Roll call! Fall 2007 applicants

[econphilomath]

Regarding verbal GRE scores. Notice the verbal score of applicants from Canada and from the UK. Generally pretty high and probably without studying so much.
Another thought: Internationals who speak english do so because they have been taught in a formal manner and gained their vocabulary in clase or from reading. So their vocabulary does not contain slang and common words used everyday by americans. (Example: Like, hmmm yea.)

If the idea mentioned above regarding internationals having a higher score was meant to imply that the verbal test is 1) trainable and thus 2) does not measure real english or something like that is not clear to me. What is true is that a low score shows that you either a) have a low vocabulary or b) not motivated enough to study for it. Both bad. Then again I'm not sure how important this score is anyway....

[Fermat]

Originally Posted by econphilomath

What is true is that a low score shows that you either a) have a low vocabulary or b) not motivated enough to study for it. Both bad. Then again I'm not sure how important this score is anyway....

Or that your have a finite amount of time and that your time is better spent preparing for the quantitative. But I don't think you can pinpoint the exact reason.

[08Applicant]

Profile:
School: Top 50 US University. Top 50 economics department.
(I was a junior college transfer)
Major: Economics/Math BA
GPA: University GPA: 3.79, Junior College GPA: 3.61
(I only took math and econ courses at uni, so math and econ gpa's are around 3.8)
GRE: We'll see what happens on October 1.

Econ Courses: 3 Quarters Intermediate Micro. Intermediate Macro. Topics in Macro. 2 Quarters Econometrics. 2 Quarter Honors Thesis. (No graduate courses)
Math Courses: Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Diff. Equations, 2 Quarters Advanced Linear Algebra (upper division), 2 Quarters Real Analysis.

Research: Honors Thesis on Spatial Competition. Fooling around with and writing my NSF grant research proposal on racial profiling during motor vehicle stops. The project is my boss' (see work).
Work: Currently a research assistant at an economic consulting firm for two tenured economists/professors. My boss was my time-series and discrete choice econometrics professor and I'd be thrilled to attend his university (he was visiting when he taught my course at my uni).

LORs: Real Analysis Prof (Math Dept Chair - PhD UCSD), Micro Theory Prof (Funded Chair and reasonably well known - PhD Stanford), Current Boss and former Econometrics Prof. (PhD MIT)

Research Interest: Micro Theory. Behavioral and possibly Experimental Economics. Applied Micro. Applied Micro-Econometrics.

Applying to: I could use a few suggestions. One obvious suggestion will be the top 20 school I have the highest hopes for. For reasons described above.

[econphilomath]

Originally Posted by Fermat

Or that your have a finite amount of time and that your time is better spent preparing for the quantitative. But I don't think you can pinpoint the exact reason.

Yes that is true given a fixed amount of time. Then again you can always alot more time to studying for the GRE.

Obviously time is scarce but I want to make the following point that I think is important for everyone. Most of the important things for your application are state variables that reflect a series of decisions made in the past. Good GPA, relationships with professors, research projects, your undergraduate institution etc. None of these are choice variables now at application time. In other words, you can't change the fact your GPA is not as good as you would like, or that you did't TA or RA with a good profesor. One of the few things you can do is study and get a decent GRE. Even if it is relatively unimportant, its all you can do now to compensate some of the gaps in your profile.
Finally, if getting into a PhD program of your choice is important to you, you should always have time to allocate to this objective. Party less, sleep less, study for class a little less, chat less on TM. So if some international can study and beat you at your own native language, what's going to stop that from happening in Real Analysis or on the job market for that matter. Do internationals not have other things to do with their time also, or are they (the ones who manage good GRE score) just more motivated and focused on their goals.

I hope this motivates people to give it their best shot, not to PM me with hate mail. As a caveat I think verbal scores only matter a lot if they are very very low and one should only study for it once a good quantitative score has been more or less secured.

[signal08]

hi guys. this is one of my first posts

i know my profile isn't nearly as strong as many of you regular posters (esp. in the math area), but here it is. please offer feedback and comments.

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Top 7 economics department in the U.S (ranking fluctuates between 3 to 7, depending on source); university ranked top 20 overall (according to us news rank)
Undergrad GPA: 3.6 overall; 3.8 econ
Type of Grad: n/a
Grad GPA: n/a
GRE: 740Q, 570V, 5.5 AW
Math Courses: pitiful-- calculus, diff eq, probability, statistical inference, mathematical stats, (all A's, except calc II)
Econ Courses: economic principles (A-), intermediate micro (A), intermediate macro (A), econometrics (A+), law and economics (A), behavioral economics (A-), advanced micro theory (A), game theory (A)
Other Courses: finance (A-), independent research, honors senior thesis seminar
Letters of Recommendation: all well-known, highly published economists. LOR 1 is from a very well respected tenured econ and law professor (econ phd from Harvard, as well as various honorary law degrees- apparently John Rawls was on his dissertation committee); LOR 2 is from a young albeit ridiculously brilliant tenured professor (phd from MIT); LOR 3 is an associate professor who taught me advanced micro theory and game theory (phd from NYU)
Research Experience: independent research in law and economics (wrote various papers, but none published); research and lab experience for an econ grad student; currently writing a honors thesis
Teaching Experience: private tutoring
Research Interests: law and econ, behavioral economics, contract/mechanism design, game theory
SOP: will be stellar
Other: female, 21 years old

Applying to: mostly interested in law and economics programs (hence my lack of math might not be too much of a problem)- most schools that i'm looking at right now are ranked 30 and beyond

Goal: probably not academia since i'm very much aware that i won't be able to get into top 30

Concerns. lack of hardcore math; mediocre gres. hopefully the fact that my undergrad institution is rather prestigious (and consequently, my LOR are from well-known, respected economists) will make up for that....


please comment guys!!

