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Application evaluation (non-econ background for low-ranked schools)


nhanntran

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I am going to apply for some PhD in Economics for Fall 2019

My undergrad: majored in Accounting 8.42/10 (one of the top schools in business and economics in Vietnam)

My masters: majored in Finance 4.38/4.5 (an unranked university in South Korea).

Math course:

 

  • Linear Algebra (A+)
  • Calculus (B+)
  • Optimization (A+)
  • Probabilities and math statistics (A+)
  • Applied Statistics in Business and Economics (A+)
  • Statistics (Grad) (A+)

Econ courses:

 

  • Microeconomics I (B+)
  • Macroeconomics I (A)
  • Development economics (B+)
  • International Economics (A)
  • Theories of Monetary Finance (A)
  • Econometrics (Grad) (A+)
  • Time-series (Grad) (A+)

My unofficial GRE score: Verbal 147, Quantitative 167. I have not received my AWA score yet.

My LORs:

1 from my masters thesis advisor (PhD in Finance at Wisconsin at Madison)- not really strong. 1 from a professor that I worked as his RA (PhD in Economics at Boston Uni)- looks okay

1 from a statistics professor, I am not sure about this letter.

My questions are:

 

  • My background lacks calculus II,III, and some other math courses as well as intermediate micro and macroeconomics? How does it hurt my application?
  • My verbal score is quite low, given that I am an international student with my IELTS score of 7.5? I understand that the committee puts more weight on Quantitative section, but does my super low verbal harm my chance?
  • If I take some online course without certificates on Math, does it count?
  • Some of schools that I may shoot: Hawaii at Manoa, Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Clark, UTexas at Dallas. Do I have any change getting in? Do you guys have suggestions for some schools that I should apply for?

 

Any suggestion is highly welcomed. :)

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Hi there!

 

From my understanding, there aren't many schools that will take you without you having taken the calculus courses. I would take another year to take those courses, and perhaps try your GRE again. The quant score is very good but that verbal score might really hurt you. It doesn't have to be incredibly high, but just up to a better level.

 

Hope that helps.

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Hi Nhan,

 

Switching from Finance to Econ is usually tough. Given your background, why don't you try some programs in Europe?

 

I am going to apply for some PhD in Economics for Fall 2019

My undergrad: majored in Accounting 8.42/10 (one of the top schools in business and economics in Vietnam)

My masters: majored in Finance 4.38/4.5 (an unranked university in South Korea).

Math course:

 

  • Linear Algebra (A+)
  • Calculus (B+)
  • Optimization (A+)
  • Probabilities and math statistics (A+)
  • Applied Statistics in Business and Economics (A+)
  • Statistics (Grad) (A+)

Econ courses:

 

  • Microeconomics I (B+)
  • Macroeconomics I (A)
  • Development economics (B+)
  • International Economics (A)
  • Theories of Monetary Finance (A)
  • Econometrics (Grad) (A+)
  • Time-series (Grad) (A+)

My unofficial GRE score: Verbal 147, Quantitative 167. I have not received my AWA score yet.

My LORs:

1 from my masters thesis advisor (PhD in Finance at Wisconsin at Madison)- not really strong. 1 from a professor that I worked as his RA (PhD in Economics at Boston Uni)- looks okay

1 from a statistics professor, I am not sure about this letter.

My questions are:

 

  • My background lacks calculus II,III, and some other math courses as well as intermediate micro and macroeconomics? How does it hurt my application?
  • My verbal score is quite low, given that I am an international student with my IELTS score of 7.5? I understand that the committee puts more weight on Quantitative section, but does my super low verbal harm my chance?
  • If I take some online course without certificates on Math, does it count?
  • Some of schools that I may shoot: Hawaii at Manoa, Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Clark, UTexas at Dallas. Do I have any change getting in? Do you guys have suggestions for some schools that I should apply for?

 

Any suggestion is highly welcomed. :)

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Hi Nhan,

 

Switching from Finance to Econ is usually tough. Given your background, why don't you try some programs in Europe?

