Axieldor

chateauheart!

Just got wl from UMich with travel reimbursement for visit day. Is this common?

Why is MIT sending out results in the middle of the night?!

Institution: Columbia GSB Program: PhD Finance and Economics Decision: Rejected Funding: Notification date: 2/26/2013 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments:

Columbia GSB rejection. The entire email only mentions the "Finance Division" reviewed your application. The enrollment rate for the PhD Program in "Finance" and the entire program will be slightly below 3%. What happened to "Finance and Economics"?!

Same here :(

They forgot to bcc on the last email for the flyout and I can tell you that there are 10 email addresses. Perhaps some will turn it down though! (but unlikely me)

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Public Ivy, top 40 Econ dept. ranking; B.S. Econ, B.S. Applied Math Undergrad GPA: 3.69 (3.5 in grad Econ, 3.91 in Math/Amath, 3.81 in undergrad Econ) GRE: Q:800, V:630, AW:4 Math Courses: Calculus I,II,III (3.8, 3.8, 4.0), Matrix Algebra (4.0), Differential Equations (4.0), Linear Algebra (4.0), Applied Regression (3.2), Intro Modeling (3.8), Probability & Statistics (3.8), Mathematical Reasoning (4.0), Real Analysis (4.0), Adv. Multivar (3.8), Linear Optimization (3.9), Nonlinear Optimization (4.0), Discrete Optimization (3.8) Math/ Stat Courses (grad-level): Applied linear algebra (3.4), Portfolio Statistical Methods (3.4) Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro I, II, III (3.7, 3.7, 3.3), Econometrics II, III (3.5, 3.2)., 2nd-year Contract Theory (3.6) Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Investment & Finance (3.8), Industrial Org (4.0), Econometrics (3.6), thesis (3.5) Other Courses: MPA course on psych for pol analysis (3.2), Java programming I, II (4.0, 3.9), C/ Unix (3.8) Letters of Recommendation: Graduate director who taught graduate Micro I, II, III, and Contract Theory (Very Strong, well published in field) Math Professor who taught optimization (Strong, well published) B-School Professor I RA-ed for (Good-Strong, haven't kept in touch very well) Managing Principal went to Michigan (Very Strong, still publishing in health econ) Senior Lecturer went to Berkeley (Very Strong) Senior Lecturer went to MIT (Very Strong) Senior Lecturer went to Harvard (Very Strong) Research Experience: Co-author paper on telecommunication auctions presented at conference, submitted to low journal with revision requested. RA for b-school professor (half year STATA programming). RA for b-school phd candidate (1 year data cleaning). Teaching Experience: 2 time grader. Department tutor. Review seminar leader (1 year) Research Interests: Applied Micro: IO and Healthcare SOP: Will be strong Other: 2 years Economic Consulting: Conjoint analysis, survey design, health economics modeling, SAS programming Actuary P/1 exam Concerns: Fall-out with both thesis adviser and co-author of other research paper. Will no LoRs from them be taken negatively? Both fall-outs were due to me biting off more than I could chew and getting too busy. Should I mention my thesis? I bit off more than I could chew and basically bombed it, but it's not obvious on my transcript. Should I mention writing a thesis and drawing attention, or ignore it? Didn't mention. Can I submit co-authored paper as writing sample? Submitted. Applying to: MIT, Berkeley, Chicago, Booth (Econ), Kellogg, UPenn, Columbia, Stanford GSB, Stanford, UCLA, HBS (Business Economics), Michigan, Cornell, Wharton (Applied Econ), Columbia, Columbia GSB (Finance & Econ), NYU, Stern (Econ)

Institution: Northwestern Kellogg Program: MECS (Econ PhD) Decision: Accepted Funding: TBA Notification date: 2/4/2013 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: Yes

Just got an email that they are recommending my admission to the Graduate School! No information on funding yet, but so excited! One of my top, top choices!

Thanks guys. Still waiting to hear back and trying really hard not to count my chickens here...

Just had my phone interview yesterday. Anybody else hear back? How, "finalist" is a phone interview, btw? I assume it's less so than a campus interview?

Yeah, same thing happened with me. Though even more OCD, I checked it 2 minutes past midnight and submitted it then. Let me know what they say!

Thanks for all the feedback, guys! Any suggestion on which LORs to use? Also, chateauheart, if you think top 15 is tough, what schools would you suggest? Is there an appropriate way for me to put the grading in context? From what I've heard, grading at our school is lower than say, an Ivy, and a 3.5 or 3.7 is considered more highly than it would be elsewhere.

Thanks for the comments! 3.3-3.4 is average for the grad courses. 3.5-3.8 is A-btw no A+ given I also took more courses than the average grad student though i'm not sure how I would make that obvious. All of the above was done in 4 years undergrad. Should I aska lor writer to mention/ compare the average grad workload?

BUMP! I'm hoping for a top 15, btw! thanks!

