Semi-Final List of Schools... Feedback?

[Jhai]

Hey all,
I've got my semi-final list of schools I'll be applying to, and I'd appreciate it if you look through and give me some feedback. Feel free to skim/skip over my stats stuff

My stats: 3.7ish GPA, with an econ/philosophy major, "minor" in math (we aren't allowed to have 3 majors, so I'm not taking the math senior seminar) from a top-50 liberal arts college. Haven't taken the GRE yet, but I doubt there will be any trouble there. I'm a girl & American, if that has any effect on the admissions process... My GPA would be higher if it weren't for a couple of 3.5 semesters my first year when I was having serious, serious health issues - as in out of classes for 3 or 4 weeks, then on serious pain meds bad. My recs will vouch for this, and I might mention it in my personal statement. Health issues are now perfectly controlled.
Courses: I'll have 12 econ courses by the end of this fall, including int. micro & macro, math for econ, game theory, econometrics, international, adv. micro, etc. 9 math courses by the end of the fall, including the typical calc sequence, two semesters of Operations Research, linear alg, diff eq, real analysis, and prob & stats I. I'll take prob & stats II in the spring.
Research: I've spent the past two summers doing research, first with my advisor on FDI, then on urban public infrastructure and municipal fiscal crises at Georgia State University. The first one hasn't led to any publications (altho I still have the data set I created), for the second I composed a paper which will form the basis of one of the chapters of a book my mentor is writing. Both profs will give me references
References:
Three strong ones from the faculty at my university - one from the head of the department (did an independent study with her), one from my advisor, a Stanford grad, and one from a prof I've taken a lot of classs with (from Minnesota). I'll also get one from the prof I worked with at GSU (he's from the public policy school at Chicago). I expect them to be very strong.
Teaching:
I've been tutoring in econ and math for three years for the university, and I'm TAing a course (first-year seminar) this fall for the head of the econ department

List:
Stanford
Stanford Business School: Political Economy
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
John Hopkins
Duke
USC
U of Maryland - College Park
U of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
UCSC
Georgetown U
George Washington

I'm interested mainly in international & development, and I'm not adverse to going onto the policy side of things, thus the large number of schools near D.C. I'm only applying to schools near big metro areas, so my significant other can find good IT jobs. I'm afraid this list might be skewed a bit to much towards the more selective schools, but as a California resident I could probably manage the UCs for a year w/o funding, if it came down to that. I might also apply to Georgia State as a backup - despite their ranking, they impressed me as a school while I was there.

I've also tried to list the schools roughly in their level of selectivity - do you all agree that it seems about right?

Thanks for any and all help!

[tct]

I think Stanford allows applying only to one graduate program at a time. You might want to double-check that.

[Nalfien]

Good range of schools, I am sure you can will get into most of them. In terms of selectivity I would have changed it a tiny bit:

Stanford
Berkeley
UCSD
UCLA
Duke
Maryland
Johns Hopkins
USC
UNC CH
UCSC
GT
GW

But thats just me. I wonder what others will say....

anyways good luck!

[shootermcgavin7]

Originally Posted by Jhai

Research: I've spent the past two summers doing research, first with my advisor on FDI, then on urban public infrastructure and municipal fiscal crises at Georgia State University. The first one hasn't led to any publications (altho I still have the data set I created), for the second I composed a paper which will form the basis of one of the chapters of a book my mentor is writing. Both profs will give me references
References:
Three strong ones from the faculty at my university - one from the head of the department (did an independent study with her), one from my advisor, a Stanford grad, and one from a prof I've taken a lot of classs with (from Minnesota). I'll also get one from the prof I worked with at GSU (he's from the public policy school at Chicago). I expect them to be very strong.
.............
I might also apply to Georgia State as a backup - despite their ranking, they impressed me as a school while I was there.

Look across the street and wave at me at Robinson if you're in the Andrew Young building.

You weren't working with Bruce, were you?

[Jhai]

shooter - I was working with Dr. Krupka, who is pretty new - he only got his Ph.d in 2005. Dr. Valev supervised the interns - he's a really great guy in international finance. Anyways, the internship ended in late July, so I've been spending the time since then studying for the GRE and making up that list.

tct - on Stanford's graduate admissions FAQ, I found this tidbit:

You may apply concurrently to one departmental program and to a professional school (law, medicine or business).

The business school has their own online application, seperate from the main graduate school which handles the regular econ department. So I think I'll be okay applying to both, but I'll probably check in with one or both offices just to make sure.

[shootermcgavin7]

Anyway, Jhai - as you noticed in another post I was finding disparities in the "rankings", etc.

I thoroughly enjoy GSU's grad program and their faculty is pretty impressive. The way that school is spending money I would expect them to continue to rise in the rankings.

You may also notice that the Andrew Young school as a whole is ranked very high in the "Public Policy" rankings.



I may not stay there after I get my masters (I will likely apply to 15-18 schools) but there are a lot worse places to end up than Georgia State (or Atlanta)

[Jhai]

If anyone else has some feedback, I'd really appreciate it!

[TruDog]

I'd say that you're in pretty good shape with your list right now. Best of luck in the application process!

[floplo]

Any reason you didn't pick any school between NY and Boston ? International and Development Policy is also made in other places than the DC area....

[Jhai]

The New York schools seem to get excessive applications compared to their rank - must be the NYC thing or something. So those are out strictly for statistical reasons, since I'm not in love with the programs or the idea of living in NYC. Boston... I don't want to attend Harvard. I've heard bad things about the professors' relationships with grad students - since it's Haahvaard, everyone is in a frenzy to keep their job, publish or perish, which leads to them not wanting to deal with grad students. I don't feel like MIT's departmental leanings fit well with mine, and, really, I don't need another reach school in my application. And I'm not impressed with the course of study or placements of BC or BU.

Also, I get cold really easily. It might be a stupid reason, but I'd prefer not to live where it gets super cold in the winters for that reason. It's at least 5 years of my life - I don't want to be unhappy with my surroundings. I'd apply to a Northern school if the program really impressed me, or if I didn't have enough other good choices... but since I already have a list of 13 acceptable schools, I don't feel the need.