 

Hello,

 

My professor suggested that I should try PhD in Econ because Econ admits a dozen of candidates every year, that of Finance is only 3-5 students. I think PhD in Finance is highly competitive globally? Or is it less competitive in Europe? It seems to me that it would be tough applying for Econ, but I think I don't even have any chance in Finance. :)

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Indeed, Economics programs tend to admit more students than Finance programs. However, what also matters is the research interest that you signal and the rigor and prestige of your current degree.

 

From my personal experience, some European universities might be more welcoming with candidates having no calculus courses on their transcripts. But the main reason why you should consider Europe is because most of the time, application is free in Europe, hence it doesn't hurt applying to more places.

 

You should also check out the placement record of the program and try to compare your background with someone who graduated from certain programs (look at the Job market candidates link) - in this way, you know more about your expected future after graduation as well as a rough guess of your chance to get admitted. The ultimate goal is never trying to get into a program at all cost, but to get into a program that gives you the job you want.

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I am going to apply for some PhD in Economics for Fall 2019

My undergrad: majored in Accounting 8.42/10 (one of the top schools in business and economics in Vietnam)

My masters: majored in Finance 4.38/4.5 (an unranked university in South Korea).

Math course:

 

  • Linear Algebra (A+)
  • Calculus (B+)
  • Optimization (A+)
  • Probabilities and math statistics (A+)
  • Applied Statistics in Business and Economics (A+)
  • Statistics (Grad) (A+)

Econ courses:

 

  • Microeconomics I (B+)
  • Macroeconomics I (A)
  • Development economics (B+)
  • International Economics (A)
  • Theories of Monetary Finance (A)
  • Econometrics (Grad) (A+)
  • Time-series (Grad) (A+)

My unofficial GRE score: Verbal 147, Quantitative 167. I have not received my AWA score yet.

My LORs:

1 from my masters thesis advisor (PhD in Finance at Wisconsin at Madison)- not really strong. 1 from a professor that I worked as his RA (PhD in Economics at Boston Uni)- looks okay

1 from a statistics professor, I am not sure about this letter.

My questions are:

 

  • My background lacks calculus II,III, and some other math courses as well as intermediate micro and macroeconomics? How does it hurt my application?
  • My verbal score is quite low, given that I am an international student with my IELTS score of 7.5? I understand that the committee puts more weight on Quantitative section, but does my super low verbal harm my chance?
  • If I take some online course without certificates on Math, does it count?
  • Some of schools that I may shoot: Hawaii at Manoa, Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Clark, UTexas at Dallas. Do I have any change getting in? Do you guys have suggestions for some schools that I should apply for?

 

Any suggestion is highly welcomed. :)

 

No Econ program in the US will fund someone with limited Math and Econ backgrounds. They might admit you with a decent GRE Q score plus letters suggesting a good fit and research interests, but they won't fund you.

 

Do you have any research experience? Why do you want to do a PhD?

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No Econ program in the US will fund someone with limited Math and Econ backgrounds. They might admit you with a decent GRE Q score plus letters suggesting a good fit and research interests, but they won't fund you.

 

Do you have any research experience? Why do you want to do a PhD?

I have to disagree with tm_member here. A student with an A+ in linear algebra and in two grad courses and strong letters is a plausible candidate at many schools outside the top 20 or so. Mind the OP suggests that the letters won't be strong. [but questions about research experience and why do you want a PhD are ones a candidate should always be able to answer.]

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Hello,

 

During my masters, I have done my thesis on a finance topic (investment). My paper has been sent to a Scopus-indexed journal and under review. I've also worked as a research assistant for one of my professor for 5 months. I would like to do my PhD because I am really interested in development economics, especially poverty and inequality. Any chance for me with some schools in top 100.

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Hello,

 

During my masters, I have done my thesis on a finance topic (investment). My paper has been sent to a Scopus-indexed journal and under review. I've also worked as a research assistant for one of my professor for 5 months. I would like to do my PhD because I am really interested in development economics, especially poverty and inequality. Any chance for me with some schools in top 100.

