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Profile Evaluation: Bad undergrad


berlin

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My profile:

 

Undergrad: Bachelor in Business Administration from a German university: 3.0 (Grades are from 1 to 5 with 1 being the best.)

Math courses: Mathmatics 1+2, Statistics 1+2

Econ courses: Macroeconomics 1+2

Grad: Master in Business Administration at Humboldt University Berlin: 1.8 (Grades are from 1 to 5 with 1 being the best,)

Math courses: Econometrics 1+2

Econ courses: Game Theory 1+2

GRE: Quant 166, Verbal 153, AWA 4.5

LORs will be from two of my professor and a PhD with whom I worked with during my Master Thesis. Both should be strong. The professors have a good reputation in Germany. They have good publications.

My focus is on macroeconomics. I have some practical experience in that field through student jobs and internships.

 

I know my profile is not that strong, so I wouldnt even try to go for top schools. I was more thinking about the 20 to 40 schools.

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To the OP, berlin, its sometimes difficult for this forum to comment on the profile strength of non-Americans because our education systems may be different. For example, we may have little idea as to what Mathematics 1+2 entail. Similarly, its difficult to evaluate your grades. For all I know, 4's and 5's may only be given out once every ten years or something, in which case a 3 is excellent.

 

I think your best bet is to try to find someone on the forum (and I'm sure there is someone) who is familiar with the German system.

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry for my late answer. thanks for the answers so far.

 

Where do your professors think you should apply?

The one said that it is generally hard for internationals. The other one said considering my profile I should get accepted somewhere if I am willing to send out 20 applications. They highly support my application. I wrote my master thesis for the one and are an RA/TA for the other one right now.

 

I am concerned at how this applicant can signal commitment to Econ graduate programs. It's not a straightforward jump from MBA to Econ PhD even if an MBA in germany would probably be quite technical.

It is not a typical MBA program (by American standards). It is highly researched oriented. Our welcome message was:This program is intended to prepare you for researching not for getting an industry job. We had to write a preferrably empirical thesis etc.

 

For example, we may have little idea as to what Mathematics 1+2 entail.

At the end of the post I will post the content of my quant classes. The problem is that my grades during my undergrad studies were horrible. I mean Cs and Ds. My graduate grades were good. but the only quantitative class i took was econometric methods (syllabus below). I passed with an ok grade. I have already graduated but i am taking advanced mathematics as a guest. It will be graded. I hope that helps a bit. Besides my RA work i will take time series analysis (phd-level), but it wont get graded before march 2013.

 

Altogether, I think my main problems are quantitative classes and my undergrad grades. My research experience and my LORs are in my favour. What are the chances at programs ranked top 15-50?

 

appendix: syllabuses

 

grad

Advanced Mathematics (not part of my grad certificate):

Sets, Relations, Preferences

Vector Spaces and Linear Algebra

Topology and Convex Optimization

Differential calculus

 

Econometric methods:

Principles of Linear Regression

Generalizations and Applications of the Linear Model

Asymptotic Properties of OLS

Maximum Likelihood Estimation

Instrumental Variables Estimation

Generalized Method of Moments

 

undergrad (by looking at my grades it cannot be concluded by an adcom that i actually learned what i was supposed to :))

Mathematics I (Calculus):

Derivatives

Integrals

Differential Equations

 

Mathematics II (Linear Algebra):

Vectors

Matrices

Determinants

Linear Restriction Systems

Linear Optimisation

Relative Extrema of functions of multiple variables

 

Statistics I

• Statistical Characteristics and Variables

• Measures for Describing Statistical Distributions

• Two-Dimensional Distributions

• Description of Time Series

• Index Numbers

• Elementary Combinatorics

• Fundamentals of Propability Theory

• Random Variables

 

Statistics II

• Random Variables

• Multi-Dimensional Random Variables

• Stochastic Models and Special Discrete Distributions

• Stochastic Models and Special Continuous Distributions

• Limit Theorems

• Point Estimate

• Interval Estimate

• Test Theory

• Regression Analysis

 

Statistics III:

Multiple Regression

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My profile:

 

Undergrad: Bachelor in Business Administration from a German university: 3.0 (Grades are from 1 to 5 with 1 being the best.)

Math courses: Mathmatics 1+2, Statistics 1+2

Econ courses: Macroeconomics 1+2

Grad: Master in Business Administration at Humboldt University Berlin: 1.8 (Grades are from 1 to 5 with 1 being the best,)

Math courses: Econometrics 1+2

Econ courses: Game Theory 1+2

GRE: Quant 166, Verbal 153, AWA 4.5

LORs will be from two of my professor and a PhD with whom I worked with during my Master Thesis. Both should be strong. The professors have a good reputation in Germany. They have good publications.

My focus is on macroeconomics. I have some practical experience in that field through student jobs and internships.

 

I know my profile is not that strong, so I wouldnt even try to go for top schools. I was more thinking about the 20 to 40 schools.

 

Besides from the low gpa the lack of econ courses is a concern. How are your grades in the econ and math courses? Where are going to get your third letter from?

Can take any courses during the fall semester?

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