[eqtisadi]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Top Israeli university.
Undergrad GPA: 94.1% (If 90+ is A, then it should be really close to 4.0 on an American scale).
Masters GPA: 96% (first year)
GRE: 800Q, 450V, 5.0 AW
TOEFL: 297/300 (I took the CBT two years ago, so I need to retake it)
Math Courses: Calculus, (simple and calculus-based) Statistics, Linear algebra and advanced calculus, as well as two advanced logic courses by the department of philosophy (all 90+). I might take the Real Analysis equivalent this semester.
Econ Courses: All around: undergrad: intro to econ I & II, price theory I & II, macro I & II, development, econ history, intro to econometrics, honors students seminar. MA: micro, macro I & II, industrial organization, econometrics I-III, econ history. All 90+
Letters of Recommendation: Haven't asked yet, but two will probably be good LORs from known professors. Still thinking about who to get my third LOR from.
Research Experience: About a semester of working as a RA.
Teaching Experience: Worked as TA last year and TAing 4-5 courses this year.
Research Interests: Many of them. Development - because of the importance of this issue, Economic History and Thought - for the intellectual bliss, IO - for the perspective on the business world. I really like Becker's models, so issues like economics of crime, family etc. are also very interesting. As long as it's not the boring monetary stuff - many interests, as I noted.
SOP: They say it doesn't make any difference, so I haven't put enough thought in it yet.
Other: Israeli Male.

Applying to: Some top-15 universities. Below that, I'm not sure it will worth the 5 years and thousands of miles away from here.
Goal: Right now, academia. But as the old Yiddish saying goes: "One plans, but God laughs" (it always sounds better in Yiddish )

Concerns. No Real Analysis yet (I understand that it's a strong signal for the adcoms). Uncertainty regarding the strength of the LORs. The stochastic part of the admissions process. Above all, leaving my home country for 5 years with my wife.

Happy new (Hebrew) year
Blessed Ramadhan too
I know it's off-topic but I think it's pretty cool that this year, the Jewish new year and the muslim ramadhan coincide. I hope it's not too miss-universe of me to say that maybe it's a chance for the believers of the two religions to reconciliate too. Just a hope. No intention to start a political debate.

[Fermat]

Originally Posted by signal08

hi guys. this is one of my first posts

i know my profile isn't nearly as strong as many of you regular posters (esp. in the math area), but here it is. please offer feedback and comments.

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Top 7 economics department in the U.S (ranking fluctuates between 3 to 7, depending on source); university ranked top 20 overall (according to us news rank)
Undergrad GPA: 3.6 overall; 3.8 econ
Type of Grad: n/a
Grad GPA: n/a
GRE: 740Q, 570V, 5.5 AW
Math Courses: pitiful-- calculus, diff eq, probability, statistical inference, mathematical stats, (all A's, except calc II)
Econ Courses: economic principles (A-), intermediate micro (A), intermediate macro (A), econometrics (A+), law and economics (A), behavioral economics (A-), advanced micro theory (A), game theory (A)
Other Courses: finance (A-), independent research, honors senior thesis seminar
Letters of Recommendation: all well-known, highly published economists. LOR 1 is from a very well respected tenured econ and law professor (econ phd from Harvard, as well as various honorary law degrees- apparently John Rawls was on his dissertation committee); LOR 2 is from a young albeit ridiculously brilliant tenured professor (phd from MIT); LOR 3 is an associate professor who taught me advanced micro theory and game theory (phd from NYU)
Research Experience: independent research in law and economics (wrote various papers, but none published); research and lab experience for an econ grad student; currently writing a honors thesis
Teaching Experience: private tutoring
Research Interests: law and econ, behavioral economics, contract/mechanism design, game theory
SOP: will be stellar
Other: female, 21 years old

Applying to: mostly interested in law and economics programs (hence my lack of math might not be too much of a problem)- most schools that i'm looking at right now are ranked 30 and beyond

Goal: probably not academia since i'm very much aware that i won't be able to get into top 30

Concerns. lack of hardcore math; mediocre gres. hopefully the fact that my undergrad institution is rather prestigious (and consequently, my LOR are from well-known, respected economists) will make up for that....


please comment guys!!

Have you taken a Linear Algebra class? If not, can you take it in the spring so at least adcoms will know you will have it by the time you enter? Also, why not take your GRE again? I know it's a pain, but you have a pretty good profile and a better Q score could really improve it; just make sure you study for the test.

[Thesus]

Signal08, to echo what Fermat is saying, a linear algebra class is really important, and a prerequisite for many phd programs.

[signal08]

Fermat and Thesus, thank you both for the helpful comments.

I actually do plan on taking linear algebra in my final semester. (where in my application would i say that? that SOP presumable?) ... as for the GRE, yeah you're right- its a pain studying for and it'll be kind of hard to make time for it given my heavy course load this semester (20 units + thesis!). But the marginal benefit of getting that 800 or so probably outweighs the short-term pain i'll have to endure.

so just to sum up. most parts of my profile i can't change. but if i take linear algebra (and perhaps another adv. math class) in the spring + retake GRE to improve my Q score... then perhaps? what kind of schools do you think i'd be able to get into??

thanks in advance.

[econphilomath]

Originally Posted by signal08

hi guys. this is one of my first posts

i know my profile isn't nearly as strong as many of you regular posters (esp. in the math area), but here it is. please offer feedback and comments.

Your profile does not look bad at all. I think your low quant gre is the binding restriction for you. Maybe give it another shot. You still have time.