 

You should have no trouble with admission at a top 100 school. (I think there are only 138 econ PhD programs in the U.S.) This does assume supportive letters of recommendation.

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I think people are significantly underestimating the profile. This seems competitive for top 50 econ or the finance equivalent, possibly top 30. About the "missing" calculus courses, note that the first calculus course at a top university in Vietnam would usually include what we refer to as Calculus III in the US - and possibly some real analysis - because they take two years of calculus in high school. They also take economics in high school, so I suspect his UG microecon/macroecon courses are closer to what we refer to as advanced micro/macro in the United States, and definitely covers the content of intermediate micro/macro. The proportion of A-range grades is probably around 10-20%, compared to 50-70% in U.S. UG/grad programs, and he got A+ in every grad course, in addition to his excellent GPA in a very competitive undergraduate program from his country (at many top East Asian universities, accounting is the most difficult track to get into). These grades look very impressive to me. If my interpretation of his grades are roughly accurate, he would likely get strong LORs from his professors who understand his grading system.

 

To OP: my main suggestion is to apply to a wide range of schools (e.g. 12+ applications evenly distributed between #15 and #60 econ/finance programs), and consider focusing on PhD finance programs. The difference between a PhD econ student focusing on monetary economics, and a PhD finance student focusing on macro-finance and banking, is basically trivial. They generally publish in the same journals and have the same networks; cross-placement is very common. But with your background, you will be more competitive in PhD finance programs. Furthermore, based on the experience of some of my friends who applied to both econ and finance, finance PhDs are slightly easier in admissions - they admit a smaller number of students, but have proportionally less serious applicants. Because not many people understand the nature of a PhD finance degree, only a small proportion of PhD finance applicants have an appropriate background for finance research (i.e. undergrad math/econ background + finance RA experience, which you have). Finally, PhD finance programs (and PhD accounting) give better funding offers, which is important to you. You may consider adding several econ programs that are close to your interest, but I don't think it is rational to exclusively apply to PhD econ programs with your background. In fact, I would suggest applying to PhD accounting over any PhD economics program, because income and income stability seem more important to you than a specific research interest, and PhD accounting provides very lucrative options in both academia and industry.

 

Note that, contrary to what some people might have experienced in undergrad, both PhD finance and PhD accounting contain a significant amount of microeconomic theory, and their research is almost exclusively based on modern econometrics. The difference in quantitative training is generally negligible, but again, I think it's significantly easier for OP to get admitted into a tier-1 accounting or finance PhD. Disciplinary prejudice sometimes plays a role in admissions, and as you can tell from this thread, it is common for economics PhDs/professors to under-estimate the quantitative rigor in econ-based accounting/finance degrees, especially those from good universities abroad.

 

Also, check for funding programs from the Vietnamese government for macro/finance PhD students. In many countries a funding program is available from central banks, contingent on work promise. If you can obtain government funding before admissions decisions are made, and notify the departments accordingly, then you will have significantly better chances at top PhD programs.

Edited by chateauheart
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I have to disagree with tm_member here. A student with an A+ in linear algebra and in two grad courses and strong letters is a plausible candidate at many schools outside the top 20 or so. Mind the OP suggests that the letters won't be strong. [but questions about research experience and why do you want a PhD are ones a candidate should always be able to answer.]

 

I would agree if those grades (1) included Calc III and Intermediate Micro and (2) were from well-known schools, but (and I'm open to being corrected here) a good school in Vietnam and an unranked Korean school would not fill me with confidence.

 

Perhaps they are solid grades from rigorous classes, perhaps not.

 

As Chateauheart says, it's possible the Calc class actually was much more advanced than the OP suggests (although the B+ is not a great grade). Same can be said for the micro (another B+) class. Without more info, we don't really know, but an adcom member will struggle with the same questions. Therefore, my money is on this student being too risky to fund but would receive admission somewhere. Searching for funding from outside sources would be a very valuable exercise.

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Searching for funding from outside sources would be a very valuable exercise.

