MSc Econ students and alumni at BGSE: How was your experience?

[Fringman]

Hi all

 

Next year I will graduate from UPF Econ, which means I will be applying to master programs in just a couple months. My aim is to continue my education and eventually get into a decent PhD program, either in continental EU or in the UK -- I'm not too optimistic about my chances at the top US ones, and even then, there are additional costs of moving to another continent for that long. That said, I would not rule out getting into industry should a good opportunity come down the line.

 

This kind of makes BGSE MSc Econ an obvious choice for me, yet from reading in forums and talking to some alumni who ended up going elsewhere for their masters (UCL, TSE) I don't see the decision as clear-cut as it seems on paper.

 

For one, the comments and information that I have read of the program has been rather contradictory so far: opinions range from very satisfied with the course and its rigour -- which some compared to LSE EME -- to very disappointed. My impression is that going for the advanced track is risky and failing to place among the best of the class will hurt your chances to be admitted in doctoral programs. However, there is seemingly little value in worrying about this as I assume not doing the advanced track guarantees that you won't get there either. Interestingly, I noticed that students on the 'applied' masters held higher opinions of their courses than their counterparts in Econ.

 

Another point that makes me hesitate is the reputation aspect. While the school regularly manages to place their stars into top US programs (I know a recent case of a student who went to MIT) I don't know that much about the average student. For example, they do not require the GRE and have accepted students with Q scores on the 70 percentile range, which is quite low. It seems to me that despite the rigour of the program, the BGSE brand is not as well known as other competitor institutions offering similar programs. Provided I am able to get admitted and ignoring the funding aspect (for now), I get the impression that attending the likes of Oxford MPhil or Bocconi ESS might offer a better safety net in case I change my mind about pursuing a PhD.

 

Hence, I wanted to know about alumni and current students at BGSE. What were your impressions? Do you regret studying there? How about placements in PhD programs in Europe and industry?

 

Thanks!

Edited June 5, 2019 by Fringman

[richardsorge]

Both Oxford MPhil and Bocconi ESS have better placements than the BGSE advanced track. Even a brief Linkedin search would prove that. Yeah some top of the top students end up getting admitted to top schools, I know. But hey, almost all top schools place a couple of its students to top5 every year. Since the introduction of this advanced track thing, placements of BGSE have been constantly falling down. This is not a coincidence, advanced track is ridiculously hard and badly designed. BGSE is not LSE in terms of reputation, so getting a mediocre grade (7/10) at LSE EME would almost guarantee you a top20 placement while at BGSE 7/10 would give you only a seat in the phd program of UPF itself. You really need excellent letters to recompense the mediocre advanced track gpa, which is another impossibility given the short duration of quarters at bgse (not enough time to get interacted with profs). Hence if you can compensate the costs, go for Oxford or Bocconi and avoid BGSE.