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RA after completing MA in Europe, a workable plan?


jongrud

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Hi, guys. I'm an asian econ major student who just made up my mind to do masters in Europe (or possibly in canada) before I eventually apply for ph.d econs. (My dream masters for now are: BGSE, CEMFI, Bocconi, Tolouse, U of Toronoto, Vancouver University, etc.)

 

I note that most masters start in september and ph.d applications are from december to january, so that means I need to apply one and a quarter year after I officially start my master program. For two-year program, I am not particularly concerned, because even if my first ph.d applications turn out bad, I will always be able to take advantage of the remaining one year to boost my profile and reapply the next year.

 

But for one-year programs, what do you suggest I do if my first shots go totally off so that I have to work on one more year until I reapply the next year? I don't think it is possible for graduates of one-year masters to continue working with the professors even after graduation, so it seems to me that the only thing i could do in this case would be finding a 1-2 year full-time RA ship that can potentially lead to strong letters for reapplication. (At this point, I'm not thinking of comming back to my home country after the one-year master, because I see very few good RAships here)

 

But I'm worried if this is a feasible exit-strategy for an international student like me. I'm afraid that RA jobs in US or anywhere else are mostly reserved for domestic students of the country, so I will unlikely get a good RA position even after taking masters degree from the aforementioned schools?

 

Any comments would be very much appreciated :)

Edited by jongrud
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Hi, guys. I'm an asian econ major student who just made up my mind to do masters in Europe (or possibly in canada) before I eventually apply for ph.d econs. (My dream masters for now are: BGSE, CEMFI, Bocconi, Tolouse, U of Toronoto, Vancouver University, etc.)

 

I note that most masters start in september and ph.d applications are from december to january, so that means I need to apply one and a quarter year after I officially start my master program. For two-year program, I am not particularly concerned, because even if my first ph.d applications turn out bad, I will always be able to take advantage of the remaining one year to boost my profile and reapply the next year.

 

But for one-year programs, what do you suggest I do if my first shots go totally off so that I have to work on one more year until I reapply the next year? I don't think it is possible for graduates of one-year masters to continue working with the professors even after graduation, so it seems to me that the only thing i could do in this case would be finding a 1-2 year full-time RA ship that can potentially lead to strong letters for reapplication. (At this point, I'm not thinking of comming back to my home country after the one-year master, because I see very few good RAships here)

 

But I'm worried if this is a feasible exit-strategy for an international student like me. I'm afraid that RA jobs in US or anywhere else are mostly reserved for domestic students of the country, so I will unlikely get a good RA position even after taking masters degree from the aforementioned schools?

 

Any comments would be very much appreciated :)

 

At Yale atm and I know lots of people in the pre-doctoral program. They get paid and their visas are sponsored as well.

 

I believe Columbia has a pre-doctoral program as well. These programs are increasingly common given the competitiveness of Econ PhD admissions.

 

A lot of these hires are not domestic students, so I wouldn't worry too much. You can also audit math courses here if your math background is insufficient.

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Those pre-doctoral programmes are extremely competitive to get into since the salary is actually pretty decent (last time I checked it was around 50k in Columbia). I am not saying he cannot get into those but it is a very weak - uncertain plan to count on.
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Sorry, slight tangent. Are predocs in the US commonly available to those outside the US (i.e. I'm from the UK)? I was under the impression that they were not.

 

Most established predocs will sponsor your visa. It'll say so in the pdf document for the job description, typically. If they don't, they'll explicitly state so, based on the ones that I've seen.

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