sarvonz

I am not 100% sure but I believe if you got an average of at least 64 points for the three papers with the highest score across the two years (there are 5 papers in total) and at least 64 for your thesis (50 is pass, 70 and above is distinction), you can go on to do a D.Phil. I am surprised by what the prospectus said about half the class continuing with D.Phil, because I think this year there are slightly less than 10 out of 60ish M.Phil students stayed for D.Phil. But I also know some people who were good enough to stay but chose to do something else. It could be the case in other years, but I doubt it.:hmm:

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Institution: London School of Economics Program: MsC Economics and Mathematical Economics [2 years track] Decision: Accepted Funding: None Notification date: 1/14/2008 Notified through: Website and mail 2 weeks later Comments: Will go if none of the other PhD programs that I applied admit me

If we are talking about general quality, maybe we should include University of Hong Kong as one of the best in the territory? But of course, the two aforementioned schools are more prestigious in Economics. And frankly, as good as these three schools are, I think it might be a little bit premature to consider these three schools as the best in Asia, they aren't even the best among schools from both sides of the Taiwan Strait according to rankings by Webometrics or Shanghai Jao Tong University.

I would just calculate GPA for both first 2 years and last 2 years, and put on both in the application.. That's what I did for my Berkeley departmental application.

Regarding OP's questions, I know of a guy from my school, a small state U in the UWisc system, is doing his first year of PhD in Notredame. I believe he only had Calc I, II and Intro to Econometrics under his belt by the time he applied to the school. And his GRE quant is around 730-750. So I guess the application is not too competitive. I have no ideas how heterodox is the program but I heard from my professor that he is really happy with the program.

that's a relief to know.. thanks guys

I am applying to UC-Davis. And it is stated on the website that GRE scores have to be sent to them electronically, rather than by mail. But when I was requesting additional score report from ETS on the phone, I didn't have the chance to specify that. Does anyone know how to do it?? Thanks!

Duke requires all international students whose native language are not English to take TOEFL no matter where they receive their undergraduate degrees. And this policy applies to all its graduate programs I believe. As far as I know, it's the only school that imposes such a strict requirement and that's why I dropped it off from my list. There's no way I would pay $150 to take a test which does not tell much about one's English skill..

that seems really competitive considering UWO's overall ranking. a guy from my school get enrolled into PhD programs with similar ranking (on econphd.net) without even taking linear algebra by the time of admission (well.. he took it the summer right before enrollment). maybe as you said, the ranking, at least for Canadian programs, is not trustworthy? So would it be worthy to apply to UWO given one has only Calculus, linear algebra and prob stat then?

Hey Ekonomiks, so what kind of math courses your classmates and you took before getting admitted?

I agree that many math questions on the Big Book are still representative of the actual GRE questions. And yes, they are retired GRE questions. But I believe the Big Book was published in 1996? It has to be a little bit outdated, considering the quantitative section is getting harder (not much but slightly). At least, that's my experience when I took it in September and I did like 13 quant sections from the Big Book. The Big Book, however, is still a great resource and the questions train you to process the test in a speedy fashion. I guess my point is not to invest too much time on the Big Book (and definitely not to rely on it as the only preparation) since its questions don't vary that much from sections to sections. And it might be a little bit waste of time to do the same question types again and again.

While the Big Book is good for practice, one probably just need to do a couple of the quantitative sections to get familiar with the style of the GRE. The math questions in the Big Book are just too easy. However, the verbal sections are excellent for preparation in my opinion. Do as many sections as possible, but only if you are sure you can ace the quantitative section. I would suggest you to do one of the two mock tests in the Powerprep first to see how good you are. Of course, if you can handle Baron's, you are set to go. The materials in Baron's are harder than what's needed for one to get a 800 in my opinion.

So we can pretty much all agree that research ability is what the adcoms are looking for. But what does research ability really mean? Are there any specific personal qualities all good researchers possess, other than hefty knowledge of Mathematics? And for current PhD students, what do you think it takes to excel in your PhD program?

Olm, considering your suggestions, I definitely would add in more MA programs onto my list! but other than having a better chance of getting into a good PhD program, what are the other major reasons of going for MA? I definitely agree that good grades don't make one a good researcher. but how about getting into a PhD program first and if it is really not what I want, I can pass the prelims and end up with a MA degree? Trudog, how different is the AAE program and the regular program in terms of courses and faculty? And is it a strong program? Madison is one of the schools that I really want to get in. How's your life over there?