Jump to content
Urch Forums

applicant12

2nd Level
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,401

  • Joined

  • Days Won

    3

 Content Type 

Everything posted by applicant12

  1. applicant12
    Sure, you're right. I was referring to Econ dept, 'cause OP explicitly asked about Econ. I said Idk much about finance programs so I didn't wanna comment on that
  2. applicant12
    First, you should ask your advisor to proofread the letter. There are some obvious grammar errors that I see. Second, in light of your lack of math courses, you should convince him to talk more about your ability to do PhD-level coursework and handle high-level math. It would carry some weight if he could talk about that, given the fact that he comes from Wisconsin. Also ask him to address the B+ in Micro. That's a red flag.
  3. applicant12
    If this is the case, maybe the curriculum must be different from when it was in years past. If that's the case, the appropriate place to mention it would be in your SOP for you and LORs for your LOR writers You should mention this in your SOP too. Your experience at Deloitte counts for nothing in the admission process (it may even count against you). But again, as I said, I suspect it's hard for you to stand out with your GPA unless you're among the top x students in your graduating class. The most glaring problem with your profile is your LORs. If the person who should know you best (your thesis advisor) can't write you a strong letter, that's a big red flag. Just put yourself in the shoe of a person on an adcom. The obvious questions that would come to mind are things like "why can't his thesis advisor vouch for him? What's wrong here? Should I take the chance on this person when his advisor doesn't think that highly of him? etc." I don't know how you would be able to address this.
  4. applicant12
    I agree with tm_member. No, a calculus course at the university level in Vietnam does NOT cover analysis, although Vietnamese students do some analysis in high school. The linear algebra course is not also proof-based. They do NOT take economics in high school Sure, his grades are very good, but it's not uncommon. Any serious student can get that GPA. All it would signal is that OP is serious about studying, but that's about it. I think OP refers to 1 of 3 or so Vietnamese universities, and knowing some folks who have come to the US from Vietnam to do their PhDs, I would find it hard to believe if OP gets into top 50 with funding given the fact that his/her LORs aren't good as he/she admitted. I don't know anything about finance programs so I'll reserve judgement on that
  5. applicant12
    I think your advisor is right about the schools ranked below 30. I think he/she might be a bit too optimistic about your chances at the 15-25 ranked schools. I'd say you are competitive for those places, but I wouldn't say you have "decent chance". That phrase sounds to me like you should expect to get in with relative ease, which I don't think is true
  6. applicant12
    To be honest, I think you should ask yourself this question: if I were to ask a random economist at the schools I target what he or she thinks about the journal I have published in, what would the response be? If you think that most of them would say, "I don't know anything about it", "haven't heard of it", or something of that sort, then it should signal to you that the paper you published as a coauthor may not carry much weight in the admission process (it does carry some weight since it's a piece of research that shows your ability to do the work, but it may not be as significant as you hope it will be)
  7. applicant12
    Unless that publication is in a journal well-known to economists (JASA is one that comes to mind for me), it probably does not matter much. The TA experience wouldn't hurt, but it wouldn't help either because a school wouldn't admit someone solely due to the fact that they can TA well.
  8. applicant12
    If you think economics works like a meritocracy, then you're wrong.
  9. applicant12
    OP posted the same thread on EJMR (Switch from Finance to Econ ), and I think even though EJMR has problems of its own, it has some people who really do from time to time give serious and good advice.
  10. applicant12
    Really?
  11. applicant12
    Listen to the people on EJMR.
  12. applicant12
    Yes this is exactly what I was saying. Sorry for making my earlier comment too easy to misinterpret
  13. applicant12
    No. Probably the only way to be good at coding is doing it. Reading others' code and think "oh of course that's how ABC is done in code. I can do it too" is like committing plagiarism, or like copying solutions to homework problems Unless you're a theorist, every question you encounter in economics requires coding skill
  14. applicant12
    So this is an example of what I meant when I said your knowledge of PhD study is limited. Almost all DSGE research uses Dynare, which is entirely MATLAB-based. MATLAB is nowhere near dead, or as someone already said it might be the most used program in economics. At this stage when you don’t know much about academic research tools just yet, I would refrain from making statements such statement about any particular program. Also, as I have said, it seems to me you still don’t appreciate how competitive this whole thing is I would surmise that as long as your application makes it through the cutoff round, it would be seriously looked at. The lack of record sending people to PhD programs would concern me, especially for someone with a not-so-stellar undergraduate record who plans on doing an MA at the same school.
