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toiysam · 08-31-2006, 03:38 AM

do you guys think that a master in munich would help me get into a top phd program. i have to do a master, and cant afford masters where there is a tuition. I am at a top b-school in latin america(ranked 3rd) , however the economics department sucks, i will graduate without research experience, no good LOR from economic faculty(they are not known) nor real analysis. So i have to do a master in economics. Munich has teh best econ. department in germany and is a thesis-master.
In undergrad i would graduate like top 5% of the class, i did some practice GREs and got 800 in Q. Have bad grades at two calculus courses that i did at another university in another country while at an engineering program. wasnt thingking about a phd back then, nor even staying at that uni. i am hoping that my grades at the new maths courses may outplay that.
do you guys konw another one year or three semestre masters at some european country (no UK) that is in english, german or spanish (no french cause i dont wanna start improving my french)

maths_bonn · 08-31-2006, 09:08 AM

I would doubt that LMU Munich has the best econ department in germany.
Sure they have Klaus Schmidt, and he is, if u beleive the papaer the most succesful researcher in germany.
Though I am from Bonn, I think that maybe the best university for econ. in germany is Mannheim followed by Bonn and HU Berlin. And then there are LMU Munich, Konstanz, Cologne, and maybe some more I don't remember right now.
In Bonn they will also have a research (2 year with thesis) masters from October on, and from what I have seen it seems really hard. And if u are good enough at the core courses u can take special research courses that will help u even better with your PhD-Prep.
And the programme is in English.
The only thing is: Apllication closing date was the 15th of august. If u want to do the masters next near than u have enough time, but this years application round is over.

Another thing about rankings: In germany u have a pretty homogeneous university system, there are not really any bad univeristies...the downside of that is, that there are no univeristies that excel in every subject.
But u can make out little differences nonetheless: In Econ i.e. Mannheim has the best exchange programmes in germany: They have 3 places each year for students to study one year in Berkeley or Yale (3 places for each of these uni's), they have also exchange agreements with UCLA, U Toronto,... u can look them up at their homepage.
Bonn has also this prestigious agreement with Berkeley, and with the ENSAE in Paris (Mannheim and HU Berlin have that too, they also have double degree arrangements with the ENSAE).
SO u could say that these three universities are the international most renowned universities for econ in germany, but if u still can get in LMU that wouldn't be a bad choice either, but in my opinion it is not really number one in germany.
(There are different rankings in germany, once there was one in which econ in Bonn was in the lower third because they only looked on national publications, I mean what does such a ranking tell u???? OR this ranking where mathematics in Bonn was in the lower third for whatever reasons, and it is to be considered a top 3 department in germany. Rankings are "new" in germany, they exist since, maybe 10 years, and they are calibrating there parameters right now, and u have to be careful with some of them. The downside is that u can't tell abotu the stupidity of a ranking if u don't know anything about the university system by yourself. That's a liitle bit stupid, but...unfortunately it is that way)
Good luck with your further education.

floplo · 08-31-2006, 10:04 AM

Check out the Netherlands, they have decent and well-respected schools and most of them offer their master programs in English (Tilburg, Maastricht, Amsterdam (UVA ,VU), Rotterdam,etc)

toiysam · 09-02-2006, 07:15 PM

well, i checkd the netherlands, and they do have great one-year programmes, but there is a tuition. about germany, bonn and Humboldt seem higher ranked however no sign for manheim in rankings(althought i noticed that it is considered the no.1), anyways, they offer two year programes. i think munich is a great choice. Does anyone know, how much a master from there would actually help me to get to top PHD programes.it consists of a thesis, 2 phd courses and there are some splendid profesors in there. how high should i be ranked in the master class or would a high gre and great LORs do the job. thanks for your replies, great help

veroniquaz · 09-02-2006, 09:27 PM

What is the area you want to specialize in? I am currently in a program with a guy who just graduated from Munich and from what he told me Munich only seems to be good in micro and much worse in macro. In case micro is what you want to do, Munich does not have to be a bad option given you rank really high (top 3) and get a recommendation from say Schmidt. But you should keep in mind that by the time of applying you will not have a single grade and I am not sure that the sole fact of being enrolled in Munich will give you much of an edge over your undergrad record.

