The MAN

Yeah, there is a lot of variation in admission results even with similar profiles.

Your profile isn't too far off some of the students that have attended Michigan State (but most have a better GRE Q score). I would think you would get an acceptance (or several) in the 20-50 range. You may want to apply to higher ranked schools as stretches and possibly lower ranked schools as safeties. Also, make sure that any school you apply to is strong in you research interests.

If you know you will never want a different job and your sponsor doesn't care what ranking the PhD program is, then you can target lower ranked schools and shouldn't have an issue. In this case, you may be interested in checking out universities in Asia/Australia that offer econ PhD. Additionally, there are plenty of schools in the US ranked around 100 or lower that may not pose too much difficulty (your lack of math courses could hurt you). I don't know if there is much knowledge about lower ranked PhD programs on this board, though. You might want to check out a school like Colorado State. I know they have a history of being more heterodox, but I'm pretty sure they have being moving away from that in recent years. Additionally, it looks like they do some economic development work. Lastly, it is lower ranked - so they are more likely to accept you and it would be more likely for you to graduate in 5 years. Important Note: If you plan on leaving your sponsor for an academic job (or another job in general), the above comment is probably a horrible strategy. Generally, you would want to get into the best program that will accept you (which may or may not be better than the school(s) I suggested).

While it is not perfect, here is a ranking of schools (and other institutions) in Public Economics: Field Rankings at IDEAS: Public Economics A quick glance shows that there are a lot of the top overall ranked schools near the top and a few lower ranked schools popping up in the 20-50 range. Here's a few schools that stood out to me as possibly fitting your criteria: Georgia State (school of policy) at #28, Indiana University at #43, UCSB at #46, UIC at #47, MSU at #52, and Vanderbilt at #54. For political economics: Field Rankings at IDEAS: Positive Political Economics UC-Irvine at #37, MSU at #39, UCSB at #40, and UIUC at #42. I'm basing the list on US Schools, but you can easily find which international schools are good in the rankings. One caveat with this approach is that the rankings are solely based on publications from professors at the university and doesn't say anything about how good their PhD program is. It may be smart to cross reference any school you find of interest on these lists with their placement history. Additionally, you can look at professors' research at each to see if any of them interest you, then check the job market candidates for the school and see if that professor is on anyone's committee. If they aren't, then they likely don't advise many PhD students and you should be cautious about attending the school to work with him/her.

Sports economics seems to be frowned down upon by a lot of people. So, if you do decide to apply to schools, you'll probably want to down play your interest in the subject. Additionally, you'll probably want to avoid writing your job market paper in the subject (since you are less likely to land a job). There are a couple of approaches that people take. First, and more popular, is to carve out a career in another field, get tenure, then start working on sports economics. The other option would be to try and support interest in both sports econ and another field (with the other field making up the bulk of your dissertation/publishable papers). Personally, I don't get why people disrespect the field of Sports economics, but you should know about it before you devote a career to it.

I don't know if this is still the case or not, but a few years back the rumor about UIUC's (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) master program is that they accept everyone that applies, but offer no funding. Additionally, I think there might have been questions about how high the quality of the masters program was, but I am less certain of that rumor.

Your current profile is more than sufficient to get you into UDel. If you spend an additional year to take the math courses listed and improve your GPA, you should be able to get into a significantly better PhD program. It depends on what your goals are.

The only MA programs that would be worthwhile for you would be either one outside the U.S. (possibly Duke would be okay). I don't know their exact admission standards, but you could look into the LSE or one of the Canadian master programs. Your current profile might get you an admit at a school in the 20-50 range. While your undergrad GPA will raise flags, if you can get some great LORs and explain how you've improved in your statement of purpose (also, your Math GPA will also help), I could see a school giving you an admit.

You should have stated this in your original question. With this added bit of information your question is fine, without it I would stand by my arguments. I don't have any further information on which schools require fall grades to be submitted, but I would suggest acting as if they all require them and choose accordingly.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this thread is. Are you asking for which schools ask for grades so you can avoid applying to them and slack off in the Fall? If so, I don't know how good of a fit you would be at a top 20 program. On the other hand, there is no real benefit for finding out which schools accept fall grades. Apply to the schools you like/think are a good fit, do great on your fall courses, and then contact the departments to see if they will accept your grades. If they do, great. Am I missing something?

In my cohort, there were two students that lived about an hour's drive away from campus. Neither of them passed prelims. It is anecdotal evidence, but I think the drive adds an additional layer of difficulty.

Two years ago, I filled out my bracket based on which schools had accepted/wait listed/rejected me. I ended up getting all of the Final Four teams correct (and if you recall that was a weird year when no one was getting things correct). As for the Valpo game... Go Green!

I'm biased towards ISU and I would say USF is the better place to go if you want to continue on to a PhD. Here's a few reasons why (or things to think about) 1) Placements for USF include Berkeley, Davis, and Cornell (from their website). Recent placements for ISU include Kentucky, Purdue, Kansas, Michigan State, and Syracuse. Assuming USF's placements on the web page are trustworthy, they strictly dominate. 2) USF seems to be have a track that is dedicated toward placing MA students into PhD programs. ISU doesn't really have this (most MA students at ISU are there as part of the Peace Corp program or the Energy Regulation track). The few students at ISU that go onto PhD have to do a lot of work on their own to achieve that. [Note: I'm not saying the ISU professors aren't supportive of students going for PhD, it is just that you will have to figure out everything you need to do to be competitive for PhD admission on your own - and then do it]. 3) Are both offers funded? This should be low on your priority list, but I know that being a GA at ISU can greatly improve your profile for PhD programs (depending on which professor you are assigned to). I was able to get my name on a couple of published papers through my GA work. 4) Do you have a location preference? Would anyone choose the middle of Illinois over San Fran? 5) The "applied" title of ISU's program would probably be a detriment to PhD applications 6) It is kind of crazy to talk about this with an MA program, but what fields are you interested in? I think USF is more geared toward International Economics and maybe Financial Economics (check their website for more information than I have). ISU has a few professors that do a lot in energy economics (and some environmental), one or two that do Econ of Ed, and the rest work on applied micro topics or macro topics. 7) ISU has a history of letting MA economics students take math classes without much issue. I would think USF has a similar position, but I can't say for sure. Best of luck with your decision.

I know sometimes schools wait until during/after their spring break to send out admits. I'm pretty sure that's the way MSU is doing it (with an early admit or two with the school fellowship). Also, MSU is on spring break this week. So, if you are waiting to her from them, I'd guess you should hear one way or another in the next week or two.

To comment on the spouse/significant other issue, if he/she really wants to come, you will have to foot the bill (or your sig. other will). Most departments budget only to fly out the candidates. Having him/her come with isn't a bad idea. He/she can look at apartments, go shopping, wander campus, etc. while you are doing your campus visit. This way, he/she gets an idea of the type of town/community you are moving to.