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averageaverage · 06-16-2008, 07:00 PM

Hi, I am really wondering if there is any school, which wants to take me with funding...

I am an international student getting B.A. in Econ, General Math, and Sociology next year from an average state univ. with 150th-ish ranked PhD program...

I've taken Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Mathematical Reasoning, Intermediate Micro and Macro... I got As in all classes and given I am in a rare school at which the GPA inflation is not an issue, I am proud of my achievement in course work...

I am taking DIff Eq, Real Analysis, Prob Theory, Master's Micro, Master's Econometrics this summer and fall and I am hoping to get solid grades on those classes...

However, everything else is so poor. I am studying for GRE and TOEFL but it seems to me, those exams are so tough... As you might notice, my English is poor and it never improved last four years of life in the US... My gf is American but she always say my English is terrible (I am Japanese and Japanese are known for poor English)...

I also have a really poor research experience. I am doing one this summer but mine is not quantative but qualitative... Like an interdiscipnary one between econ and sociology... I hate my research which my advisor gave me...

Professors here are not well known to top schools as well... So my reference letters will not be so impressing...

I actually want to get into one of top 50 schools... Is that anyway possible? Once I get in, I know I can work hard... But if no school accepts me, then I can't work hard...

I really want to work for World Bank to help underdeveloped Asian countries... I need a PhD from a good school...

Does anyone know how I can get in??

ICECOLDECON · 06-16-2008, 07:44 PM

Top 50 shouldnt be out of reach with a decent performance on your quant GRE and an acceptable TOEFL score (although I am a native English speaker so I wouldnt know about the latter). International students can get into relatively solid economic programs with Verbal GRE scores in the 400s as long as the rest of the profile is pretty good. The way to go about this is to target schools with a solid group of faculty in development (even if the overall ranking of the dept isnt amazing).

There is an east-west center at Hawaii, which may be of some interest (though I think you can do better than Hawaii). I think Washington would be a good match, you may also want to look into Georgetown. I think Maryland would be a bit of a reach.

Mr.Keen · 06-16-2008, 08:06 PM

You may not need to take the TOEFL since you will be getting a degree from an institution in an English-speaking country. With few exceptions (Duke comes to mind) you will find that most schools will give you a TOEFL waiver. That way, even if your English is poor, at least you won't have a bad TOEFL score to reveal such deficiency.

Oikos-nomos · 06-16-2008, 08:06 PM

Calm down buddy, we all have a difficult time trying to get into good schools.

There are many many people, the majority i would say, that come from unknown international schools, and they somehow manage to get into good schools despite their backgrounds. So relax...

There are some things that you can do to strengthen your profile.
First and obvious, try to get a Q-GRE as high as you can. You seem to be a hard-working person, so maybe you can aim high, if you practice enough.

You can also get a well-known master. This decision has its costs, in money and time. I am not acquainted with Asian masters, but i'm sure that there are out there some reputable masters to look into. There are some in Europe, and also in Latin America.
If you excel in some of these programs, you can get into wherever you want, literally.

You may try to take as much math courses as you can stomach, and forget about sociology. Not that i'm against sociology, i find it really interesting in fact, but realistically speaking, it won't help you with the adcoms.

Finally, as ICECOLDECON say, you may want to target the DC zone, which isn't so hard to get into, and the location is ideal if you want to get a job in the World Bank. Look into Georgetown, GWU, and some others i can't think of right now.

Hope this helps you, good luck!!!

averageaverage · 06-16-2008, 10:44 PM

Thank you very much everybody!!

I believe my applications will not going into the "auto reject" piles anywhere except top 10, but it is really hard to put myself apart others. I feel my academic background is just an average of serious applicants...

As ICECOLDECON said, I am sure top 20 will be really tough so I might apply a few schools from top 20 range... And I think I should apply to a lot of top 50s including U. of Washington, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown hoping any of them accepts me for mercy...

Thanks for a valuable info, Mr. Keen... In my personal research, around 40% of schools actually require or strongly recommend int'l students with US degree to take TOEFL for funding purposes... TOEFL includes Speaking and Listening sections. They probably want to make sure that undergrads actually can understand us in tutorial sessions lol

Thanks, Oikos-nomos. Given my B.A.s are from a US univ, which level is fairly known to the academia, adcoms exactly know who I am... A top student in a mediocre econ dept, which they sometime see the name on page 1** of the tier 2 journals...

Master's would be the last resort but I really want to start PhD (w/ some funding) next year... This coming year is gonna be my 5th year and almost all scholarships expired (except one)... I pay the out-of-state tuition and I simply can't afford two years of study...

