econdevelopment
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any idea when davis will share all application results? any idea if they've had 1-2 rounds of rejections?
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I got the Berkeley rejection yesterday, and found out that MSU is offering funding. Pleasantly surprised at their level of funding. Still have to hear back from Davis, but I think I'll be at MSU this fall.
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thanks. assuming i don't get into davis (and berkeley), i think i'd go to MSU only if i received funding. i still haven't replied to their email (im actually travelling), but feel that if i ask about financial aid and they offer it soon i'll be bound to accept their offer. i guess i have to make up my mind soon. not plans to visit MSU until i sort it all out
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got into MSU today, but i don't have guaranteed funding. the acceptance letter said that they will explore funding opportunities, and the prof who will be my mentor (advisor?) said she has applied for some grants and may be able to fund me if those grants get accepted. the letter says "We look forward to your confirmation of acceptance of this offer". i don't think i'll accept the offer unless i get full funding. any suggestions of how to reply to them? i've still got my fingers crossed for a positive response from davis, but maybe that's not being realistic. seems like i'll be getting the berkeley rejection by tomorrow too..
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A very quick question. I was contacted by a faculty member who said the admissions committee had asked her if she would be willing to be my mentor. She wants to talk to me about my research interests, and see if it would be a good fit. A lot of her work is on ag policy, which I wouldn't be too interested in. But I'm sure there can be plenty of overlap; both of us have fairly broad research interests. I'm not sure if I get offered admission, will I have to work on her / potentially work on some of her less interesting research. I'll probably ask her about that, but want to do it tactfully. Any suggestions for the phone interview?
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well this was his reply. maybe he didn't want to go into too much detail and gave a quick standard reply that my profile isn't good enough. im sure he has plenty of better things to do. though i do think his explanation is slightly strange.
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i talked to someone at the UMD ag econ department, and asked if I could discuss my application. they told me who to get in touch with. i sent an email saying that i understand that the application process is extremely competitive, and i would appreciate any information about weaknesses of my application. he replied: Your scores were quite good but not as high as those among admitted students. We have found that students with quantitative GRE scores below the 90th percentile are not able to make it through the first year of our graduate program satisfactorily. The median score of those admitted this year is 166. On the verbal GRE it is 164.On the analytic GRE it is 5.0. All are well above the 90th percentile. Also, most of those admitted have undergraduate GPAs above 3.9 on a 4.0 scale.While we may dip below one of these standards when one score is low in the case where another score is exceptionally high, your scores are good but not as good as any of those admitted. i'm rather surprised at what he wrote (i thought grades were used as cut-offs, and then they looked at research experience etc). but i appreciate that he took out time to reply to my email and provided the information. i wasn't expecting any good news from berkeley or even davis, now im not even sure about msu..
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Rejected by Maryland this morning..
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Sorry, I should have added that they are all Ag Econ programs. A friend of mine joined Cornell last yr who has done some research with international organizations (including WB) but doesn't have the best academic background. Research interests fit really well with the AEM department at Cornell too. Maybe they are more keen on fit? Yea with this rejection and no other news, I'm really hoping for admission from at least MSU (no disrespect to the program, they have their strengths, plenty of large grant applied research projects going on too). Since I want to do development, Davis would be great (assuming Berkeley isn't going to happen). The only person I know who joined the program last year had a very good fit but not best academic background. It could be possible, especially since they (apparently) only make funded offers for the AEM PhD. I was feeling physically sick the entire day today. Haha.. I guess this is part of the application process. Congrats to everyone on their offers, and best of luck to everyone else. And thanks a lot for the replies.
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got the cornell rejection today. i haven't heard back from any other schools, but this isn't looking good for me :( i would love to get into davis, but... does anyone have any comments for me?
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congrats, that's great for you. i see you applied to a number of programs, so best of luck with the rest of the decisions. you have a great profile!
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haven't heard from any... when did you apply, and did he mention anything about funding? congrats!!!
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I don't know the programs you mentioned much at all, but the GRE quant seems a bit low. It's not a great signal when seen alongside your college math. My question is why do you want a PhD in Ag Econ, and will these programs help you achieve those goals? Your research interests also need to match with the ag econ departments, especially if they are smaller ones. If your GRE quant makes the cut-off, I would guess you would make it in most of the programs you mentioned. Is your current school a similar ranked/better applied econ school?
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Are online courses in mathematics worth it?
econdevelopment replied to MemphisMike's topic in PhD in Economics
If I were you, I'd definitely apply to a couple of the Ag/Applied Econ schools you mentioned. Do any of your LOR writers/ supervisors / co-authors know faculty at Ag/Applied Econ programs? That can make a huge difference. P.S.: I don't know much about the Italian university system so not sure how good/bad the GPA is -
Yes rjn should share a full profile. However, I think this is a good example where a Master's degree would be very important for admission in a decent Economics PhD program. Improving the GRE score isn't that hard, but assuming the GPA in Econ and Math classes is ~3.5 with no graduate Economics classes the profile is a bit weak. A good Economics Master's with some higher level math classes would be a good signal, and might provide better LORs (if the current school doesn't have Economics professors, it's unlikely that rjn can get strong LORs from well-published professors who did their PhDs in good schools).