So here's a question: what do you reckon are the typical cut-offs used?

[Karina 07]

The other day I was surprised by a comment about how top schools slash the 800 or so applications they get down to a reasonable number to read more in depth.

And now I'm wondering: so how do you reckon they do this? Has anyone ever heard anything concrete about this?

(I'm just now wondering if some of my applications basically never saw the light of day, considering how little/crappy math I had.)

750+ GRE, or some such, undoubtedly. And then... the presence/absence of the "bare minimum" math (since occasionally someone without linear algebra or without real analysis slips in, I'm not sure how they'd count this).... Maybe school name, honestly. I don't know, what are your thoughts?

Presumably, my guess above would still leave them with way too many applications to reasonably review, so it's maybe more drastic....

[shootermcgavin7]

Simple answer: Too many applications, too little time.

[Karina 07]

Originally Posted by shootermcgavin7

Simple answer: Too many applications, too little time.

What, not why .

[SquareSquare]

I reckon it's like this. Or maybe departments secretly hire a gorilla to do the job, since they (gorillas) seem to be pretty good at investing. No offense intended.

[SquareSquare]

Ugh, I read it for a second time (Veroniquaz!) and think it's better to elaborate on what I mean.

Admissions for departments is pretty much like picking stocks. There are some blue chips, some junk stocks and the rest is somewhere in the middle... The posts on this board show that adcoms can be pretty random in their decisions and it's probably a reasonable strategy for them. So, how they do it? I don't know. And I doubt knowing the exact procedure would help anyone on this board...

[Zavera]

IVY league schools check where you are from. If you are not from a highly ranked school or other IVY league they toss your application. I got this straight from several director's mouths too

[asquare]

Originally Posted by Zavera

IVY league schools check where you are from. If you are not from a highly ranked school or other IVY league they toss your application. I got this straight from several director's mouths too

And I personally know Americans in/recently graduated from econ PhD programs at Ivy League Schools (Princeton and Harvard) who did not attend top-ranked undergrad institutions. An undergrad degree from a top-ranked school helps, but we have existence proofs that it is not necessary.

Before taking Zavera's claim too seriously, remember that this is the same poster who claimed "The Cornell faculty doesn't help their students get jobs, nor do they even care. I got that straight from the graduate director's own mouth (Reasons for schools with poor placements)."

To the OP, I suspect that there is some minimum GRE score. Someone probably takes a quick look at applications below that cut-off to see if there is something else that makes the applicant worth considering, and a top-ranked undergrad school or LOR from a very well known economist might move an application from the "discard" to the "consider" pile.

[SquareSquare]

Before taking Zavera's claim too seriously, remember that this is the same poster who claimed ...

Pretty sharp guy.

[asquare]

Originally Posted by SquareSquare

Pretty sharp guy.

At any rate, he apparently gets a lot of face time with grad program directors, and has a knack for getting them to say inflamatory things

[shootermcgavin7]

Originally Posted by Karina 07

What, not why .

In reading too quickly and misreading your post....I think I just proved my statement.