I actually spoke to the head of adcom here at my univ and was told that I would be one of the best applicants.. He said that he will take me if I write to him again before deadline. So I think top 150ish schools would be my safe school...

For sociology, I am actually almost done and I am planning to finish it next summer just for fun... Soc was my original major and I quickly went through core courses in my junior year, so it will not disturb me...

DC schools would be really nice! since I am not interested in academia, I don't really need to go to a top research institution, but I want to have a lot of opportunities to do intern outside of univ...

Anyway, thanks a lot guys! I work hard

If anybody else has any suggestion, I really appreciate! You guys are so nice! Thanks a lot!

KGkhan23 · 06-17-2008, 01:24 AM

With your profile, it's not unlikely that you'll get funding at a good masters department such as Queen's. You should definitely apply to one or two that you wouldn't mind going to, just in case you don't get into any PhDs you like. Also, since you're into development, I'd apply for research assistantships at the IPA and J-PAL. These positions (I've heard) have decent placement records into good PhD programs.

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Best of luck to you.

asianeconomist · 06-17-2008, 04:07 PM

You seem to be someone who'll benefit a lot from selecting schools in your specialities. This would imply that you might be able to get into a good school for development, such as Colorado-boulder, that does not have a high general ranking and face a lot less competition in the process.

Oikos-nomos · 06-18-2008, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asianeconomist

You seem to be someone who'll benefit a lot from selecting schools in your specialities. This would imply that you might be able to get into a good school for development, such as Colorado-boulder, that does not have a high general ranking and face a lot less competition in the process.

I'm not quite sure if Colorado-Boulder is good in development, it is good in international trade though. In the econphd ranking these two fields appear together, so maybe if you look there for development rankings, Colorado will appear high because of this, but if you take just development i don't think it would rank that high.

asianeconomist · 06-19-2008, 03:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oikos-nomos

I'm not quite sure if Colorado-Boulder is good in development, it is good in international trade though. In the econphd ranking these two fields appear together, so maybe if you look there for development rankings, Colorado will appear high because of this, but if you take just development i don't think it would rank that high.

A quick glance says you're correct, but aren't there a few people working on Development ?

kartelite · 06-19-2008, 07:26 AM

Have you considered just going back to Japan for a PhD if you're worried about English, and especially if you plan on working in Asia anyway? I'm sure schools like Tokyo or Kobe or even others are very well-known regionally. The world doesn't begin and end at California and Maine.

06-16-2008, 07:00 PM	#1 (permalink)
averageaverage wanna have a happy life Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 15	No school accepts me...??? Hi, I am really wondering if there is any school, which wants to take me with funding... I am an international student getting B.A. in Econ, General Math, and Sociology next year from an average state univ. with 150th-ish ranked PhD program... I've taken Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Mathematical Reasoning, Intermediate Micro and Macro... I got As in all classes and given I am in a rare school at which the GPA inflation is not an issue, I am proud of my achievement in course work... I am taking DIff Eq, Real Analysis, Prob Theory, Master's Micro, Master's Econometrics this summer and fall and I am hoping to get solid grades on those classes... However, everything else is so poor. I am studying for GRE and TOEFL but it seems to me, those exams are so tough... As you might notice, my English is poor and it never improved last four years of life in the US... My gf is American but she always say my English is terrible (I am Japanese and Japanese are known for poor English)... I also have a really poor research experience. I am doing one this summer but mine is not quantative but qualitative... Like an interdiscipnary one between econ and sociology... I hate my research which my advisor gave me... Professors here are not well known to top schools as well... So my reference letters will not be so impressing... I actually want to get into one of top 50 schools... Is that anyway possible? Once I get in, I know I can work hard... But if no school accepts me, then I can't work hard... I really want to work for World Bank to help underdeveloped Asian countries... I need a PhD from a good school... Does anyone know how I can get in?? Last edited by averageaverage : 06-16-2008 at 07:20 PM.

06-19-2008, 07:26 AM	#10 (permalink)
kartelite Within my grasp! Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Virginia/NC Posts: 436	Have you considered just going back to Japan for a PhD if you're worried about English, and especially if you plan on working in Asia anyway? I'm sure schools like Tokyo or Kobe or even others are very well-known regionally. The world doesn't begin and end at California and Maine. _ _ _ _ SIG _ _ _ _ Attending: Virginia

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06-16-2008, 07:44 PM	#2 (permalink)
ICECOLDECON Within my grasp! Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 103	Top 50 shouldnt be out of reach with a decent performance on your quant GRE and an acceptable TOEFL score (although I am a native English speaker so I wouldnt know about the latter). International students can get into relatively solid economic programs with Verbal GRE scores in the 400s as long as the rest of the profile is pretty good. The way to go about this is to target schools with a solid group of faculty in development (even if the overall ranking of the dept isnt amazing). There is an east-west center at Hawaii, which may be of some interest (though I think you can do better than Hawaii). I think Washington would be a good match, you may also want to look into Georgetown. I think Maryland would be a bit of a reach.