  15. applicant12
    @OP: Why do you want to go to grad school for ECON again? His/her score was 103
  16. applicant12
    You don't really need books to learn any of this stuff. Answers to most questions can easily be found by a quick search on Google. EdX has a course on intro to R (maybe even other languages). I would stick to one or two programs you really like and are commonly used in the profession (as of now they seem to be STATA for applied micro and MATLAB for macro, but that may change with the recent exodus to R and Julia). I myself use those STATA and MATLAB exclusively, and although I have some working knowledge of R and Python, I would have difficulty conducting research using them (writing loops, etc.). I think that given the fact that you don't plan on working full-time anyway, that provides another incentive to do a master's somewhere else. Do you even know where people who did their MAs at UH Manoa went on to do their PhDs in recent years? If not you should definitely find out and compare that record with those of places that have a history of sending their students to the schools you target.
  17. applicant12
    Given your situation, I'd say not much. The only things I can think of are (a) publish, even as a coauthor with faculty member(s) and/or (b) excel as an RA. However, both require regular communication and collaboration with professors, things that may be difficult for you since it seems like you're working full-time and only taking classes on Fridays and Saturdays, days that I would guess faculty members just wanna teach and go home rather than hanging around to discuss research. If you're serious about the PhD (and I think to know that you need to read up more about PhD study, career outcomes, etc. which this forum is a good place to start), I would leave Hawaii and go do a master's at schools that have a history of sending students to PhD programs (several places outside the U.S. Stateside, Duke comes to mind, although there are cheaper options such as UC Denver - others will have to help me out here, I've been away from the game too long to be knowledgeable about this). Try to get an RA position while doing the master's and excel. The idea is you have to start going to school full-time as opposed to working full-time. I don't know how feasible this is for you, so it's something you'll have to think about seriously Also, don't limit yourself to just an MA in Econ. Be creative. A lot of places now have degrees in data science and applied math and that kind of stuff. They would be very helpful since you need to take more math classes anyway. You will still need LORs written by Econ profs, but even if you don't end up doing a PhD in Econ, a master's in data science would open many doors in the private sector for you upon graduation. BUT IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU ONLY TAKE THIS ROUTE IF YOU CAN HANDLE ADVANCED MATH. Given your undergrad record, you wanna aim for 3.7+ gpa coming out of a master's program.
  18. applicant12
    If I understood you correctly, yes you were admitted but without funding. To a great majority of PhD hopefuls, that's equivalent to not being admitted at all. In the interest of full disclosure, when I applied to PhD programs the first time, my only admission was from BU with no 1st yr funding and full funding years 2-5. I think at the time most people on here suggested that I retry the following year, which I did. So I didn't give any serious thought to you saying you were admitted to UH Manoa. And it's great that you have a list of schools in mind. I would suggest you post your profile in a easy-to-read form (just look at other profile evaluation threads). While you do that, note your weaknesses and ask people how you can address them. Our responses won't be perfect, but hopefully they'll give you a good roadmap of what to do next. When I say you have limited knowledge of PhD study, I was saying you don't understand what PhD study is about. As tm_member said (and again in the interest of full disclosure, I have always admired him/her for his/her wisdom regarding PhD-admission-related stuff on this forum), either an MBA or a PhD would be useless for you. I was also alluding to the fact that you don't seem to appreciate how competitive this whole process is (I could be wrong on this, but that was my impression from reading your posts).
  19. applicant12
    Yes I simply restated your profile. But what I added is how each part of your profile might hurt you when it comes to PhD application. If you don’t wanna accept that, it’s fine. I have no dog in this fight. I understand everyone wanna shoot for the stars, but I think, based on experience being in this forum for a while, that people can only help you if you’re realistic about your chances. Trust me, when I was a junior in college, I was so confident in my own ability that I thought I would end up going to NWU and work with Mortensen (may he rest in peace). And my academic record was much better than yours right now, but that’s not to say you’re inferior in any way, shape, or form. However the more I read, the more I realized me going to NWU was not gonna happen, and so i adjusted my expectations and got a ton of help from the people in this forum (to be fair it was much more active back then than it is now) I read many of your posts and I have to say your knowledge of PhD study and admission is extremely limited. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. As I said I’ve been there myself. The people on this forum wanna help you, but if you don’t think our suggestions carry any weight, that’s fine too. You can do whatever you want, it’s your life. But I stick to my predictions above, and although I do hope you’ll come back here and show me I’m wrong, I think it’s not gonna happen. Good luck