toiysam · 09-03-2006, 12:53 AM

by the time i apply i will have one semester's grades. Frankly, I dont know into what to specialize, shouldnt i worry about that when applying to PHD programmes instead of masters.
so now the question would be if a LOR of a big shot like schmidt (or Sinn) , one semestre's grade at munich would help me get into a top phd program. i am not trying to fix some bad record i got at undergrad, it is just that my undergrad is not sufficient. My prof told me that it is almost impossible to get into grad in the states with just a bachelor from my uni. almost all internationals have masters. so i need that master, and LMU seems like the best fit for me. so graduating at top 5% of class(trying to improve that) at my uni(top 3 bschool in latin america), 800 GRE Quant, one semester master grades at munich, good LOR: do i have a shot at top phd programmes with that. would a master at bonn or mannheim considerably improve my chances over munich???thanks a lot for you help
EDIT:

http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/news/top_fac.pdf
http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/news/top_med.pdf
http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/news/top_res.pdf
I know this doesnt mean much, but it shows munich as the top faculty in germany. as for economists the top researcher is schmidt and the top media economist(dont know what that means) is Sinn, both at munich
(i had some problems downloading those files, they wouldnt open, try using DAP, it will work for sure)
so, a semester in there, with LOR of one of those guys, could help a lot, dont you think?
i checked bonn, and they only start the masters in the winter semester(doesnt work for me)plus it is a 2 year programme,, mannheim has got no master nor humboldt.

maths_bonn · 09-03-2006, 08:20 AM

Sorry I just knew that Mannheim has a BSc in Econ beginning this year, and I tought that would start a MSc directly with that course, but it seems that they wanna wait until their own Bachelor's have their first degrees.
Yeah the ranking you are mentioning shows that their are 4 top econ faculty's in germany, and they are not all so far apart.
But I think that Mannheim (and I don't hink that I am the only one who thinks so) is the number one, unfortunately for u they don't have a masters programme. The other three universities come after that. Bonn i.e. is really famous for it's experimental econ lab which was build up by Reinhard Selten, though he doesn't lead it anymore he still is an adviser to it. Selten also is the reason why the name Bonn is so famous, internationally, for economics. There is no other german econ nobel laureate.
But the question is, why we are discussing that here, 'cause u don't have so many options if u want to start in summer. So just go to Munich and make it there. BTW, u will not only have this one semester but also the semester holidays from mid july to mid october to work as a RA for example, so it should't be that big problem to get enough contact with professors if u really wnat to.

BTW: This could be of interest for u:

http://www.uni-bonn.de/www/wiwi/home...ngsranking.pdf

Good luck!

toiysam · 09-03-2006, 05:43 PM

thanks a lot for your help. I knew that LMU was my only option, but I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't a big TTT as some told me.

one question: when working on my thesis, will i be able to work directly with profesors? let's say, i wanna do something on gametheory, will i be able to work with Schmidt??

maths_bonn · 09-03-2006, 06:39 PM

I don't know how they do it in Munich, but normally u will have a supervisor u is an assitant or a Ph.D. Student of the professor that "supervises" the thesis. He will supervise the thesis but he won't be your main contact, normally u will talk with your "small" supervisor and u will have a few meetings with the prof u will then, yeah talk with you about your thesis.
And working in his group, or writing a thesis with his group shuldn't be a problem, just make sure u do well in the lectures that are close to his subject and u will heva a good shot. (Could be that there are more people who want to write their master thesis's with him so I think that their will be a cut off, but if u aim at a good Ph.D. programme u will need good grades, too)
Good luck

floplo · 09-05-2006, 11:06 AM

Hi,

if you already decided that Munich is your only option, then you probably should start looking again, there have to be others...

A few small things about Munich

-they will very likely introduce tution fees in 2007, not extensive, but yes
-Munich is an expensive city, maybe the most expensive in Germany
-the Masters is non-selective (everybody with a certain grade can enter), so it might be larger than they expect
-check whether english is really sufficient or whether you need German language knowledge (not just for courses, but for registration purposes)
-the MA is not part of the Graduate school, though you have to take two classes there (the Advanced Master classes), but the focus of the Professors will surely be the PhD program

Please don't think I want to get you away from Munich, but it is early enough to investigate more options and you also should be certain of what you get yourself into.

A closing comment, yes many other programs have tution fees, but then even if this is not the US, there begins to exist a growing number of scholarships....

