Fall 2021 Profile Evaluation

[slumdropforest]

PROFILE:

Type of Undergrad: Small Liberal Arts University - Double major in economics & Spanish

Type of Grad: MA in applied economics at a top 100 university

Undergrad GPA:

3.38 cumulative, 3.7 ECON, 3.77 Math

Grad GPA:

4.0 and top of my class

 

GRE: 164 Q/160 V/4.0 W

 

Math Courses: Calc 1 (A), Calc 2 (A), Stats (B+)

Grad Math: Math for economists (A), Economic Statistics (A), Applied Data Mining (A) - these are all actually PhD level courses

 

Grad Econ Courses: Macro (A), Econometrics (A), Micro (A), Research Methods (A)

 

 

 

Letters of Recommendation: 1) Letter from Graduate Advisor

2) Letter from my math focused economics courses in graduate school

3) Letter from a specialist in health economics

All there letters will be very positive

Research Experience: Research on comparing machine learning techniques to traditional methods of forecasting of interest rates, specifically Box-Jenkins method. This is an attempt to bring machine learning to the forefront of economics.

 

Teaching Experience: Graduate teaching assistant - grading papers and holding review sessions

Research Interests: Econometrics primarily focused on macroeconomics.

SOP: briefly mention finding purpose and correlating it with my GPA. I am still working on this and would love suggestions.

Other: Experience with Stata and R. Some SQL and Python as well

 

I had a rough undergrad my first two years, my GPA was a 3.0 I nearly had a 4.0 in my last two years. I have study abroad experience in Ecuador for 6 months, none of these classes counted towards my GPA but I had a 4.0 on the 6 classes I took.

 

I am hoping to get into a top 50, the higher the better. The university I'm currently at is willing to admit me into their PhD program, but I would like to move on to a new program with a higher reputation. Do I have any chance? I was feeling confident, but now I am completely lost.

 

Some programs of interest: CU-Bolder, Oregon, MSU, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Syracuse

 

I'm open to other program suggestions (my current list is actually much longer)

[mondub]

I think you have a really good shot based on those Graduate school grades - top 30 not out of the question.

 

At a glance:

• Your grad school results are very strong
  
• Your research ability and experience is strong
  
• Maths results are strong, though it would have been better to see analysis units
  
• Your GRE is probably right on the edge though, I know they discount applications after a certain cut-off and for some schools that's 165.
  

 

Keep in mind that I'm also going through the process now - but based on what I've read and the people I've talked to the above is pretty sound. Grain of salt as always!

 

If your grad school is willing to offer you a place in their PhD program then you're in a good position - take a couple of moon shots at Top 10 and see how it shakes out, if you have the resources.

[dogbones]

Well, I don't know if you'd want to take moon shots at Top 10 schools without more math coursework, but you do seem rather competitive for most of the schools on your shortlist! My research interests are different from yours so I'm not familiar with other schools that would be a good match, but others may have some ideas.

[slumdropforest]

I really appreciate the feedback! I've been taking practice GREs because I'm retaking it on halloween (spooky). I've been getting perfect scores on quant which I think will be a big boost.

 

I appreciate this. I will take a few moonshots at top 10, very unlikely but it's worth a shot!

[mondub]

Well, I don't know if you'd want to take moon shots at Top 10 schools without more math coursework, but you do seem rather competitive for most of the schools on your shortlist! My research interests are different from yours so I'm not familiar with other schools that would be a good match, but others may have some ideas.

 

Yeah seconded , its highly unlikely but that's why they're long shots I suppose.