PhD (International) Applicant Profile Evaluation for Fall 2016

[chyu1040]

Hi Everyone, I am an international applicant from Australia and I am currently doing my honours year. I would like to ask for some suggestions on my application strategy.

 

I’ve read the recent posts from my classmates elsewhere in Australia, but my profile is slightly different and I am coming from a different university. In my university, the grading system is 85+ for High Distinction (HD), 75-84 Distinction (D), 65-74 Credit © and 50-64 Pass (P). According to the Gumleaf diagram from UNSW, where the grading system and the grade distribution are largely comparable to those in my university, an 80+ roughly translates into an A in the US system and 75-79 is roughly equivalent to an A-.

 

Also, I started cramming in math units in my third year, but I have not performed that well (details below) in some crucial units -- a big concern of mine.

 

Other than those, I have talked to my honours coordinator, and he suggested me to apply to all Top 10, and some in the Top 10-30 range. I am following his advice, and I will also apply to LSE, UCL, Toronto and UBC.

 

PROFILE:

Type of Undergrad: Top Go8 Australian University

Undergrad GPA: 89/100 (HD average)

Type of Grad: N/A

Grad GPA: N/A

GRE: V164, Q170, AW waiting

Math Courses: Honours Calculus (90), Honours Linear Algebra (89), Discrete Math (90), Vector Calculus (79, concern), Real and Complex Analysis (78, concern)

Econ Courses (grad-level): N/A

Econ Courses (honours-level): Business Cycles and Monetary Policy (91), Topics Development (90), Industrial Organization (83), Topics in Labor (taking), Topics in International Macro (taking)

Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intro Macro (90), Advanced Intermediate Micro (92), Advanced Intermediate Macro (92), Math for Econ (90), History of Economics Thoughts (84), Family Economics (87), Advanced Micro (89), Advanced Macro (88), Intro to Econometrics A (90), Intro to Econometrics B (95), Regression Modeling (87), Time Series and Forecasting (91), Econometric Theory and Methods (93), Applied Econometrics (94), Applied Microeconometrics (98)

Other Courses: some first year units from the Business school.

Letters of Recommendation: Three from my Honours Thesis Supervisors and one from Honours Coordinator (also teaching the Topics in International Macro).

Research Experience: Has been RAing for my honours thesis supervisors for two years in empirical micro areas. I am responsible for data cleaning (Stata) and regression analyses. I received an acknowledgement in a recent publication. I might potentially get a co-authorship, if the results are good enough in another project.

Also, I am working on my honours thesis, which is also in empirical micro.

Teaching Experience: TAed in first and second year economics and econometrics units since my third year.

Research Interests: labor, microeconometrics, and econometrics theory

SOP: still writing.

Concerns: Those math units where I only received Distinctions, though they roughly translate into an A- in the US system; they could be a bad signal. I could explain the relatively low grade in my SOP because I crammed those units concurrently with my honours units. I was overloading for that semester.

Other: Experiences in Stata, R, Matlab

Applying to: all Top 10, some in the Top 10-30, LSE, UCL, Toronto and UBC.

 

Thanks!

[chateauheart]

Your range seems very reasonable. There's no need to explain grades, almost everyone gets a few A-/distinctions in tough semesters.

[chyu1040]

Thanks for the prompt reply!