Excellent advice for everyone. Outside money for American students is somewhat limited--but do check out NSF fellowships. Many foreign governments provide grants/loans. Also, international students should check out the Fulbright program. Mexican students interested in the University of California should look into the UC-Mexus program.

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Perhaps they are solid grades from rigorous classes, perhaps not.

 

There really isn't any uncertainty on this front. The floor is so high that any variation is redundant, and it's certainly less variation than a typical elite U.S. undergrad degree. He was on an elite track in the best university in Vietnam, a nation with 90 million people following a French/Chinese (Confucian) education model. Any student obtaining admissions to his degree program would have been among the top 1-2% among high school cohorts on the basis of standardized tests with a heavy weight towards math and science (on topics that would be college-level in the U.S.). The resulting segmentation in student quality is much starker than in the U.S. liberal arts system which accounts for racial and social factors and leads to cohorts with a wide range of academic quality. Not a perfect analogy, but I'd say you can consider undergrad STEM/accounting/finance student quality in any top foreign national university in a country with >10 million people to be comparable or better than a median student in the same field in HYP.

 

True, there's unavoidably variation in course quality and rigor, but this is strongly accounted for by information that (I assume) will be provided in his application - cohort rankings or percentiles over an entire degree program, which contains much less ambiguity than, say, specific math grades or overall GPA from U.S. private undergraduate institutions. The whole practice of deciphering transcripts that we do for U.S. (and a few other countries') undergraduates is a product of the ambiguity in their grading system and their top-ended curves (e.g. Harvard's UG median graduating GPA last year was 3.8/4.0. Meaning that even a 4.0 by itself would be garbage as a signal of competence for academic research, hence why adcoms look for "tough" pure math courses that have little-and-declining relevance to graduate training or research). All this interpretation/translation is unnecessary for foreign education systems that (1) are known for meritocratic/standardized admissions; (2) provide exact cohort percentiles or rankings, (3) based on meaningful grading curves (with median set to a B or C).

 

Master's program being from an "unranked" South Korean university also likely isn't as bad as it sounds to you. Assuming he means academic research rankings for the associated department, it's a very poor predictor of a particular master's program's admissions difficulty, rigor, or placement track record. LSE/Cambridge's econ departments are ranked ~50 spots higher than Bocconi or BGSE but have significantly less rigorous/respected master's econ programs. Wharton is average in finance/organizational-econ research but has indisputably the most prestigious MBA program in the world. (mentioning that because OP's degrees are somewhat analogous to a combination of a standard econ master's and an elite MBA degree.) Additionally, in his field of finance/accounting research, U.S. business schools pretty much invented the entire contemporary literature; any foreign department will be ranked pretty low or unranked in the publication/award-based rankings in that field. That doesn't reflect undergrad quality at all; professional track business/finance/accounting programs have always been the most elite degrees in much of East Asia, and those undergrads are heavily over-represented in bulge bracket firms and in the top echelons of academia. If stereotypes about Anglo-American finance/business undergrads influenced your interpretation of his record, you should know those stereotypes should be reversed in most continental European and Asian universities.

 

Of course, what matters isn't how we judge his record, but how a typical PhD adcom would judge it. On that, I'm confident most adcoms in large-sized econ PhD programs will have enough experience in foreign admissions to judge his undergrad degree favorably. Partly because that information will be reflected in the strength of his letters, and partly because I've seen admission files that contained favorable decisions made on the basis of comparable information - top x% student at the best national university in a large country - with little else apparently deemed relevant or necessary. On the other hand, I don't know whether PhD finance/accounting adcoms would typically have enough experience with foreign transcripts, considering their small intake per year, but their admissions is much more network-based, and OP apparently has non-trivial connections to good PhD finance programs.

