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

[shalalong]

Hello everyone, I am from top Chinese University, an undergradute. I wanna apply US econ phd this fall. I really want to enjoy your suggestions to promote my competence. What follows is my profile:


PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: top 3 econ
GRE: score unrevealed
Math Courses: undergrad: calculus I-III, linear algebra I-II, probability, statistics, real analysis, mathematical modelling, grad: stochastic process
Econ Courses: undergrad: intro/intermediate micro/macro, econometrics, labor econ, math econ, phd: advanced microecon I-II
Other Courses: many '** econ'; grad: resourse econ
Research Experience: (American National) mathematical competition on modelling-meritorious; (Chinese National) mathematical competition on modelling-1st prize; thesis
Teaching Experience: one course TA

[nash12]

Frist of all you cannot give your email address like this in open. It is against the rules of the forum.

From whatever you've given here, your profile looks confusing. Is GPA of 3.44 considered good in China? Because for a US undergraduate it would be a problem if he/she wants to apply to the top schools. If most of your scores are above 85, then shouldn't your GPA be higher? In my country we never convert percentages to GPA, only the percentages go down in the transcript, just like they do in LSE. Moreover, you haven't mentioned anything about the LORs you are likely to get. The prizes in the math competitions do sound quite impressive.

[TruDog]

It sounds like English proficiency and your GPA may be your two biggest challenges. I hope that you have time to take a few intensive English courses to make your application stronger and give you a better chance of funding. Granted, knowing English is only a small portion of what you need to succeed in the first year of an econ PhD program, but you have to meet department or university standards in order to be accepted.

And when you say your GRE score is 'unrevealed,' does that mean that you have taken the test and not yet received a score? Or have you taken it, received a score, and did not include it in the post?

[representative_agent]

Wow, your competitions do look impressive! But having talked to some people who do admissions at top 10 schools, I see one general problem:

Competition among schools has increased a lot during the last years, which is why they give full funding to a larger share of students from the first year on. But this implies the risk of those students failing the first year (and a big investment going down the tube). While the financial risk used to be on the students it is now on the schools. And the accountants might start asking questions if too many students fail.
Therefore many schools are less willing to admit students from "risky" countries where they cannot really asses the transcripts and where they don't know the culture of LORs. A "very good" student from LSE might be preferred to a "genious" from China just because they don't know what "genious" means for a Chinese recommender.

Therefore I have two suggestions:
1) Try to get some unambiguous signals: Do a summer school in Europe or the US. Or apply for a summer RA position in the US.
2) Apply to some schools that don't give funding to everybody (UPenn, UCLA, LSE...). This may sound weird, but if they are interested in you, then the possibility of you bearing the financial risks increases your chances.

[israelecon]

i disagree, representative agent, i think there are actually relatively many chinese students coming to the US, so i think most adcoms do have some experience in understanding and assessing chinese applicants. although what you say is probably true for applicants from say, congo.

[rcwlhk]

Caution: I am Chinese myself so don't take this comment as an attack on Chinese students in general.

It's been noted that in some Chinese universities, you can literally "network" your way to getting a great LOR from renowned professors. That is,
(i) You study under instructor / professor XYZ
(ii) You're a great student of this instructor's class
(iii) Unfortunately, XYZ is not renowned but he likes you and wants to help
(iv) XYZ knows a renowned professor ABC
(v) XYZ "recommends" the student to ABC and ABC writes a fantastic letter for this student even though he may not have even met this student ever in his life.

Again, to all the Chinese students / members on TM, don't take this as an offense. It's just an observation from my experience in China.

[representative_agent]

Originally Posted by israelecon

i think there are actually relatively many chinese students coming to the US

relative to the class size or relative to the number of Chinese applicants? I'm not saying that there are no Chinese students. But apparently the number of applicants is far higher. For example, if you compare the number of Chinese to the number of Italians or Germans in US programs, don't you think China is underrepresented? And don't you think it has to do with the fact that at most schools they have some faculty members from Italy or Germany who know the schools in Europe, whereas there are almost no Chinese professors. By the way, I can only say what my sources told me. But I think it makes sense.

[asianeconomist]

Originally Posted by rcwlhk

Caution: I am Chinese myself so don't take this comment as an attack on Chinese students in general.

It's been noted that in some Chinese universities, you can literally "network" your way to getting a great LOR from renowned professors. That is,
(i) You study under instructor / professor XYZ
(ii) You're a great student of this instructor's class
(iii) Unfortunately, XYZ is not renowned but he likes you and wants to help
(iv) XYZ knows a renowned professor ABC
(v) XYZ "recommends" the student to ABC and ABC writes a fantastic letter for this student even though he may not have even met this student ever in his life.

Again, to all the Chinese students / members on TM, don't take this as an offense. It's just an observation from my experience in China.

But doesn't an LOR have to contain a description of how the recommender has had the opportunity to observe the student in his class/ research ? This usually confirms the scope of the recommender i.e. interaction in both class and research would entail that the recommender knows the student in both spheres of the academia (more unbiased estimate).

[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.")

[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.