Roll Call Fall 2009

[santragos2703]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: BSc Econ (Top Mexican Uni)
Undergrad GPA: 8.2/10
GRE: 800Q, 670V, 4.5AWA
Math Courses: Enough calc and algebra to meet requirements, diff eq, plus more mostly irelevant stats and probability stuff
Econ Courses: Micro, Macro, Econometrics, Public Econ, Trade, Labor Economics, Growth and Development, Political Economy etc
Letters of Recommendation: they will be strong but from unknown profs, and some professionial
Research Experience: BA thesis
Teaching Experience: Nil
Research Interests: Public Finance
SOP: standard
Applying to: Econ:Yale, Brown, UCB, Stanford, NYU, Columbia, MIT, BU; Public Policy: Harvard, Princeton, Chicago
Comment: Weak GPA due to extenuating circumstances

[softsquirrel]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: France's top Grandes Ecoles(2 years in a top "Classe Prépa" if anyone knows it)
Undergrad GPA: 4.35/4.4, 1st out of 500 (Our school thinks its students merit a 10% bonus on GPA and that's why they add that, which made me some trouble as I always have to explain that)
Type of Grad: Same school(The system is weird in France, basically it's 2+3 years after high school and they deliver a somewhat Master-equivalent degree at the end)
Grad GPA: FALL
GRE: 800Q, 720V, 4.5AWA
TOEFL IBT: 115(27Speaking and 28Writing)
Math Courses: basically everything, almost like a math majoring student
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): baby micro+macro+corporate finance
Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro, Macro, Econometrics, Development , Growth, Game Theory, Financial Economics etc.
Letters of Recommendation: 1 from a well-known French prof teaching economics in US top universities, 1 Oxford Phd (eco), 1 School prof(eco), another 1 schoolprof(math)
Research Experience: only one team-based research on auction theory
Teaching Experience: 2 years TA on maths for 2nd-year math students (the so-called "colle" in our argot)
Research Interests: macro+international
SOP: quitewell-written, I think
Applying to: Princeton, Yale, Harvard, MIT, Chicago, Stanford, NYU, UPenn, Columbia
Commnet: little research experience, but it's the problem for all candidates from French Grandes Ecoles

[desemejante]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: BA Economics from Top 5 European
Undergrad GPA: Predicted 1st class honours
Math Courses: Courses covering: Single and Multivariate Calculus, Analysis, Statistical Theory, Econometrics
Econ Courses: Intermediate Micro, Intermediate Macro, Advanced Micro, Advanced Macro, Industrial Economics, Economic Theory (Game Theory, Information Economics, General Equilibrium, Decision Theory)
Other Courses: Finance, Accounting
Letters of Recommendation: 2, both from Tutors, should be solid!
Research Experience: none
Teaching Experience: none
Research Interests: Micro Theory and IO
SOP: Good
Applying to: LSE MSc, UCL MSc, Oxford MPhil, potentially Bocconi & Cambridge

[anx1ous]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: BSc Econ & Int'l Affairs (top 10 US public)
Undergrad GPA: 4.0
GRE: 800Q, 680V, 5.5AWA (took it twice, first time 760Q)
Math Courses: calc I-III, linear algebra, diff eq, plus stats and probability
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): The usual
Letters of Recommendation: strong, 2 unknowns, 1 well-known
Research Experience: 3 semesters RAships
Teaching Experience: none
Research Interests: development, labor, applied micro mostly
SOP: standard
Applying to: 11 schools
Comment: obviously concerned about lack of math (no analysis)

[bellman]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: top uni in my country in south asia, unknown outside. BSc Economics
Undergrad GPA: 3.87 Overall, 3.97 Econ, 3.82 Math
Type of Grad: MA Economics (on-going, top prog in Canada)
Grad GPA: Average 85%
GRE: 790Q, 730V, 5.5AWA
Math Courses: Calc I (A-), Calc II (A), Vector Calc (A-), Linear Algebra (A), Probability (A), Statistics (A), Adv Stats (A) , Real Analysis (B+), Functional Analysis (B+), Set Theory (A-), ODEs (A), Number Theory (A-), OR-I (A)
Econ Courses (grad institute): Micro(MA) (B+) (this is gonna hurt me alotttt), Macro(MA) (A+), Econometrics(MA) (A+), Math for Econ(MA) (A),
Econ Courses (undergrad institute): Micro-I, II, grad (A+, A, A), Macro I, II, grad (A+,A, A), Econometrics I,II,grad (A+,A, A+), Adv Game Theory (A), Adv Math Econ (A) and various other courses of undergrad level.