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There really isn't any uncertainty on this front. The floor is so high that any variation is redundant, and it's certainly less variation than a typical elite U.S. undergrad degree. He was on an elite track in the best university in Vietnam, a nation with 90 million people following a French/Chinese (Confucian) education model. Any student obtaining admissions to his degree program would have been among the top 1-2% among high school cohorts on the basis of standardized tests with a heavy weight towards math and science (on topics that would be college-level in the U.S.). The resulting segmentation in student quality is much starker than in the U.S. liberal arts system which accounts for racial and social factors and leads to cohorts with a wide range of academic quality. Not a perfect analogy, but I'd say you can consider undergrad STEM/accounting/finance student quality in any top foreign national university in a country with >10 million people to be comparable or better than a median student in the same field in HYP.

 

True, there's unavoidably variation in course quality and rigor, but this is strongly accounted for by information that (I assume) will be provided in his application - cohort rankings or percentiles over an entire degree program, which contains much less ambiguity than, say, specific math grades or overall GPA from U.S. private undergraduate institutions. The whole practice of deciphering transcripts that we do for U.S. (and a few other countries') undergraduates is a product of the ambiguity in their grading system and their top-ended curves (e.g. Harvard's UG median graduating GPA last year was 3.8/4.0. Meaning that even a 4.0 by itself would be garbage as a signal of competence for academic research, hence why adcoms look for "tough" pure math courses that have little-and-declining relevance to graduate training or research). All this interpretation/translation is unnecessary for foreign education systems that (1) are known for meritocratic/standardized admissions; (2) provide exact cohort percentiles or rankings, (3) based on meaningful grading curves (with median set to a B or C).

 

Master's program being from an "unranked" South Korean university also likely isn't as bad as it sounds to you. Assuming he means academic research rankings for the associated department, it's a very poor predictor of a particular master's program's admissions difficulty, rigor, or placement track record. LSE/Cambridge's econ departments are ranked ~50 spots higher than Bocconi or BGSE but have significantly less rigorous/respected master's econ programs. Wharton is average in finance/organizational-econ research but has indisputably the most prestigious MBA program in the world. (mentioning that because OP's degrees are somewhat analogous to a combination of a standard econ master's and an elite MBA degree.) Additionally, in his field of finance/accounting research, U.S. business schools pretty much invented the entire contemporary literature; any foreign department will be ranked pretty low or unranked in the publication/award-based rankings in that field. That doesn't reflect undergrad quality at all; professional track business/finance/accounting programs have always been the most elite degrees in much of East Asia, and those undergrads are heavily over-represented in bulge bracket firms and in the top echelons of academia. If stereotypes about Anglo-American finance/business undergrads influenced your interpretation of his record, you should know those stereotypes should be reversed in most continental European and Asian universities.

 

Of course, what matters isn't how we judge his record, but how a typical PhD adcom would judge it. On that, I'm confident most adcoms in large-sized econ PhD programs will have enough experience in foreign admissions to judge his undergrad degree favorably. Partly because that information will be reflected in the strength of his letters, and partly because I've seen admission files that contained favorable decisions made on the basis of comparable information - top x% student at the best national university in a large country - with little else apparently deemed relevant or necessary. On the other hand, I don't know whether PhD finance/accounting adcoms would typically have enough experience with foreign transcripts, considering their small intake per year, but their admissions is much more network-based, and OP apparently has non-trivial connections to good PhD finance programs.

 

I remain unconvinced on the applicant's potential for an Econ program. I can't really say anything for Finance/Accounting.

 

B+'s in Micro and Calculus are always problematic. The Korean Master's doesn't make sense to me: if the UG degree was so good, why follow that up with an unknown MA program? Lastly, the OP is aiming at low ranked schools, LoRs seem shaky, and the verbal score is poor.

 

Each of these is not a dealbreaker in and of itself, but when put together, they add up to an unnecessary risk.

 

If the OP could come back next year and fill us in on what happened, that would be helpful.

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I agree with tm_member.

 

No, a calculus course at the university level in Vietnam does NOT cover analysis, although Vietnamese students do some analysis in high school. The linear algebra course is not also proof-based. They do NOT take economics in high school

 

Sure, his grades are very good, but it's not uncommon. Any serious student can get that GPA. All it would signal is that OP is serious about studying, but that's about it.

