My profs. push me too hard and too far.

[averageaverage]

So, I emailed my GRE score to my professors,
"I got 390 on V and 770 on Q. I am looking for a 50ish ranked PhD program. What do u think?'

They replied me,
"You should apply for Cornell, Columbia, Barkley, and (fill out the rest with your favorite schools), and 390 on V rules you out. Study hard and retake it."

My major professor emailed me,
"You should retake GRE and you should rewrite the entire paper you submitted last week. You have three weeks before the fall starts. Good luck."

Yup. Thanks a lot. The professors support me so much! But, I don't have to get into Barkley or Columbia.

I don't need a faculty position at the most respected department, and produce ten papers a year using ten RAs... I don't need to be "Named University Professor of Economics, Nobel Lautrate."

I don't need any of those.

Is 390 on V that bad to get into a 50ish econ program? Do I need to push myself that hard to the point of death?

Or am I wrong? Don't I still understand how competitive Econ PhD's are?

[jeeves0923]

maybe they believe you are smart enough to get into a really good program. This is a good thing. They don't want to see your potential drop to a top 50 just because of a standardized test.

Take what they say seriously and consider retaking. IMHO, worry more about taking 770 up to 790 or 800.

[africaecon]

Why are you looking down on yourself? If they asked to apply to these schools, it's because they believe you have a shot at them. I think you shouldn't settle apply to these schools and some safeties schools. Even Harvard accepted someone with 770Q in 2006. So do not rule yourself out.If you don't get in top schools you still can do well and reach the top if you work hard and are passionate by your work. example: Roland Fryer professor at Harvard graduated from Penn State, This year Harvard hired someone from Utoronto. so everything is possible...

[averageaverage]

Thanks a lot guys...
Well, I am not really looking for faculty positions.

I just want to work for some development bank (like World Bank and Asian Development Bank) to help developing nations in Asia and Africa to make poor people happier.

I see junior professors here, and I think that that is not a job I want... This might disappoint the professors but I just don't want that.
Thanks a lot for encouragements, jeeves0923 and africaecon and yes, my professors.... But top 20s are not a place I want to go...

So my question is what would be a good way to tell what I am thinking to my professor without hurting their emotion.
And the question I really want to ask is if my GRE score (770 Q and 390 V) is bad enough to rule me out of 50ish ranked programs or not...

[africaecon]

Your GRE will give you a good shot at top 50 programs. I think you should consider Brown, georgetown, Uvirginia, Umaryland and Gwash.

[Gecko]

could it be a bit risky with 390 V? even for the top 50ish schools, that could be stretching it a bit..

[sonicskat]

Check out Vanderbilt too...they have a lot of development stuff there.

UVA isn't that good for development. We finally got a professor coming this year, and she just got out of grad school (albeit harvard)

[asianeconomist]

For development, check out AREs.

[chestnut.cc]

Maybe you could look at UCL and Oxford?

[JesusLovesATrier]

Do you have solid TOEFL scores? They can sometimes mitigate a bad GRE V score.