  20. applicant12
    Kudos to the patience of the folks here. I wouldn't have been able to get through 4pgs Anyway @dogbones: I hope you will eventually prove me wrong, but I doubt your application would even be read at any top 15-20 schools, and it would surprise me if you got into any of the top 50 schools with full funding. You might have a shot outside of the top 50. Not trying to discourage you, and I hope you'll succeed and come back here and give me the finger and tell me I'm wrong, but some truths are tough to swallow. Why did I make these statements? First off, you don't have the GPA to make the cutoff at several schools. Second, at schools where your applications are read, as of right now you haven't shown admission committees that you can do serious math, nor have you shown them you're an excellent student that they should fund for 5-6yrs (and to me personally, I don't know how an B- average student with occasional Cs on his/her transcript can be so confident that he/she can ace all those advanced math classes). Third, they will look at the MA-MBA combo, presumably completed simultaneously, and will definitely question whether you know what you are getting into and what your goal of doing a PhD is.
  21. applicant12
    Wow. Maybe I’m ignorant, but having looked at the faculty section of many colleges in the U.S. over the years, I’ve seen a lot of non-native speakers who teach things other than the 2 fields you mentioned. Sure, I guess most tenure-track professors are still Americans, but the way you put it makes it seem like a non-native speaker would have to move heaven and earth to get teaching-oriented jobs. One can’t also rule out the fact that facing a teaching job in the U.S. vs. returning home, some foreign students may just pick the latter, hence the underrepresentation of foreign faculty members among econ instructors that you alluded to. Also, at which schools do you spend 60hr/week teaching? What kind of teaching load are we talking about here? 4-4? Even with such a teaching load, I can’t imagine one spend 60-hr/week on teaching, unless you also include time spent on other teaching-related activities. Even then, I don’t think 60 is the right number. I could be wrong. Would be great if you could shed some light/share some insights on this.
  22. applicant12
    But a lot, and I mean A LOT, of college instructors in America are non-American and non-native English speakers, and not all of them speak good English. I see your points, and I think they're fair, but I honestly don't think not being an American or a native English speaker is that significant of a barrier. I personally think if OP did his undergrad in the US, relating to American students won't be that big of an issue (I'm speaking from personal experience. I'm not saying I'm the best instructor out there, but my evaluations weren't bad) I think OP knows what (s)he wanna do though. The original post clearly mentioned his/her concerns about getting a job as a professor first, then industry. CC only came in at the end. My guess is that OP's goal is to find a job and live in the US through some kind of work permit (H1B, etc.) like most academics do, hence the inquiry into a CC job. I think you're too harsh on OP. @OP: As I mentioned above, whether or not you should go to a top 50-70 program depends on what your ultimate goal is. Personally, I would not go, but my choice set and preferences may be very much different from yours. At the end of the day, you know what's best for yourself, and that may be going to a PhD program or applying for jobs at NGOs as chateauheart suggested, which I think is a good idea too. Good luck
  23. applicant12
    I think the chance of you getting in is >50%, and you should definitely get into one or more of the schools listed in "others". Btw a top 50 journal publication isn't bad.
  24. applicant12
    And why is that? The only reason I could think of is OP not being an American or native English speaker (don't know if this is true).
  25. applicant12
    @chateauheart: Really? @OP: There’s no guarantee that being from a top 30 school will ensure a job or success in academia, and there’s no guarantee that you will be damned if you go to a top 50-70. I think what I’ve learned over the years is to connections are key to succeed in the field, and those connections can get you a job or help you succeed. There’s a reason people keep telling applicants to go the best school they get into. Now it also depends on what you wanna do in life. If your goal is just to teach, then I think with a PhD from a top 50-70 you can find a job at an LAC somewhere teaching 4-4, which is totally fine if that’s what you enjoy doing. On the other hand, I think it’s universally agreed that it’s very unlikely (but not impossible) for a person with a top 50-70 PhD to place at a research university. If your goal, however, is to teach at a community college, I don’t understand why you need a PhD. I’ve never gone to a CC, but my impression is most CC instructors only have master’s degrees. And not being an American is hard too because I dont know if CCs will sponsor your visa (they may not have the resources 4-yr colleges may have) These are my own opinions. Others may disagree, which is fine
×
×
  • Create New...