Letters of Recommendation: diff combo of profs 2 from masters and 2 from undergrad prog.
Research Interests: Applied Econometrics, Labor, IO
SOP: Was told to not exceed one page by my referee. standard I'm sure
Teaching Experience: TA for econometrics for an entire year at my undergrad institute. currently TAing at my grad school but wasnt able to include this in my app file.
Concerns: My B+s in real and functional plus esp my B+ in grad Micro are gonna hurt me big time. its strange how one bad day can jeopardize things so badly.

Applying to: Yale, Michigan, Austin, Cornell, Wisconsin, Duke, Virginia, WUSTL, Rochester, Vanderbilt, Queens, UWO, Maryland, Minnesota
Rejections: Cornell, Duke, Yale

[selffar]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: BS Statistics & Economics with Honors in both concentrations (top public university)
Undergrad GPA: 3.76/4.0 overall, 3.95 Econ and 3.85 Stat
Type of Grad: none
Grad GPA: none
GRE: 800Q, 550V, 4.0W
Math Courses (undergrad): Cal III, Linear Algebra, Real Analysis (intro class, B+, took in freshman yr), Probability and Statistics, Mathematical Statistics, Statistical Computing, Sampling Theory and many other statistics courses... All A or A+ grade in upper level stats courses... one research seminar in statistics
Math (grad):Time Series, Statistical Inference (Casella & Berger), Linear Model
Econ Courses (PhD-level): The time series course was also listed as PhD Econ course..
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intermediate Micro/Macro(A,A-), Money and Banking(A-), Intro Econometrics, Development Econ, Research Seminar(Labor Econ), Thesis course (all A grade)
Letters of Recommendation: 1 econ professor (Chicago PhD), I worked w/, also my econ thesis advisor. 2 stat professor (UCLA PhD and JHU PhD) both I worked w/, one is my stats thesis advisor... 1 research staff at the research institute that I worked...
Research Experience: RA for an research institute in school (half a year), two thesis in econ and one in stat. Internship in a research company
Teaching Experience: No teaching experience...
Research Interests: Econometrics, Labor Econ
SOP: Ok I guess...
Concerns: I finished my undergrad in 2.5 years, so I did not have time to do lot of research-cos you cant do anything serious as freshman ... Also low GRE, LOR from more stats prof than econ prof, no serious math course comparing to other applicants... undergrad courses overwhelmed by stats courses
Applied to: MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Northwestern, Chicago, Stanford, Columbia, Wisconsin, UMich, Princeton, Yale
Rejected: Yale

[MorgieLilly]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: B.A in Econ-Phil and Math
Undergrad GPA: 3.85
GRE: 780Q, 510V, 3.0W
Math Courses (undergrad):
Cal I, Calc III, Linear Algebra, Real Analysis, Probability and Statistics, Advanced Logic, (all A)
Econ Courses (PhD-level): Only one, Micro-econometrics (A-)
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intermediate Micro/Macro(A-,B+), Advanced Econometrics (B+), Advanced Macro (A), Economic History (A-), International (C, took abroad in Ghana)
Letters of Recommendation: 2 econ, both well known. 1 math, well known in math. 1 philosophy, well known in the philosophy of science.
Research Experience: REU Intern in geophysics at Lamont Earth Observatory, summer 2007 (My paper was accepted to the 2008 ASLO Conference). I also published a paper in the philosophy of science when I was a sophomore, but I'm not so proud now of what I said and the journal was not a big deal at all. Full-time economics RA this year.
Research Interests: Development, Economic History, Alternative Theories in Economics, Econometrics.
SOP: Oh, I dunno. I was nervous about sounding too "out there", so I may have ended up sounding really boring.
Concerns: My econ scores are not the greatest at the lower level. I also had a bad mark in Ghana, because the prof gave everyone Cs; I wrote a note about this in the "additional info" section. Also, my GRE writing is pretty low. I only studied for the quantitative. I should have at least glanced at what they were looking for in the writing section because, apparently, I wrote it incorrectly.
Applied to: LSE, MIT, NYU, Harvard, UCSD, UC Berkeley, Chicago, Stanford, Columbia, UMich, Princeton, Yale
Rejected: Yale, so far.

