Econ Phd Profile Eval Fall 2016

[xy1215]

Hi, I am an international applicant from China, and currently working as an RA in a top university in Asia. Need your advices in the PhD application.

 

PROFILE:

Type of Undergrad: BA majoring in Human Resource Management from top university in China

Undergrad GPA: 3.43/4

Type of Grad: Master of Social Science(Applied Economics) from a top university in Asia out of China

Grad GPA: 4.75/5

GRE: Q168 V157 AWA3.5 (one of my concerns)

Math Courses (undergrad): Calculus I (A), Calculus II (A-) Linear Algebra (D, my biggest concern), Probability (A-)

Econ Courses (undergrad): Western Economics (A-) Labour Economics (A-) Personnel Economics (A)

Econ Courses (master level): Microeconomics (A) Macroeconomics (A) Quantitative & Computing Method (A-) Financial Econometrics (A+) Public Finance (A) Project & Policy Evaluation (A-)

Econ Courses (PhD level): Econometric Modelling and Applications (A+) International Trade (B+)

Research Experience: half-a-year part-time RA for a sociology assistant prof; currently working as a full-time RA for an assistant prof for 1.5 years, most of the time doing research independently (my boss is too busy to give me instructions), co-authoring one paper (presented in a few research seminars and conferences with promising feedback, not published yet) with my boss and her colleague in health economics, another paper in demographic economics in progress. All papers involve a lot of econometric analysis that are done by me.

Letters of Recommendation:

Econ PhD from Yale: my boss; know me well and definitely will write a decent LOR for me. She thinks I can apply to top 30 Econ programs, though I don't know if she overestimate me.

Econ PhD from U of Maryland: an assistant prof working closely with my boss, and know my research ability well.

Another two potential referees (not confirmed yet) are Associate Profs from department of Econ in my master university; I did a great job in their courses.

Teaching Experience: none

Research Interests: Health economics, environmental economics, applied econometrics

SOP: still think about it, perhaps mainly talk about my research experience and research interests.

 

I consider applying top 20-40 econ programs (try 1 or 2 in top 20 maybe), but I don't know if I am targeting too high, since I had poor AWA score and atrocious grade in linear algebra. My undergrad major might be too far away from Econ as well. Concerning my research interests, I'm also searching for agricultural econ and applied econ programs, which in my opinion require less math knowledge. Currently I'm considering Applied Econ in U of MN, AREC in U of MD and ARE in UC Davis.

 

I think my strengths will be my research experience, and my grad GPA, but not sure if I overstate. So let me know what you guys think, and please be as harsh as needed.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2015 by xy1215

[chateauheart]

You should aim higher. Your research experience counts far more than your GRE AWA score or linear algebra grade. Your master's/PhD coursework also seem to be fairly decent.

 

The top ARE programs should also be in your range.

[xy1215]

Thanks for the comment! I read a lot of your comments in other threads that help me a lot. And your reply here really makes me more confident (hope not being over-confident) in my application.

 

In fact, my math is not bad at all, and that's why I handled those Master's/PhD level econ course really well even I only took 4 math courses undergrad. Many grad econ courses I took involved a lot of complex math. I just don't know how to show the AdComs this.

One of my other concerns is that my LoRs writers are not quite well-known in the field. The two knowing me well are young assistant profs, though they all graduated from top econ departments in the US. But still, I don't know how to improve this ... I don't have any strong connection with well-known economists.

 

Anyway, I think I will spread my applications in a wide range, maybe 2 in top 15, 4-6 in top 15-30, 3 in top 30-40 and 2 in top 40-50. And 4-5 ARE programs including those I mentioned above and ARE in UC Berkeley. Do you think this distribution reasonable? Or do you think I should focus my choices in a more narrow range?

Edited August 5, 2015 by xy1215

[chateauheart]

If you're going to apply to so many schools anyway, you should have a more top ended approach. Since you will only choose the top element out of the set in the end, you only really need one or two safeties, but it's desirable to have a lot of long shots.

 

2-3 of the ARE programs are essentially safeties for you. I'd take off some of the mainstream econ programs in the 30-50 range and put those apps in the top 15. You might not get a top 15 offer eventually, but I think it's still more worthwhile to have an additional 5% chance of that, than 90% chance of another safety.

 

Also, don't fret too much about being able to get into the best program possible. If your ability doesn't get recognized during admissions, being the best student in a mid-ranged program is still a very, very nice situation. I was among the best students at my low-ranked undergrad institution, and received a ton of faculty attention even though I was just an undergrad, and arguably was learning at a faster rate than I currently am in a top-ranked graduate program.

[xy1215]

Thanks very much for the comments! Sorry for the late reply as I was preoccupied by work as well as preparing for application.

 

Your advice is really helpful. I totally agree with you that being the best student in a mid-ranged program is still very nice. In fact, a mid-ranged program with faculty matching my research interests would be very good, and funding opportunity and location are things I have to take into consideration as well. And here is a list of programs I'm going to apply to: Northwestern, Columbia, UCSD, Rochester, Maryland, John Hopkins, Brown, Virginia, Boston College, U Washington, Berkeley ARE, Maryland AREc, Cornell AEM and HKUST.

 

It would be very nice if you, and anyone else who see this thread, could comment on whether this list is reasonable and whether I would be competitive for some of the programs. Thanks very much!