration with professor using 2000 census data presented at a conference; when 2010 data was released, it refuted our conclusion, so we did not submit for publication; familiar with Stata and R. Teaching Experience: 2 years teaching with Teach For America. Research Interests: Econometrics, Experimental Economics, Monetary Economics, and Development/Comparative/International Economics. SOP: Explained C in Calculus II, otherwise typical. Concerns: No statistics other than business statistics, working for 5 years by the time I would enter a program (but, all math besides Calc I and II taken recently), not a highly ranked undergrad institution, most of my math was taken at state school that is also not highly ranked, my intermediate micro and macro grades, not a ton of math, letters of recommendation are strong but not from big shots. However, the last person who was sent to an econ PhD from my undergrad school got a competitive placement at a Fed branch. Other: Familiar with basic coding (JavaScript, HTML, Python) Applying to: Boston College, Boston University, Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh, Duke, University of North Carolina, NC State, Ohio State University, Georgetown, George Washington, George Mason. Potentially also applying to econ masters at aforementioned schools as a safety. I understand that at least a few of those are longshots. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sulebrahim Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Just curious, what did your probability class cover? If it was calculus based, I assume it's adequate. I can't really comment on your chances at some of the top schools you mentioned but I think GMU, GW, Georgetown at NC State are very possible. Though the funding situation at the GWU, GMU and Gergetown are iffy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinAnalyst Posted July 31, 2015 Author Share Posted July 31, 2015 Just curious, what did your probability class cover? If it was calculus based, I assume it's adequate. It was a calculus based course, heavy on proofs. We used "Probability and Statistical Inference" by Hogg, Tanis, and Zimmerman. Course description: ...random variables, expectation, variance, covariance, moment generating functions; binomial, hypergeometric, Poisson, geometric, negative binomial, uniform, normal, exponential, Cauchy. chi-square, t, and F distributions; central limit theorem. functions of a random variable; bivariate, marginal, and conditional distributions. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sulebrahim Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 Sorry for the late reply. The book covers a lot of what you see in Math Stats which prepares you for econometrics. So I wouldn't be worried about lack of additional stats. Hopefully someone else can chime in on what range to apply to. But your math should not be a concern. Even the calc 2 grade can be offset by the A in grad level analysis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinAnalyst Posted August 4, 2015 Author Share Posted August 4, 2015 Sorry for the late reply. The book covers a lot of what you see in Math Stats which prepares you for econometrics. So I wouldn't be worried about lack of additional stats. Hopefully someone else can chime in on what range to apply to. But your math should not be a concern. Even the calc 2 grade can be offset by the A in grad level analysis. Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! From my perusal of Blume's Mathematics for Economists, I feel prepared; but, I'm glad to know admissions committees should be able to glean that too. In terms of range of schools, from what I can tell, I think I will be competitive for schools ranked below top 25 (OSU, BC, Pitt, UNC, NC State, Georgetown, GW, GMU), while Duke, CMU, and BU would be long-shots. Does this seem unreasonable to anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinAnalyst Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 Sorry to bump this. Can anyone weigh in on whether I would be competitive for some of the top 40 programs that I mentioned (Pitt, CMU, BC, BU, UNC, Duke, and Ohio State)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Food4Thought Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Good idea to bump. I don't even remember seeing this thread, originally. Your grades (except for intermediate micro) are good. Given where you're targeting (i.e. ranked 30-50), your GRE scores are fine. One thing that's a little concerning to me is the level of research in this coauthored paper you are talking about. You should be able to say more than, "We used Stata." Learning Stata during a research project is much less valuable than you learning how to approach an interesting question, where to get data, etc. Do you have a sense of the level of endorsement your recommendations will provide? If you expect fairly strong letters of recommendations, then I do not think you are batting out of your league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinAnalyst Posted August 24, 2015 Author Share Posted August 24, 2015 Thanks for comments. In regards to the research, I plan on expanding the model for the NSF GRFP (which I also understand is a long shot) and will probably add some of the information from that application to my SOP. I believe the three letters will all be very strong, just not from anyone of world renown. Thanks again for the comments! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HungryGriot Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 I'm going to chime in as although your profile is stronger than mine I came from a business background before sharpening up in post-bach math courses etc.. Now in my first yr of Econ PhD. It cannot be overstated how competitive admissions are to economics PhD programs right now. Funding is also drying up as well. Really adcoms are looking for what's wrong with your profile and moreso just checking the box on what you have right/required. That B+ in Intermediate micro is a killer for you and I'm not going to sugar coat that. I expect that gets you out of the running for the upper 1/3 of your list. You have an excellent profile but I could see you doing some serious sweating around decision date with one/two funded offers in hand from your lower choices and having not heard back/waitlisted for some of your top choices. I see you have location preferences and I believe you will get funded from 1 maybe 2 of these and accepted into 1 other with no funding...and all you need is one! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chateauheart Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 ^Partially agree with this. Econ PhD right now is the singularly most competitive discipline in all academics, and it's the only one where having a few Bs can legitimately kill your profile even if everything else is right. On the other hand, having only one B-range grade in econ while having A's in game theory and econometrics and analysis is really not that bad for top 40 schools. I think if OP's RA work and co-authored paper are reasonably competent, he has a good shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinAnalyst Posted September 5, 2015 Author Share Posted September 5, 2015 Thanks all. I'm hoping the B+ and the C are seen as outliers. I guess it will come down to those letters of recommendation. Again, I appreciate the help. 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.