 

I think OP refers to 1 of 3 or so Vietnamese universities, and knowing some folks who have come to the US from Vietnam to do their PhDs, I would find it hard to believe if OP gets into top 50 with funding given the fact that his/her LORs aren't good as he/she admitted. I don't know anything about finance programs so I'll reserve judgement on that

Edited by applicant12
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Let me clarify a bit:

 

  • We do study calculus at our high school and I think my calculus at the university level may be equivalent to calculus II,III. But I am not sure if the adcoms would have experience on Vietnamese transcripts and or do I need to explain in SOP/ or elsewhere?
  • My UG major was Accounting (Auditing to be exact). This is the toughest track in my university in Vietnam. I’ve also worked for Deloitte for over 1 year.
  • Unranked schools in South Korea: I was awarded a full scholarship to do my masters. My masters program is a research-based program. So, I decided to take that because it fitted my needs.

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Let me clarify a bit:

 

  • We do study calculus at our high school and I think my calculus at the university level may be equivalent to calculus II,III. But I am not sure if the adcoms would have experience on Vietnamese transcripts and or do I need to explain in SOP/ or elsewhere?

 

If this is the case, maybe the curriculum must be different from when it was in years past. If that's the case, the appropriate place to mention it would be in your SOP for you and LORs for your LOR writers

 

  • My UG major was Accounting (Auditing to be exact). This is the toughest track in my university in Vietnam. I’ve also worked for Deloitte for over 1 year.

 

You should mention this in your SOP too. Your experience at Deloitte counts for nothing in the admission process (it may even count against you). But again, as I said, I suspect it's hard for you to stand out with your GPA unless you're among the top x students in your graduating class.

 

The most glaring problem with your profile is your LORs. If the person who should know you best (your thesis advisor) can't write you a strong letter, that's a big red flag. Just put yourself in the shoe of a person on an adcom. The obvious questions that would come to mind are things like "why can't his thesis advisor vouch for him? What's wrong here? Should I take the chance on this person when his advisor doesn't think that highly of him? etc." I don't know how you would be able to address this.

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I am sorry if it is inappropriate to upload a reference letter here, but here is a draft of my advisor's letter. What do you think?

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

I have known XXX since he joined our master program in which I have been the director from the beginning of 2016. Our program has been designed in such a way that students are trained to be a serious researcher. As one of requirements of our master program, our students have to submit their papers to the level of Scopus journal by the time they graduate. XXX has been one of the most diligent students in our program, and has just finished up the process successfully. On the surface, he looked a bit quite, but I have observed he becomes very focused especially when it boils down to academic matters. The fact that he has received high grades on a consistent basis proves it.

 

I also had an opportunity to advise his thesis. In the thesis, he re-examined “AAA”. Most extant literature suggests a negative relationship between liquidity and stock returns. Some claim, however, that liquidity has a different role in the emerging market. In particular, using “aaa” stock market data, M (2014) and N (2016) showed a positive relationship between liquidity and stock returns. His paper re-investigates this subject in the framework of the augmented Fama-French model with momentum and liquidity. His study finds that the liquidity factor is priced. More importantly, there is a negative relationship between liquidity and stock return.

 

Although we are still in the process of making his thesis published in a decent journal, I

am certain that there is a publishable piece with interesting empirical significance in his

thesis. While he wrote the thesis, I also noted that he always responded quickly and yet

with great details to all the instructions that I gave; unless he was highly motivated and

well equipped with analytical tools, it would not have been possible. In addition, I am

sure that he is good at handling the data, because I observed that he had a solid

knowledge on many statistical softwares, such as Stata and Eviews. As a team player, he

too seemed to share what he knows with many of other students, and is willing to help

other projects every time his skills are needed.

 

I have a strong feeling that he is well prepared and thus will succeed in your program. First of all, he has good habits of studying, which includes his diligent and hard-working attitudes. His analytical skills with excellent statistical background will be a plus too. XXX also has a desirable character; he is humble, and yet persistent, and very focusing. Last but not the least, he is highly motivated and prepared to learn and absorb as much of economics and finance knowledge as he can.

