Roll call! Fall 2007 applicants

[jazzcon]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Econ major at a US state university with top 200 Econ grad program (ie not very strong).
Undergrad GPA: overall GPA: 3.6; econ: 3.9 ; math:3.7.
GRE: 800Q, 520V,AWA 5.5
Math Courses: Calc sequence (A), Differential equations (B+), Linear Algebra (B+), Probability Theory (B), MathEcon w/ S&B (A)
Econ Courses: The basic sequence of things.
Grad classes: MathStats w/ Casella (A), Econometrics sequence (A)
Letters of Recommendation: thesis advisor, econ prof I graded for, 2 Economists from work.
Research Experience: Undergraduate thesis, 2 years RA at the Fed.
Teaching Experience: Grader for undergrad and grad Simon&Blume course
Research Interests: IO, public, political theory.
SOP: didn’t really spend much time on it.
Concerns: Not stellar pedigree. Not great grades. No Analysis.

Schools: UCal, Yale, Chicago, Northwestern, Brown, Michigan, BostonU, Maryland, Virginia(admit), UNC, Duke.

[AspiringEconomist]

Type of Undergrad: Top 30 US research university
GPA: 3.95
GRE: 800Q/740V/6.0AWA
Math courses: calculus sequence, linear algebra, diff. eq., math stat (A-), abstract algebra intro, math for econ (A-), analysis tutorial.
LORs: economics tenured faculty from my undergrad university
Teaching experience: one sem. TA, grader, tutor for micro principles and stats.
Research experience: 2 years in consulting and quantitative policy research.
Interests: international trade, labor economics, less probably development and industrial organization.
Concerns: relatively sparse math preparation, not famous undergrad/letter writers, A-'s in math stat, intro to econometrics and another quant class.
Programs: Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Yale, UPenn, Michigan, Berkeley, Northwestern, Cornell, Brown, Columbia, NYU

[Mirk83]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Maths degree in a good European university (with fellowship in its honor college)
Type of Grad: Maths Master in a joint program with a top research institution in my country, attending this year an MPhil in economics while I wait aswers by the States
Undergrad GPA: overall GPA: 4.0; econ: ? ; math:4.0.
GRE: 800Q, 700V,AWA 5.0
Math Courses: Everything you can think about (really, about 20 undergrad courses, 15 grad, with some at PhD level)
Econ Courses: Almost nothing (I'm attending this years a few micro, macro and econometrics courses directly at grad level)
Letters of Recommendation: two maths prof (my thesis advisor and an international summer school prof) and an econ prof from one of the courses I had to take at the undergrad honor college
Research Experience: Not much, a bit in a joint program of neurobiologists and mathematicians for my thesis (I think my advisor wrote something about it)
Teaching Experience: none
Research Interests: Game theory, behavioural modelling in social and economical phenomena.
SOP: didn’t really spend much time on it, just a kind of short bio to explain my movements from pure maths to maths applied to biology and finally to economics.
Concerns: Quite a strange curriculum, not too sure about the LORs.

Admitted just today: CalTech (a good match for my interests )
Applied: NYU, Harvard, Chicago, MIT, Oxford, LSE.

[nervouslywaiting]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Econ major from a developing country (the leading econ school at the country). Plus a Master from a US public policy school.
Undergrad GPA: overall GPA: 3.07; econ: 3.5.
GRE: 780Q, 530V,AWA 4.0
Math Courses: 2 semester undergrad math econ plus math camp prior to starting my master's.
Econ Courses: The basic sequence of things.
Grad classes: Micro, macro, stat/econometric sequences, plus some graduate electives.
Letters of Recommendation: thesis advisor, 2 grad econ prof I graded for, an Economist from work.
Research Experience: Undergraduate thesis, master's final paper, 5 years working in policy research.
Teaching Experience: part-time lecturer for the past 5 years.
Research Interests: development, health, labor.
SOP: standard why and what.
Concerns: not-so-great GPA for both undergrad and grad.

In:
Reject: Duke (2/13), Virginia (2/18)
Not yet: Brown, Umich, Wisconsin (AAE) ,Cornell (AEM), Harvard (Health Policy), UNC (Health Policy), Oxford (Devt. Studies).

[Svengali]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Big land-grant school public school in the south.
Undergrad GPA: 4.0 Electrical Engineering
GRE: 780Q, 690V, 6.0 AW
Math Courses: Standard EE u-grad math courses. Incl Calc, real analysis, stats, etc.
Econ Courses: Intro Micro/Macro
Letters of Recommendation: Good letters. Not from economists.
Research Experience: 3 semesters, in bioelectromagnetics.
Teaching Experience: 2 semesters.
Research Interests: Micro, game theory
Other: American Male.

