Hi, guys, I'm applying for Econ PhD 2009 and I have got so many useful information from this forum. The quality and the seriousness of the people here is very impressive. The old posts have answered most of my doubts, but I've this question in mind for a long time and sincerely look forward to people's advice.
I've V460 Q780 in GRE and am currently in MA Econ program of 20-50 US Econ Dept wanting to apply to departments ranked slightly higher, say, around 20. I talked a senior professor in my department about the PhD application and got from him that I should retake my GRE to get my verbal above 500 at least. While I mentioned my tight schedule in fall, he supposed all I need to do is to prepare for around a week and just to sit in the exam for 1 day. That cannot be my case since English's not my first language and I have nightmare experience preparing for Verbal when I took GRE 2 years ago. I doubt if I can even get Verbal above 460 when I retake it without considerable inputs of time. The professor's opinion brought to my attention if the top departments have an unofficial minimum requirement for Verbal besides Quantitaves too.
So I would like to have your opinion if retaking GRE is advisable, my tradeoff is that if I retake the GRE, I will not have time for PhD 1st year Micro course. My profile is very mediocre since I've only decided to go for PhD at the end of Spring but I'm very determined now. Currently I'm taking effort to impress 2 quite productive professors that I'm working for and hope to get their solid references. Thank you very much for your time and advice!!
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: B.A. Econ from China (decent but not in top 3)
Undergrad GPA: 84% overall, 86%Econ
Type of Grad: M.A. Econ
Grad GPA: 3.9/4
GRE: 780Q, 460V, 4.0AWA
Math Courses: All standard courses for BA and MA + Simulation (lab, graduate) + Stochastic Processes (graduate, fall), Probability and Stats (graduate, fall)- mostly As but B in undergrad CalculusI
Econ Courses: Haven't taken any PhD level courses yet, BA and MA courses are miscellaneous
Other Courses: doubled majored in Law
Letters of Recommendation: 3 econ professors, one productive in IO, one in Econ Development and the other one in Finance(took his course)
Teaching Experience: Tutor for undergrad Micro, Macro, (also in intermediate level), Finance, Calculus for academic service center
Research Interests: Microeconomics, Macro(monetary policy), Econ Developments
SOP: In the Process
Applying to: (since it's quite secured to get into PhD program in my own dept), I'm aiming departments ranked within 30, need more survey of the schools since the rankings are sometimes confusing
