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rvalchev · 07-09-2008, 03:21 PM

So I have recently pretty much completed my list of 16 schools to apply to and I would love to get a reality check from you guys. I have put the schools into 3 groups: reaches, upper target and lower target. All comments are welcome, but if you can, please give me some feedback on whether or not my grouping of the schools makes sense in your opinion.

Oh and after I grouped a bunch of schools in the different groups, I picked those 16 primarily based on the quality and size of their econometrics faculty and macroeconomics and financial economics strengths served as secondary factors. Also, if you think my list omits a school I should definitely consider, please let me know.

To put it all in perspective a little better, here's a summary of the profile I posted in the Roll Call 2009 thread.

Type of Undergrad: B.S.B.A. Concentration in Economics, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh
Undergrad GPA: Currently 4.0
Type of Grad: n/a
Grad GPA: n/a
GRE: 800Q, 530V, 5.0 AWA
Math Courses: Calc I-III, Linear Algebra with Diff. Equations, Optimization, undergrad business stats, econometrics, forecasting and applied regression analysis from the Math Department. All completed with As.Also enrolled in real analysis and Probability Theory for this fall.
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intermediate Micro and Macro, Econometrics and Forecasting, Game Theory, Money and Banking. (All As). Writing a senior thesis and taking Public Econ in the fall.
Other Courses: Assortment of Business core classes.
Letters of Recommendation: 2 Letters from Econ Profs and 1 from a math prof. I expect letters to be glowing, math professor has taught me for 2 years and I've conducted research for an year together with one of my econ profs. Unfortunately, I do not expect them to have any inside tracks or anything like that.
Research Experience: RA for 2 summers, 1 empirical paper that I would like to submit soon, senior thesis project coming up and I would like to submit it when done too.
Research Interests: Econometrics, Macro, International, Financial
SOP: Standard. I just want to make sure it wont hurt me as I don't believe it can help my application.

List of Schools:

Reaches (10 to 20% chance? )

Yale
UStanford
UMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
U Chicago
U California - Berkeley

Upper Target Schools (30-40%?):

U California - San Diego
Michigan State U
Cornell U
U Wisconsin - Madison
Duke U
Ohio State U
Michigan - Ann Arbor

Lower Target Schools (50-60% or so):

Boston College
U North Carolina - Chapel Hill
U Washington
U Southern California

Thanks a lot for any help and feedback.

jeeves0923 · 07-09-2008, 03:54 PM

UCSD is regarded by many as the top school in econometrics. It definitely belongs in the top group. Your percentage numbers are probably misguided. I'd say at MIT you have less than 5% chance, but UNC you probably have better than 60%. A really narrow range of percentage chances is really difficult to determine.

asianeconomist · 07-09-2008, 05:34 PM

I was wondering that whether with your interest in Finance and International trade, UfT would be a good option or not.....

argmax · 07-09-2008, 06:30 PM

From the point of view of your interests in macro and international, maybe adding UCLA and minnesota would be a good strategy.
Also if i were you i would only apply to two of your safety schools and add a few more in what you call the upper target schools, but that's just me and my opinion of your profile.

GymShorts · 07-09-2008, 07:40 PM

ASU is probably better in macro than Boston College, and I'm pretty sure they are about the same when it comes to admissions difficulty.

HelicopterEconDad · 07-09-2008, 07:42 PM

Congratulations on a great undergraduate career! Your profile looks very solid.

I think probably the biggest issue you have is with your undergraduate institution. I don't know anything about Duquesne University, so I looked it up on US News (US News & World Report - Breaking News, World News, Business News, and America's Best Colleges - USNews.com) (I know, not a very authoritative site). They don't list Duquesne University as a top 150 university and, in their profile, they describe Duquesne as a "third tier national university".

Assuming my impressions of Duquesne are accurate, I think to have a chance at your "reaches", you will need something exceptional to distinguish yourself (try very hard for an NSF grant!). Otherwise, I think your "reaches" have a probability well under 10% and your "upper target" schools are where you should focus most of your effort. Good luck!

rvalchev · 07-09-2008, 08:19 PM

Quote:

UCSD is regarded by many as the top school in econometrics. It definitely belongs in the top group. Your percentage numbers are probably misguided. I'd say at MIT you have less than 5% chance, but UNC you probably have better than 60%. A really narrow range of percentage chances is really difficult to determine.

Thanks jeeves. Yeah, I figured those percentages really don't mean nothing ... not quite sure I even put any.

Btw UCSD is my top econometrics choice and I understand its prominent stance in that sub-field. To my understanding, however, the department on the overall is not quite as selective as say Berkley and MIT and all the others we can loosely call TOP10. That's why I put it in the second group (groups are not by desire of attending a school, but rather by perceived school selectivity.)

But if you think I've misjudged UCSD's selectivity please let me know so I can adjust it, thanks.

On the other hand, thanks for reminding me about the existence of universities outside the USA asianeconomist

It's a list purely of US schools as of now and it might be a good idea to look around to see what the neighbors have to offer.

Quote:

Assuming my impressions of Duquesne are accurate, I think to have a chance at your "reaches", you will need something exceptional to distinguish yourself (try very hard for an NSF grant!). Otherwise, I think your "reaches" have a probability well under 10% and your "upper target" schools are where you should focus most of your effort. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice HelicopterEconDad. I find it very practical and useful and my undergrad school's reputation is my own concern as well. So would you say to drop 1 or 2 of the reaches in favor of some other "upper targets" ?

Thanks guys.

HelicopterEconDad · 07-09-2008, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rvalchev

drop 1 or 2 of the reaches in favor of some other "upper targets" ?

Exactly.