 

Based on my observation for the last two years, I dare can assure you that he will be an excellent student, once accepted into your program

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I am sorry if it is inappropriate to upload a reference letter here, but here is a draft of my advisor's letter. What do you think?

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

I have known XXX since he joined our master program in which I have been the director from the beginning of 2016. Our program has been designed in such a way that students are trained to be a serious researcher. As one of requirements of our master program, our students have to submit their papers to the level of Scopus journal by the time they graduate. XXX has been one of the most diligent students in our program, and has just finished up the process successfully. On the surface, he looked a bit quite, but I have observed he becomes very focused especially when it boils down to academic matters. The fact that he has received high grades on a consistent basis proves it.

 

I also had an opportunity to advise his thesis. In the thesis, he re-examined “AAA”. Most extant literature suggests a negative relationship between liquidity and stock returns. Some claim, however, that liquidity has a different role in the emerging market. In particular, using “aaa” stock market data, M (2014) and N (2016) showed a positive relationship between liquidity and stock returns. His paper re-investigates this subject in the framework of the augmented Fama-French model with momentum and liquidity. His study finds that the liquidity factor is priced. More importantly, there is a negative relationship between liquidity and stock return.

 

Although we are still in the process of making his thesis published in a decent journal, I

am certain that there is a publishable piece with interesting empirical significance in his

thesis. While he wrote the thesis, I also noted that he always responded quickly and yet

with great details to all the instructions that I gave; unless he was highly motivated and

well equipped with analytical tools, it would not have been possible. In addition, I am

sure that he is good at handling the data, because I observed that he had a solid

knowledge on many statistical softwares, such as Stata and Eviews. As a team player, he

too seemed to share what he knows with many of other students, and is willing to help

other projects every time his skills are needed.

 

I have a strong feeling that he is well prepared and thus will succeed in your program. First of all, he has good habits of studying, which includes his diligent and hard-working attitudes. His analytical skills with excellent statistical background will be a plus too. XXX also has a desirable character; he is humble, and yet persistent, and very focusing. Last but not the least, he is highly motivated and prepared to learn and absorb as much of economics and finance knowledge as he can.

 

Based on my observation for the last two years, I dare can assure you that he will be an excellent student, once accepted into your program

 

Everything here suggests a PhD in Finance would be a better choice.

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First, you should ask your advisor to proofread the letter. There are some obvious grammar errors that I see.

 

Second, in light of your lack of math courses, you should convince him to talk more about your ability to do PhD-level coursework and handle high-level math. It would carry some weight if he could talk about that, given the fact that he comes from Wisconsin. Also ask him to address the B+ in Micro. That's a red flag.

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Your experience at Deloitte counts for nothing in the admission process (it may even count against you). But again, as I said, I suspect it's hard for you to stand out with your GPA unless you're among the top x students in your graduating class.

 

This is plain wrong. B-school adcoms take that type of experience as a huge plus. I've spoken with and worked with b-school faculty who categorically reject students without work experience (counting internships), preferably in one of the big 3/4 companies in their field. Anyone that thinks a year in Deloitte is a negative on a resume is seriously out of touch with not just the real world but with most of the business/econ academia. Some econ department adcoms might be (incorrectly, IMO) biased against industry experience, but the vast majority will be neutral or positive.

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This is plain wrong. B-school adcoms take that type of experience as a huge plus. I've spoken with and worked with b-school faculty who categorically reject students without work experience (counting internships), preferably in one of the big 3/4 companies in their field. Anyone that thinks a year in Deloitte is a negative on a resume is seriously out of touch with not just the real world but with most of the business/econ academia. Some econ department adcoms might be (incorrectly, IMO) biased against industry experience, but the vast majority will be neutral or positive.

 

Sure, you're right. I was referring to Econ dept, 'cause OP explicitly asked about Econ. I said Idk much about finance programs so I didn't wanna comment on that

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