08-31-2006, 03:38 AM	#1 (permalink)
toiysam Trying to make mom and pop proud Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 8	Master in Munich, then top phd program do you guys think that a master in munich would help me get into a top phd program. i have to do a master, and cant afford masters where there is a tuition. I am at a top b-school in latin america(ranked 3rd) , however the economics department sucks, i will graduate without research experience, no good LOR from economic faculty(they are not known) nor real analysis. So i have to do a master in economics. Munich has teh best econ. department in germany and is a thesis-master. In undergrad i would graduate like top 5% of the class, i did some practice GREs and got 800 in Q. Have bad grades at two calculus courses that i did at another university in another country while at an engineering program. wasnt thingking about a phd back then, nor even staying at that uni. i am hoping that my grades at the new maths courses may outplay that. do you guys konw another one year or three semestre masters at some european country (no UK) that is in english, german or spanish (no french cause i dont wanna start improving my french)

09-03-2006, 12:53 AM	#6 (permalink)
toiysam Trying to make mom and pop proud Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 8	by the time i apply i will have one semester's grades. Frankly, I dont know into what to specialize, shouldnt i worry about that when applying to PHD programmes instead of masters. so now the question would be if a LOR of a big shot like schmidt (or Sinn) , one semestre's grade at munich would help me get into a top phd program. i am not trying to fix some bad record i got at undergrad, it is just that my undergrad is not sufficient. My prof told me that it is almost impossible to get into grad in the states with just a bachelor from my uni. almost all internationals have masters. so i need that master, and LMU seems like the best fit for me. so graduating at top 5% of class(trying to improve that) at my uni(top 3 bschool in latin america), 800 GRE Quant, one semester master grades at munich, good LOR: do i have a shot at top phd programmes with that. would a master at bonn or mannheim considerably improve my chances over munich???thanks a lot for you help EDIT: http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/news/top_fac.pdf http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/news/top_med.pdf http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/news/top_res.pdf I know this doesnt mean much, but it shows munich as the top faculty in germany. as for economists the top researcher is schmidt and the top media economist(dont know what that means) is Sinn, both at munich (i had some problems downloading those files, they wouldnt open, try using DAP, it will work for sure) so, a semester in there, with LOR of one of those guys, could help a lot, dont you think? i checked bonn, and they only start the masters in the winter semester(doesnt work for me)plus it is a 2 year programme,, mannheim has got no master nor humboldt. Last edited by toiysam : 09-03-2006 at 12:54 AM. Reason: Automerged post

09-03-2006, 05:43 PM	#8 (permalink)
toiysam Trying to make mom and pop proud Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 8	thanks a lot for your help. I knew that LMU was my only option, but I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't a big TTT as some told me. one question: when working on my thesis, will i be able to work directly with profesors? let's say, i wanna do something on gametheory, will i be able to work with Schmidt?? Last edited by toiysam : 09-03-2006 at 05:43 PM. Reason: Automerged post

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08-31-2006, 09:08 AM	#2 (permalink)
maths_bonn Eager! Join Date: May 2005 Location: Bonn Posts: 76	I would doubt that LMU Munich has the best econ department in germany. Sure they have Klaus Schmidt, and he is, if u beleive the papaer the most succesful researcher in germany. Though I am from Bonn, I think that maybe the best university for econ. in germany is Mannheim followed by Bonn and HU Berlin. And then there are LMU Munich, Konstanz, Cologne, and maybe some more I don't remember right now. In Bonn they will also have a research (2 year with thesis) masters from October on, and from what I have seen it seems really hard. And if u are good enough at the core courses u can take special research courses that will help u even better with your PhD-Prep. And the programme is in English. The only thing is: Apllication closing date was the 15th of august. If u want to do the masters next near than u have enough time, but this years application round is over. Another thing about rankings: In germany u have a pretty homogeneous university system, there are not really any bad univeristies...the downside of that is, that there are no univeristies that excel in every subject. But u can make out little differences nonetheless: In Econ i.e. Mannheim has the best exchange programmes in germany: They have 3 places each year for students to study one year in Berkeley or Yale (3 places for each of these uni's), they have also exchange agreements with UCLA, U Toronto,... u can look them up at their homepage. Bonn has also this prestigious agreement with Berkeley, and with the ENSAE in Paris (Mannheim and HU Berlin have that too, they also have double degree arrangements with the ENSAE). SO u could say that these three universities are the international most renowned universities for econ in germany, but if u still can get in LMU that wouldn't be a bad choice either, but in my opinion it is not really number one in germany. (There are different rankings in germany, once there was one in which econ in Bonn was in the lower third because they only looked on national publications, I mean what does such a ranking tell u???? OR this ranking where mathematics in Bonn was in the lower third for whatever reasons, and it is to be considered a top 3 department in germany. Rankings are "new" in germany, they exist since, maybe 10 years, and they are calibrating there parameters right now, and u have to be careful with some of them. The downside is that u can't tell abotu the stupidity of a ranking if u don't know anything about the university system by yourself. That's a liitle bit stupid, but...unfortunately it is that way) Good luck with your further education.

