econz

You should also consider NYU Stern.

hey, your profile looks good to me, i won't be surprised if you get an offer from the top 10. I'm unsure about the grade you had in china, is an average of 93 very high there?

ecahn, your profile is very competitive for top 10 places, I wish I can attend the same school as you

kimigtsc, you from UNSW? If you're keen to do a top finance PhD, try the Columbia masters. Some impressive grad-coursework + research with the professors can earn you a top finance PhD place in NYC, and this is exactly what I was told by a student there this morning.

I count MVC (analysis) as lower level, should have included linear algebra there. Doing honors/masters is a good path to grad coursework. Regarding the placement, I'm pretty sure that ANU placed much much better than you thought. I heard one guy attended Chicago.

Are you switching to econ "due to the fiece competition" in finance? You may want to do a honors elsewhere. e.g. Melbourne has placed its honors gradautes into Harvard and Wharton according to their old site [source], the finance department there has built up very close ties with NYU Stern in recent years. The competition in LSE is sure to be fiecer than in Melbourne (I'm assuming there're no nerd / IMO medalist in your year)

Thanks for your input! Resumes usually don't have the marks/grades included, how can you tell they're 90+ ???

What marvellous work of their final year! I wish I could achieve 90+ for my current study, which will for sure place me to a top10 maths phd. Btw, where did you get these information, you seemed like an insider

What about econphd in business schools instead? e.g., Stern, Columbia GSB, Penn Wharton (Speaking personally, I don't feel confident about my chances in MIT/Harvard/Stanford) Given the focus of many applicants on the programs by econ department, I might have a better chance for the less popular business schools.

Hi TMers, My questions are: 1) Does my set of schools sound reasonable??? Any advice??? 2) Is my chance of being shut out by all schools big? (If so, I'm gonna apply for Fall 2012 after more econ stuffs and good LoR come in.) 3) Any advice on range of schools based upon my profile? [bounce] Hey, I want to stress that: my questions are whether my range of safety schools are safe enough? i.e., JHU, Penn State, Boston, Maryland and the undecided: UCLA, UCSD, Wisconsin, Minnesota Profile: Type of Undergrad: big Australasia uni with good recent placement (top 10s) Undergrad GPA: ~88/100ish, 4.00/4.00 (1 term in US) Type of Grad: n/a Grad GPA: n/a GRE: 800/600/4.0 Math Courses: Undergrad: Analysis, Linear Algebra, Probability, Stats, Metric Spaces, Algebra, Discrete Math, Linear Models and a few at lower levels (All A's) Grad: Topology, Measure Theory, Measure-Probability (All A's) (Fall 2010 in progress: Stats Inference, Stochastic Process, Time Series) Econ Courses: Inter Micro/Macro (A, A), Micro (A), Internat'l Econ (A), Develop't Econ (A), Metrics (A), Econ Growth (A), Finance (A), Financial Math (A, A-) (Spring 2011: Advanced Micro/Macro, Metrics and Thesis at grad level) Other Courses: 3 business: Organistional Behavior (B), Accounting (A, A) Letters of Recommendation: 1 stats (well-known, thesis advisor), 1 maths (senior, aced his analysis class), 1 macro (top his intermediate macro), 1 metrics (senior + relatively known, know me very little) and a few backups from maths. Frankly speaking, none of them is strong in a TMer or an adcom sense. Research Experience: research project + thesis (completing) Teaching Experience: TA/tutor Research Interests: econometrics, macro, development SOP: focus on my potential and interests + may switch to micro in grad school Concerns: LoR :wallbash: Applying: Yale, Princeton, Chicago, NYU, NWU, Penn, Columbia, Maryland, Penn State, JHU, Boston U Pendings: Wisconsin, UCLA, UCSD, Minnesota I'm happy to attend any of the above in 2011.[clap][clap][clap]

nothing offensive, I think you're turning 26 when commencing your study the next year; good news are: many OZs turn to be older than the Americans after finishing a typical 5 year (double degree) + 1 year honors, in addition, our degrees and courses are less flexible than the US which means few people can finish beforehand. I know there're a few American youngsters; two of my friends, one of them graduated from a Ivy at 20 and attend the PhD in finance at the same institution at 21, the other graduated with master at 20 from another Ivy and is attending a top 5 econphd this fall. So we shouldn't concern too much about ages coz the rule is different here!

what do you thinks of this? difficulty of the exam? the quality of students? or it's simply a rule of the PhD program there.

Hi, LazyStudent, you had ur LOR from people know you by discussion rather than taking classes with or RA with, is that a problem? Or it depends on the professor, some profs are nice and willing to write a solid letter even if they know by little of the student? Since you mentioned that LOR from well-known ppl is key to top schools, can you suggest some more ways in which I'll get the best LORs from the best faculty in my institution?

I heard about this guy, there's a rumor among ppl that he had one of his LoRs from a former chair of Yale.

For undergrad aiming for the top10 places, which is more efficient for admission purposes, an independent research (with good advisor, which can be a good training and learning the process of doing solid research) OR some research experience (like RA, though like treated as a slave and learn by little of research skills, could possibly lead to a co-authored publication in well-ranked journals, but the date to appear is obviously after the admission season)? This is the final year of my degree (I'm applying for Fall 2011) and I'm looking for a way which is more appealing to the adcoms of top10.