Concerns. Lack of econ background. Letters coming from non-economists.

Accepts (so far):
Rejects (so far): Duke.

[yayflipflops]

Undergrad study: Math/Econ major from liberal arts college
Undergrad GPA: overall & major: 3.6
GRE: 770Q, 710V,AWA 5.0
Letters of Recommendation: math prof, econ prof, 2 economists who are my supervisors. Should be strong.
Research Experience: Undergraduate thesis, 2-3 years at research division in central bank
Research Interests: finance, applied micro
Concerns: GPA, GRE
Schools: Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, Cornell, Yale, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, Hopkins

[bojangles42124]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Math & Econ double degree from a public state university with a top 20 econ program.
Undergrad GPA: Overall 3.2; Econ 3.9; Math 3.2
GRE: 800Q, 550V, 4.5 AW
Research Experience: Undergraduate honors thesis, statistician for Dept. of Commerce since graduating in May
Concerns. a (C) in Analysis - The instructor is notoriously subjective when assigning grades, but it isn't easy to explain that fact on an application. I have adjusted my expectations accordingly.

Accepts (so far): Virginia (Thrilled!)
Rejects (so far):

[gregobad]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: BS Econ from MIT
Undergrad GPA: 4.9/5.0
GRE: 800Q, 770V, 5.5A
Math Courses: Calc I & II, Linear Algebra, Probability, Econometrics
Econ Courses: Intermediate Micro / Macro, a couple semesters of game theory, various field courses
Letters of Recommendation: Two econ profs, neither of whom are well-known but both know me well (one was my undergrad advisor, the other was my thesis advisor). Third rec from a manager at my job (economic consulting firm). Pretty confident that all three are strong recs, but I assume the third will be discounted somewhat because it's non-academic.
Research Experience: Was an RA for a summer in a physics lab at MIT. Did an undergrad thesis my senior year. Worked for 1.5 years at an economic consulting firm doing semi-relevant work (lots of experience with Stata, Matlab, other programming languages)
Teaching Experience: Tutored undergrads in econ and physics at MIT.
Research Interests: Game theory, behavioral economics, political economy
SOP: talked about my past research work, briefly about why I want to go back to get a phd, in some detail about my research interests / ideas. about 1000 words total.
Concerns: Haven't taken as much math as a lot of other applicants. Uncertain how well the SOP will go over.

Admitted: CalTech
Applied, no decision yet: Harvard, Chicago, MIT, Northwestern, Stanford, Stanford GSB (Political Economy track), Berkeley, Princeton

[Chumi]

School: undergraduate in a top public university of my country and Master in Economics at another private university with very good PhD placement

Major: Economics. GPA: 3.50.
GRE: 770q 310v 3.0AWA (Ay caramba!)
TOEFL: 607/660

Courses: Tons and tons of econ, math and econometrics but no formal real analysis.

TA: undergraduate courses in maths, macro, micro and econometrics.

Research: 3 applied papers and 1 on experimental economics.

RA: I was fellow during 3 years in one of the most prestigious think-tank in my country. In addition, I worked as a RA for a while to a visitng professor from UMich. Currently working at WB.

LOR: strong, I think it is my best asset.

Interests: Macroeconomics, development, trade and applied econometrics.

Schools: UCLA, Brown, Duke, Maryland, Texas Austin, UVA, NC Chapel Hill, Georgetown, UToronto, Boston College, Pompeu Fabra, Oxford and UCL

My Concerns: The cost of my wedding! My low GPA and Verbal GRE

[EconMsGiggle]

School: One of the Top schools in my country
Major: Statistics
GPA: 3.4/4.0 (relatively low gpa... I never thought of studying in foreign country...)
GRE: 800q 600v 3.0 AWA (writing score is bad...)
TOEFL: 260 (W 4.0)

Courses
1) Econ: Principle of economics, Microeconomics
2) Math: Matrices, Probablility & Statistics, Mathematics for Economics, Calculus 1 and 2, Mathematical Statistics
3) Statistics: Regression Analysis, Multivariate Analysis, EDA, Time-series Analysis, etc...

Experience: I have been an economist in Bank for about 10 years... CFA charterholder (but no effects in admission)
LOR: Statistics Prof, Head of my research center(Phd in Econ), Senior research fellow at my research center(Phd in Econ)
Teaching: none
Interests: Development, Empirical Analysis

Schools: Only for Master's degree...
Applied to: LSE, NYU, Duke, UIUC, Umich, UMN-TC(applied econ), Cornell(applied econ)

Goals: expand my analytical skill

Admitted: UIUC
Pending: all other schools
Rejected: Not yet