Golden Rule · 07-09-2008, 08:55 PM

From the last 3-4 cohorts of data I've followed, UCSD is definitely much closer to Michigan and Wisconsin in its selectivity than it is the standard top five schools + Yale + Berkeley. So I think your relative classification is fine.

mosfro · 07-10-2008, 04:45 PM

you may want to consider adding a couple of pennsylvania schools, as they would be able to judge your undergrad a little better than say california schools...

it is something that i have indeed noticed in the past, that local schools recognize the talent and skill needed to get a 4.0 at a particular institution.
so maybe throw in upitt, psu, or upenn(which would be a good sub for mit or stanford)

07-09-2008, 03:21 PM	#1 (permalink)
rvalchev Trying to make mom and pop proud Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 24	Reality Check on List of Schools Please So I have recently pretty much completed my list of 16 schools to apply to and I would love to get a reality check from you guys. I have put the schools into 3 groups: reaches, upper target and lower target. All comments are welcome, but if you can, please give me some feedback on whether or not my grouping of the schools makes sense in your opinion. Oh and after I grouped a bunch of schools in the different groups, I picked those 16 primarily based on the quality and size of their econometrics faculty and macroeconomics and financial economics strengths served as secondary factors. Also, if you think my list omits a school I should definitely consider, please let me know. To put it all in perspective a little better, here's a summary of the profile I posted in the Roll Call 2009 thread. Type of Undergrad: B.S.B.A. Concentration in Economics, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh Undergrad GPA: Currently 4.0 Type of Grad: n/a Grad GPA: n/a GRE: 800Q, 530V, 5.0 AWA Math Courses: Calc I-III, Linear Algebra with Diff. Equations, Optimization, undergrad business stats, econometrics, forecasting and applied regression analysis from the Math Department. All completed with As.Also enrolled in real analysis and Probability Theory for this fall. Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intermediate Micro and Macro, Econometrics and Forecasting, Game Theory, Money and Banking. (All As). Writing a senior thesis and taking Public Econ in the fall. Other Courses: Assortment of Business core classes. Letters of Recommendation: 2 Letters from Econ Profs and 1 from a math prof. I expect letters to be glowing, math professor has taught me for 2 years and I've conducted research for an year together with one of my econ profs. Unfortunately, I do not expect them to have any inside tracks or anything like that. Research Experience: RA for 2 summers, 1 empirical paper that I would like to submit soon, senior thesis project coming up and I would like to submit it when done too. Research Interests: Econometrics, Macro, International, Financial SOP: Standard. I just want to make sure it wont hurt me as I don't believe it can help my application. List of Schools: Reaches (10 to 20% chance? ) Yale UStanford UMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) U Chicago U California - Berkeley Upper Target Schools (30-40%?): U California - San Diego Michigan State U Cornell U U Wisconsin - Madison Duke U Ohio State U Michigan - Ann Arbor Lower Target Schools (50-60% or so): Boston College U North Carolina - Chapel Hill U Washington U Southern California Thanks a lot for any help and feedback.

07-10-2008, 04:45 PM	#10 (permalink)
mosfro Within my grasp! Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 284	you may want to consider adding a couple of pennsylvania schools, as they would be able to judge your undergrad a little better than say california schools... it is something that i have indeed noticed in the past, that local schools recognize the talent and skill needed to get a 4.0 at a particular institution. so maybe throw in upitt, psu, or upenn(which would be a good sub for mit or stanford) _ _ _ _ SIG _ _ _ _ Attending: George Washington University Interests: International Finance Please add some Reputation for me if you like what you read........

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07-09-2008, 03:54 PM	#2 (permalink)
jeeves0923 Within my grasp! Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 476	UCSD is regarded by many as the top school in econometrics. It definitely belongs in the top group. Your percentage numbers are probably misguided. I'd say at MIT you have less than 5% chance, but UNC you probably have better than 60%. A really narrow range of percentage chances is really difficult to determine.

07-09-2008, 05:34 PM	#3 (permalink)
asianeconomist Loving the game Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Cambridge, UK Posts: 1,017	I was wondering that whether with your interest in Finance and International trade, UfT would be a good option or not.....

07-09-2008, 06:30 PM	#4 (permalink)
argmax Eager! Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 69	From the point of view of your interests in macro and international, maybe adding UCLA and minnesota would be a good strategy. Also if i were you i would only apply to two of your safety schools and add a few more in what you call the upper target schools, but that's just me and my opinion of your profile.

07-09-2008, 07:40 PM	#5 (permalink)
GymShorts Within my grasp! Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 297	ASU is probably better in macro than Boston College, and I'm pretty sure they are about the same when it comes to admissions difficulty.

07-09-2008, 07:42 PM	#6 (permalink)
HelicopterEconDad Hovering above a PhD Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 37	Congratulations on a great undergraduate career! Your profile looks very solid. I think probably the biggest issue you have is with your undergraduate institution. I don't know anything about Duquesne University, so I looked it up on US News (US News & World Report - Breaking News, World News, Business News, and America's Best Colleges - USNews.com) (I know, not a very authoritative site). They don't list Duquesne University as a top 150 university and, in their profile, they describe Duquesne as a "third tier national university". Assuming my impressions of Duquesne are accurate, I think to have a chance at your "reaches", you will need something exceptional to distinguish yourself (try very hard for an NSF grant!). Otherwise, I think your "reaches" have a probability well under 10% and your "upper target" schools are where you should focus most of your effort. Good luck!

07-09-2008, 08:55 PM	#9 (permalink)
Golden Rule TestMagic Guru-in-Training Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 552	From the last 3-4 cohorts of data I've followed, UCSD is definitely much closer to Michigan and Wisconsin in its selectivity than it is the standard top five schools + Yale + Berkeley. So I think your relative classification is fine.

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