Please see my profile below! Please evaluate where I should apply to. Should I bother with top 5? The graduate director who's probably writing a LoR for me mentioned that he could write very strong ones for 6-15, but not as strong for top 5... I can get LoRs from a variety of people, but unfortunately no three great ones from great professors that i did research with. I'm leaning towards the graduate director + current employer Managing Principal. But the remaining one is a bit of a toss-up. Should i consistently go with one? I'm thinking the math prof? Should I have the senior lecturers write to their alma maters? For schools that allow more than 3, should I ask for a 4th and 5th? Thanks a million! PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Public Ivy, top 40 Econ dept. ranking; B.S. Econ, B.S. Applied Math Undergrad GPA: 3.69 (3.5 in grad Econ, 3.91 in Math/Amath, 3.81 in undergrad Econ) GRE: Q:800, V:630, AW:4 Math Courses: Calculus I,II,III (3.8, 3.8, 4.0), Matrix Algebra (4.0), Differential Equations (4.0), Linear Algebra (4.0), Applied Regression (3.2), Intro Modeling (3.8), Probability & Statistics (3.8), Mathematical Reasoning (4.0), Real Analysis (4.0), Adv. Multivar (3.8), Linear Optimization (3.9), Nonlinear Optimization (4.0), Discrete Optimization (3.8) Math/ Stat Courses (grad-level): Applied linear algebra (3.4), Portfolio Statistical Methods (3.4) Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro I, II, III (3.7, 3.7, 3.3), Econometrics II, III (3.5, 3.2)., 2nd-year Contract Theory (3.6) Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Investment & Finance (3.8), Industrial Org (4.0), Econometrics (3.6), thesis (3.5) Other Courses: MPA course on psych for pol analysis (3.2), Java programming I, II (4.0, 3.9), C/ Unix (3.8) Letters of Recommendation: Graduate director who taught graduate Micro I, II, III, and Contract Theory (Very Strong, well published in field) Math Professor who taught optimization (Strong, well published) B-School Professor I RA-ed for (Good-Strong, haven't kept in touch very well) Managing Principal went to Michigan (Very Strong, still publishing in health econ) Senior Lecturer went to Berkeley (Very Strong) Senior Lecturer went to MIT (Very Strong) Senior Lecturer went to Harvard (Very Strong) Research Experience: Co-author paper on telecommunication auctions presented at conference, submitted to low journal with revision requested. RA for b-school professor (half year STATA programming). RA for b-school phd candidate (1 year data cleaning). Teaching Experience: 2 time grader. Department tutor. Review seminar leader (1 year) Research Interests: Applied Micro: IO and Healthcare SOP: Will be strong Other: 2 years Economic Consulting: Conjoint analysis, survey design, health economics modeling, SAS programming Actuary P/1 exam Concerns: Fall-out with both thesis adviser and co-author of other research paper. Will no LoRs from them be taken negatively? Both fall-outs were due to me biting off more than I could chew and getting too busy. Should I mention my thesis? I bit off more than I could chew and basically bombed it, but it's not obvious on my transcript. Should I mention writing a thesis and drawing attention, or ignore it? Can I submit co-authored paper as writing sample?

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Public Ivy; B.S. Econ, B.S. Applied Math Undergrad GPA: 3.72 (3.8 in total Econ, 3.92 in Math/Amath, 3.9 in undergrad Econ) GRE: Q:800, V:630, AW:?? Math Courses: Calculus I,II,III (3.8, 3.8, 4.0), Matrix Algebra (4.0), Differential Equations (4.0), Intro Modeling (3.8), Linear Algebra & Numerical Analysis (4.0), Probability & Statistics (cross-ref grad Econometrics I) (3.8), Mathematical Reasoning (4.0), Real Analysis (4.0) Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro I, II, III (3.7, 3.7, 3.3), Econometrics II, III (3.5, 3.2). Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Investment & Finance (3.8), Industrial Org (4.0), Econometrics (3.6) Other Courses: MPA course on psych for pol analysis (3.2), Java programming I, II (4.0, 3.9), C/ Unix (3.8) Letters of Recommendation: Will have 4 from younger profs that went to top 5 schools + 1 econ research fellow with physics background. Research Experience: Co-author paper on telecommunication auctions presented at conference (1 year). RA for 2 terms. Senior thesis (good shot at best paper after looking at competition) Teaching Experience: Review session leader. 2 time grader. Department tutor. Research Interests: Still very broad. Will be narrowed down. SOP: N/A Other: Actuary P/1 exam Concerns: Last quarter's MPA + 2 grad econ course + programming killed me. Applying to: Most top 20 schools. Will be taking: Linear Optimization, Non-linear Optimization, Discrete Mathematical Modeling. What are my chances for a top 5 school? top 20 school? What other classes should I take? Available options are: Graduate applied math: Applied Linear Algebra and Introductory Numerical Analysis, Numerical Analysis of Boundary Value Problems, Numerical Analysis of Time Dependent Problems Graduate econ: Cost benefit analysis, Second year sequence of econometrics Undergrad math: Multivariable Calc I, II, Real Analysis II, Introduction to Stochastic Processes, Discrete Optimization, Fourier Analysis and Partial Differential Equations, Putnam math competition prep class I'm confident in getting at least 3.8 and likely 4.0 in all of the undergrad courses, but would be more worried about the graduate ones. Do you think scoring high on the Putnam would help? Thanks for the help!