Another profile for evaluation, less ambitious one though

[rollingstone]

Undergrad with a B.S Finance from a top 10 Canadian university

Econ courses: Up to intermediate micro/macro Economics, intro quant methods
Math courses: linear algebra and multi-variable calculus, ordinary/partial differential equations, intro mathematical analysis, intro applied statistics, intro mathematical statistics.

4.0 GPA in all Econ/Math/Finance courses. Overll GPA 3.8
GRE V470/Q800/A4.0
TA experience for two finance courses.

Two strong recs from professors, one famous, one unknown. Third rec from math prof pending.

Far reach: USC, Boston college, U Iowa, Penn state

Serious considering: Rice, Texas A&M, U Toronto (MA Financial Economics), Syracuse, U of Houston

Primary Interests: Econometrics, Financial Economics, Macroeconomics

wondering if i am onvershooting, I also have some back-up MA programs in mind. how realistic are my chances?

[toiysam]

do you think that you graduating from a "low profile" uni is holding you back from getting into top programs??? i may not know a lot about admissions but from what i have read, you got a pretty good chance.

[werther]

if you dont mind the application fees i'd add more universities for your "seriously considering". just out of curiosity, why so many schools in tx? well, i think i read from here that UH has good finance program..

[rollingstone]

Originally Posted by werther

if you dont mind the application fees i'd add more universities for your "seriously considering". just out of curiosity, why so many schools in tx? well, i think i read from here that UH has good finance program..

what school would you think i should add? My family would be moving to texas, so..................

[veroniquaz]

Rollingstone: I have a similarly spectacular score in GRE Verbal (440) and I had to exclude USC from my list because of their GRE cutoff. I do not remember the exact number (and cannot find it on their websites now), it might well have been 450 and then you are fine, but maybe you should have a careful look before you waste time and money on the application.

[rollingstone]

Originally Posted by veroniquaz

Rollingstone: I have a similarly spectacular score in GRE Verbal (440) and I had to exclude USC from my list because of their GRE cutoff. I do not remember the exact number (and cannot find it on their websites now), it might well have been 450 and then you are fine, but maybe you should have a careful look before you waste time and money on the application.

hey Veroniquaz, I know my verbal is really low, and my other backgrounds are weeak. So i am not really considering schools like USC, just apply for the sake of applying. When you say i should i have a careful look before i waste my time, do you mean the case of USC or more generally my whole list of school? am i overshooting?

[veroniquaz]

Originally Posted by rollingstone

hey Veroniquaz, I know my verbal is really low, and my other backgrounds are weeak. So i am not really considering schools like USC, just apply for the sake of applying. When you say i should i have a careful look before i waste my time, do you mean the case of USC or more generally my whole list of school? am i overshooting?

actually I would not say your background is that weak. However I do not consider myself experienced enough to tell you at which schools you would have a chance. All I wanted to say in the previous post is that with your verbal score you should check with each university whether they do not have a specific cutoff stated on their websites. I do not see a point in paying the application fee to schools which will reject you based on your GRE score without even looking at the whole application package.

[elhuevon]

Any particular reasoning for why you're not aiming higher? I've seen a lot of perspectives on these forums that can't check off as many things as you (4.0 math/econ GPA from a respected school, 800 quant, at least one strong rec by a noted economist), that are applying mostly to schools above those you listed as "far reach" (not that any of them are bad choices).

Top 10 Canadian Universities are definitely respected in the American system. No, they're not H/Y/P, but I'd bet admissions has no qualms rejecting some extra Rice or Georgetown students for someone from UT, McGill or UBC if they've got good stats. The verbal score might be an issue at certain places as Veroniquaz said, but if you and your recommenders make a compelling case I think you would at least have a shot at a few top 25 schools.

[rollingstone]

Hey Veron, i get what you mean, actually i have checked that

I dun think i have much chance in Top 25 because of deficience in math and advanced econo courses as well as research experience. I would be very happy if i can get into Penn state with funding. my undergrad institution is neither UT nor UBC, but it is still a good uni with an excellent business school. sometimes i am really confused how competitive i am, so i am kinda cautious. Anyway, I am wholly happy if i can get into BC, Penn State or Texas A&M.

[user_name]

Originally Posted by rollingstone

what school would you think i should add? My family would be moving to texas, so..................

Why don't you apply to UT-Austin?