Olm

It's been said many times before: if you want to go for a PhD, do not get a Master's in the US. The ones in Canada are cheaper and have far better placement records. If you took the GRE without studying and got a 740Q, you should probably be able to hit 800 without too much trouble. You should definitely take it again.

Top 15 schools, about 15%, and it slowly goes up to almost 50% as you go down the list.

There are a lot of people in your shoes, believe it or not. I would study hard for the GRE, try to get a good quantitative score. If you want a shot at a top school, you should probably get a Master's in econ first. Otherwise, you're probably looking at something outside the top 20.

Outside the top 20, and I would apply to many schools. I had a similar profile and failed to gain admission to any of the schools I applied (and I had backup schools ranked around 40-70).

mathecon classes cover the usual calculus and linear algebra topics. You have succeeded in grad econ classes, so I doubt any adcoms are going to be all that concerned with your lack of standard math courses.

What matters is that you have a sufficient technical background, and enough advanced courses in micro and metrics so that you know what you're going into. Public Policy? I'm not sure how much of a help that is going to be. Engineering is math-intensive, so that's a very good bet.

You should be careful with "safety" schools. People have been rejected because their profiles are too good.

His post was a response to the initial post of over two years old, not a new request for help. The OP is long gone. Could you please clarify your comments?

I applied in the 08 cycle and failed spectacularly. I'm going to be applying again this year... if I again fail to get into PhD programs, I'll settle for a life as a professional bureaucrat.

GRE is what they use to screen out people that have no business applying. 770+ is fine. 760, I would retake.

Hemalas, your very first post was a "necro", i.e. you bumped a very old post (the thread was from 2008). Please check the dates of the posts you are bringing up.

As others have said before, your actual grades do not count. Your relative grades do. 79% in the Egyptian system, I do not know how to interpret that. Adcomms do.

760 GRE Q won't keep you out of any good MA programs. Your profile looks good for schools outside the top 10 if you can perform in an MA. UWO Toronto Queen's UBC, you should apply to those programs as an MA for sure. I would also include McGill and others here have said SFU.

If your TOEFL and other english test scores are all right, you should be okay as well as your AWA is 4 or above.

Fortran.

Canuck had a full analysis sequence with a lot of As in difficult math courses, and from a school that does not give out great math grades that often (Queen's). I would suggest a Master's program. If you're going straight for PhD, aim outside the top 20.

Okay kiddies, gather 'round the campfire and listen to this story: You need calculus, linear algebra, stats, and you need to know how to do proofs. Anything else you need can be picked up later.

A top 20 is feasible if you do really well in a Master's program, yes; but you will only have your fall grades when you apply. Take the real analysis sequence and the math stats sequence at your school. "Presumably doing well in the more advanced classes is regarded as a more reliable signal than doing poorly in the basic classes?" yes.

When people mean business days, they will say "business days" almost without exception. In any case, get on the website and cancel or reschedule as soon as you can.

Only to UBC and not to Queen's, UWO, or Toronto? If you're going to apply to any of those four, there is no reason not to apply to all of them. They are all about on the same level in terms of training, placement and so on. All four schools also offer funding to MA candidates in some limited capacity (UWO treats you like a PhD student and gives you $20,000 plus tuition). Like you said it will be difficult to explain your poor performance in those mathematics classes. Taking topology in the spring will not help for the next round of admissions because schools will not wait for those grades to come in. LSE is very difficult to get into, and they put very strong emphasis on GRE scores. Unfortunately with your record I do not think that you have a shot of getting into LSE; besides, they rarely fund students. If you can only get two good letters, do not submit the third one to programs that do not require it. A letter that is not completely enthusiastic will kill you at a lot of good schools.

Susan Athey's advice page said something to the effect that non-econ letters are useless. I think she believes that your grades should speak for themselves when it comes to your ability to do math. I believe your question is moot.

Ah, testmagic. How time has not changed ye. Let me begin by saying that, as always, it's the strength of the letters of recommendation that matter the most. You are taking some extra mathematics, but this is of little consequence. You should have your fall term grades in and forwarded to wherever you are applying to by the time decisions start getting made. People get into top programs every year with a smattering of mathematics, all that is required is multivariate calculus and linear algebra. What you lack in mathematics you make up for in having graduate courses. There is absolutely no reason to wait a year. Work very hard and ace your math courses, and apply to all the top 20 schools whose cities you could live in for 5 or so years, and have a few backups.

I'm still lurking. :ninja:

Sonaar, you need to give the adcoms more credit. They are looking for the best students, and as such know where which schools send good students, what grades mean from certain places, etc. The most important part of your application is your LORs. The fact that international schools tend to have unknown professors is something that nearly everybody outside of the tops schools deal with, regardless of which program they come from. And if they are doing good research, they will be publishing in the top journals, and people will know their names; again, it has nothing to do with where their base of operations is.

AWA isn't going to make or break your application. I think UCSD has a requirement of 4.5; other than that, I don't know of any school with a minimum AWA.