08-31-2006, 10:04 AM	#3 (permalink)
floplo Within my grasp! Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 109	Check out the Netherlands, they have decent and well-respected schools and most of them offer their master programs in English (Tilburg, Maastricht, Amsterdam (UVA ,VU), Rotterdam,etc)

09-02-2006, 07:15 PM	#4 (permalink)
toiysam Trying to make mom and pop proud Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 8	well, i checkd the netherlands, and they do have great one-year programmes, but there is a tuition. about germany, bonn and Humboldt seem higher ranked however no sign for manheim in rankings(althought i noticed that it is considered the no.1), anyways, they offer two year programes. i think munich is a great choice. Does anyone know, how much a master from there would actually help me to get to top PHD programes.it consists of a thesis, 2 phd courses and there are some splendid profesors in there. how high should i be ranked in the master class or would a high gre and great LORs do the job. thanks for your replies, great help

09-02-2006, 09:27 PM	#5 (permalink)
veroniquaz Within my grasp! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Genève Posts: 453	What is the area you want to specialize in? I am currently in a program with a guy who just graduated from Munich and from what he told me Munich only seems to be good in micro and much worse in macro. In case micro is what you want to do, Munich does not have to be a bad option given you rank really high (top 3) and get a recommendation from say Schmidt. But you should keep in mind that by the time of applying you will not have a single grade and I am not sure that the sole fact of being enrolled in Munich will give you much of an edge over your undergrad record.

09-03-2006, 08:20 AM	#7 (permalink)
maths_bonn Eager! Join Date: May 2005 Location: Bonn Posts: 76	Sorry I just knew that Mannheim has a BSc in Econ beginning this year, and I tought that would start a MSc directly with that course, but it seems that they wanna wait until their own Bachelor's have their first degrees. Yeah the ranking you are mentioning shows that their are 4 top econ faculty's in germany, and they are not all so far apart. But I think that Mannheim (and I don't hink that I am the only one who thinks so) is the number one, unfortunately for u they don't have a masters programme. The other three universities come after that. Bonn i.e. is really famous for it's experimental econ lab which was build up by Reinhard Selten, though he doesn't lead it anymore he still is an adviser to it. Selten also is the reason why the name Bonn is so famous, internationally, for economics. There is no other german econ nobel laureate. But the question is, why we are discussing that here, 'cause u don't have so many options if u want to start in summer. So just go to Munich and make it there. BTW, u will not only have this one semester but also the semester holidays from mid july to mid october to work as a RA for example, so it should't be that big problem to get enough contact with professors if u really wnat to. BTW: This could be of interest for u: http://www.uni-bonn.de/www/wiwi/home...ngsranking.pdf Good luck!

09-03-2006, 06:39 PM	#9 (permalink)
maths_bonn Eager! Join Date: May 2005 Location: Bonn Posts: 76	I don't know how they do it in Munich, but normally u will have a supervisor u is an assitant or a Ph.D. Student of the professor that "supervises" the thesis. He will supervise the thesis but he won't be your main contact, normally u will talk with your "small" supervisor and u will have a few meetings with the prof u will then, yeah talk with you about your thesis. And working in his group, or writing a thesis with his group shuldn't be a problem, just make sure u do well in the lectures that are close to his subject and u will heva a good shot. (Could be that there are more people who want to write their master thesis's with him so I think that their will be a cut off, but if u aim at a good Ph.D. programme u will need good grades, too) Good luck

09-05-2006, 11:06 AM	#10 (permalink)
floplo Within my grasp! Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 109	Hi, if you already decided that Munich is your only option, then you probably should start looking again, there have to be others... A few small things about Munich -they will very likely introduce tution fees in 2007, not extensive, but yes -Munich is an expensive city, maybe the most expensive in Germany -the Masters is non-selective (everybody with a certain grade can enter), so it might be larger than they expect -check whether english is really sufficient or whether you need German language knowledge (not just for courses, but for registration purposes) -the MA is not part of the Graduate school, though you have to take two classes there (the Advanced Master classes), but the focus of the Professors will surely be the PhD program Please don't think I want to get you away from Munich, but it is early enough to investigate more options and you also should be certain of what you get yourself into. A closing comment, yes many other programs have tution fees, but then even if this is not the US, there begins to exist a growing number of scholarships....

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