06-16-2008, 08:06 PM	#3 (permalink)
Mr.Keen The Fire! Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 613	You may not need to take the TOEFL since you will be getting a degree from an institution in an English-speaking country. With few exceptions (Duke comes to mind) you will find that most schools will give you a TOEFL waiver. That way, even if your English is poor, at least you won't have a bad TOEFL score to reveal such deficiency.

06-16-2008, 08:06 PM	#4 (permalink)
Oikos-nomos Eager! Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 48	Calm down buddy, we all have a difficult time trying to get into good schools. There are many many people, the majority i would say, that come from unknown international schools, and they somehow manage to get into good schools despite their backgrounds. So relax... There are some things that you can do to strengthen your profile. First and obvious, try to get a Q-GRE as high as you can. You seem to be a hard-working person, so maybe you can aim high, if you practice enough. You can also get a well-known master. This decision has its costs, in money and time. I am not acquainted with Asian masters, but i'm sure that there are out there some reputable masters to look into. There are some in Europe, and also in Latin America. If you excel in some of these programs, you can get into wherever you want, literally. You may try to take as much math courses as you can stomach, and forget about sociology. Not that i'm against sociology, i find it really interesting in fact, but realistically speaking, it won't help you with the adcoms. Finally, as ICECOLDECON say, you may want to target the DC zone, which isn't so hard to get into, and the location is ideal if you want to get a job in the World Bank. Look into Georgetown, GWU, and some others i can't think of right now. Hope this helps you, good luck!!!

06-16-2008, 10:44 PM	#5 (permalink)
averageaverage wanna have a happy life Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 15	Thank you very much everybody!! I believe my applications will not going into the "auto reject" piles anywhere except top 10, but it is really hard to put myself apart others. I feel my academic background is just an average of serious applicants... As ICECOLDECON said, I am sure top 20 will be really tough so I might apply a few schools from top 20 range... And I think I should apply to a lot of top 50s including U. of Washington, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown hoping any of them accepts me for mercy... Thanks for a valuable info, Mr. Keen... In my personal research, around 40% of schools actually require or strongly recommend int'l students with US degree to take TOEFL for funding purposes... TOEFL includes Speaking and Listening sections. They probably want to make sure that undergrads actually can understand us in tutorial sessions lol Thanks, Oikos-nomos. Given my B.A.s are from a US univ, which level is fairly known to the academia, adcoms exactly know who I am... A top student in a mediocre econ dept, which they sometime see the name on page 1** of the tier 2 journals... Master's would be the last resort but I really want to start PhD (w/ some funding) next year... This coming year is gonna be my 5th year and almost all scholarships expired (except one)... I pay the out-of-state tuition and I simply can't afford two years of study... I actually spoke to the head of adcom here at my univ and was told that I would be one of the best applicants.. He said that he will take me if I write to him again before deadline. So I think top 150ish schools would be my safe school... For sociology, I am actually almost done and I am planning to finish it next summer just for fun... Soc was my original major and I quickly went through core courses in my junior year, so it will not disturb me... DC schools would be really nice! since I am not interested in academia, I don't really need to go to a top research institution, but I want to have a lot of opportunities to do intern outside of univ... Anyway, thanks a lot guys! I work hard If anybody else has any suggestion, I really appreciate! You guys are so nice! Thanks a lot!

06-17-2008, 01:24 AM	#6 (permalink)
KGkhan23 Trying to make mom and pop proud Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 26	With your profile, it's not unlikely that you'll get funding at a good masters department such as Queen's. You should definitely apply to one or two that you wouldn't mind going to, just in case you don't get into any PhDs you like. Also, since you're into development, I'd apply for research assistantships at the IPA and J-PAL. These positions (I've heard) have decent placement records into good PhD programs. Poverty Action Lab Home :: Innovations for Poverty Action Best of luck to you.

06-17-2008, 04:07 PM	#7 (permalink)
asianeconomist Loving the game Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Where the grass is greener Posts: 884	You seem to be someone who'll benefit a lot from selecting schools in your specialities. This would imply that you might be able to get into a good school for development, such as Colorado-boulder, that does not have a high general ranking and face a lot less competition in the process.

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