Profile Evaluation - Fall 2019 - Focus on MA/RA or also apply to PhDs?

[kcirtap35]

Hi all,

 

PROFILE:

Type of Undergrad: Economics and Math double major from USNEWS top 40 liberal arts college

Undergrad GPA: 3.85 (class rank somewhere in the top 10%)

GRE: Q: 167, V: 168, AW: 4

 

 

Math Courses: Calc I-III (A-, A-, A-), Linear Algebra (A-), Principles of Analysis (basically intro to proofs) (A), Abstract Algebra (A), Modern Algebra (A), Mathematical Biology (a lot of ODEs) (A-), Complex Analysis (B+), Real Analysis (Taking this semester), ODE (Taking this semester)

 

 

Econ Courses: AP Micro/Macro, Environmental Economics (A-), History of Economic Thought (A), Intermediate Micro (A-), Intermediate Macro (A), Econometrics (A), Research Methods (A-), Thesis research course (Taking this semester).

Will most likely take Game Theory and some other mathematically focused econ course in my last semester

 

Other Courses: French 201-202 (Taking the sequence this year) - Not sure if this is incredibly important, but I have an interest in development economics so maybe from a pragmatic standpoint?

 

 

Letters of Recommendation:

1. Top 30 PhD, Full (tenured) professor - Advisor to independent research this summer and to my thesis - Have a feeling this one will be the best

2. Top 20 PhD, Assistant professor (non-tenured), RA'd for him last summer - I'd say it'll be good

3. Top 20 PhD, Full (tenured) professor - Involved in a project with him last summer - made me a coauthor on the book chapter we wrote - He also oversees the summer research program so he's seen me quite a bit

 

Research Experience:

 

1. 1 summer as an RA for a professor (rec #2) - labor economics, public economics, sports economics

2. 1 semester as an unofficial RA for a professor (rec #2) - behavioral economics

3. 1 summer on an independent research project with rec #1 advising - health economics

4. Honors thesis with rec #1 advising - health economics

 

 

Other Potentially Relevant Work Experience:

1. 1 year as a grader in the math department (probably will continue this into this year)

2. 1 year as a tutor for econ/math (probably will continue this into this year)

 

Research Interests:

 

Development econ, health econ, public econ

In a perfect world, I'd like to integrate all three - like health and developmental policy

 

Planning to Apply to:

*All master's programs

Cambridge (Gates Cambridge), Toulouse, UBC, CEMFI, Bocconi, Simon Fraser, VU Amsterdam (Fulbright), Queen's, Toronto, Tinbergen, U of Minnesota APEC, Paris School of Economics (Public Policy and Development)

 

Also RA positions

 

Concerns:

1. I'm not entirely sure if I should write off PhD applications completely, but I also don't want to waste time an money if it would be better to just apply in a later cycle once I've had either some research experience or a Master's. Should I apply to PhD programs? And if so, what would be a feasible range?

2. Is it okay to express interest in development econ even though I don't have any research experience directly tied to it? Or is that seen as odd?

 

Any advice you could give is greatly appreciated. Thank you!