By the way, this is a nifty website!

[sas55]

PROFILE:
Type of Grad: M.A. in Economics from a prestigious South Asian School
Grad GPA: % system, does not lend itself easily to GPA conversion. My performance wasn't stellar though
GRE: 800Q, 750V, 4.5AWA
Letters of Recommendation: 3 econ professors (1 well known, 2 unknown )
Research Experience: None
Teaching Experience: None
Research Interests: development, innovation, micro theory
SOP: standard
Concerns: I am returning to academics after a 6 year long hiatus during which I was working in a not entirely related field. My guess is that my LORs would also not be great - which profs really remember you well 6 years after you left. Average grades during masters. Limited in my choice of schools as I need to be in Northern California for personal reasons
Applying to: Berkeley, Davis, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz

RESULTS:
Acceptances: UC Santa Cruz (with $$$)
Rejections: None, so far
Waiting: Berkeley, Davis, Stanford

[irancontra]

PROFILE:
Type of Grad: BS in Economics Liberal Arts University
Grad GPA: Summa Cum Laude
GRE: 770Q, 630V, 5.0 AWA
Letters of Recommendation: 3 undergraduate econ professors (1 well known)
Research Experience: None
Teaching Experience: Undergraduate TA
Research Interests: development, resource economics, remittances.
SOP: pretty standard
Concerns: I have been out of academics for 5 years. Two spent working abroad in development, not the Peace Corps, and 3 in business.

RESULTS:
Acceptances: UCSB, UCSC
Rejections: ASU
Waiting: Stanford, U Washington, U Oregon, UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Riverside (Masters), USC (Masters), UCSD, U Arizona

[Ibn Abbas]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: B.B.A. from a South Asian university
Undergrad GPA: 3.34 out of 4. (A =4, B+ =3.5, B =3 and so on...)
Type of Grad: M.A. in Economics from mid-range Canadian university
Grad GPA: 9.67 (out of 12) so far. (A+ =12, A =11, A- =10, B+ = 9 and so on...)
GRE: 770Q, 690V, 5.5AWA
Math Courses:
Business Math C+, Linear Algebra A, Calculus II A, Calculus III and IV combined C-, Mathematical Economics A
Econ Courses (MA-level):
Micro A-, Macro B+, Metrics A, Intl. Trade B-, Dev Econ A-, Evolution of WB/IMF conditionality A
Econ Courses (undergrad-level):
Principles of Micro A, Principles of Macro A, Advanced Micro A+, Advanced Macro A+, Metrics I A, Metrics II A+
Stat courses (undergrad-level):
Business Stat I B+, Business Stat II B+, Statistical Econ A-, Intro to Stat (from Math dept.) A+, Intro to Probability (from Math dept.) A+, Stochastic Processes C+
Letters of Recommendation:
Metrics (UMontreal), Metrics UGrad (UWO) and Development (Columbia).
Teaching Assistantship:
3rd year Econometrics, 4th year Econometrics, Agricultural Economics, Principles of Economics
Research Interests: Development Economics
SOP: Will be focusing on my research interests and explaining the reasons behind some of my bad grades in math courses.
Concerns: C- in Calculus III and IV and C+ in Stochastic Processes.
Applying to: UHouston, UT Dallas, UW Milwaukee, Carleton (Canada), UOttawa (Canada)

RESULTS:
Acceptances: UT Dallas ($?)
Rejection: None yet
Waiting: U Houston, UW Milwaukee, Carleton, UOttawa