Try to publish? Or take more math?

[UMSL_Losh]

Hey all, I'll keep this brief. I'm a second-year MA Econ candidate, to graduate in August '07. I want to pursue a PhD and teach primarily, while doing research on the side in urban and regional economics.

I didn't get in after my undergrad - had a 4.0 in the econ major (3.85 overall), minor in stats, research internship with a city government (studied trends in growth of some sectors of the labor force), GRE Q 780, V 800, A 6.0, but no publications, and it was an unranked school (small branch of U of Illinois).

My graduate GPA is 3.35 (C- in micro during a brutal semester in which I had to switch jobs and wasn't able to attend classes for about four weeks), taking a heavy load of econometrics, and knowing how well I work, I can either try to publish a paper, or squeeze in diff eq and math stats.

What would you recommend?

Tanx

[OneMoreEcon]

Assuming you're applying this fall for admission next year...

If you don't have a working paper ready to submit, focus on the math. There's a big publication lag in economics journals, and you can easily expect a six-month wait (and most likely longer) to hear back from an editor - accept, revise-&-resubmit, or reject. So, you're unlikely to hear back from an editor before admissions decisions are made in the spring. And even if you do hear back, it'll likely be R&R or a reject... neither of which will help much for admissions purposes.