What should I do more to apply US econ phD? Top econ phD please come in to help!

[shalalong]

Originally Posted by slightlyconfused1

shalalong, what does "1st prize" in the mathematical contest in modeling mean? Does that mean "outstanding"?

(The mathematical contest in modeling, assuming you're referencing the one I know about, has four award levels: "outstanding," "meritorious," "honorable mention," and "successful participant." Outstanding is indeed quite good, although it arguably still isn't quite "first prize.")

So sorry, thank you for your mention. I'm meritorious, for the reason that in the outstanding group, there are no foreign teams other than US's, so we here consider meritorious as 1st prize...

[frankcw]

Originally Posted by macroeconomicus

I have heard a story that if you're coming from China and you want to got to a top US phd program, you should probably get a masters degree from an institution that has an established record of placing its graduates into top US PhD programs.

I may have a different opinion. The situation you describe was true 5 or 6 years ago. But now, more and more Professors who got their Ph.Ds or have a position as a falcuty members in top schools come back or at least come as special term professors. Therefore, undergraduate students here can now get access to them more easily and there is no doubt that the LORs are better than 5 or 6 years ago. That is why now more and more Chinese undergraduates get into top Ph.D program.

[asianeconomist]

Originally Posted by frankcw

I may have a different opinion. The situation you describe was true 5 or 6 years ago. But now, more and more Professors who got their Ph.Ds or have a position as a falcuty members in top schools come back or at least come as special term professors. Therefore, undergraduate students here can now get access to them more easily and there is no doubt that the LORs are better than 5 or 6 years ago. That is why now more and more Chinese undergraduates get into top Ph.D program.

I second that completely. In fact, this should certainly hold true for the top universities in China (from where the OP supposedly will be applying from).