Tommaso

What I suspect is that most people who go to MIT and Harvard don't get a top placement because they were there, but they get a good placement exactly for the same reason why they were admitted there, that is to say, they're brilliant of course, a certain environment and brand help, but I think its role is overestimated. Having said this, I think LSE has a worse program than all T10 departments, but not worse than, say, UCLA, UCSD or similar ranked departments.

Hi everybody, I'm going to apply in a couple months, and was actually considering more and more european programs. in particular, LSE, UCL, UPF, Oxford and PSE seem good choices to me. my question is, how hard it is to get into these programs and how far are they from top 20 US programs? my understanding is that LSE is comparable to ~T10-15 programs in the US, right? Point is, I'm not interested in general rankings, but in placement given the quality of applicant. In other words, I think anyone being average in T10 programs would be in a high percentile in a UK program, and this would probably result in a better, or at least not worse, placement. just to give an example, top students at UPF and Bocconi this year went to Booth and LSE. The average placement is terribly worse, of course, but this is not necessarily a problem if one think to be able to stay close to the top in such programs. opinions?

Hi everybody, here's a really strange question, but I'd like to hear your opinion about this matter. I'm currently a master student in economics at a famous italian university, after an undergraduate in math. I've chosen a very technical / quantitative route so far in my graduate studies apart from some behavioural economics (and during ug studies too, but that goes without saying), with good results. So far, I've only considered applying to a PhD in economics next fall, but having been exposed to some psychology (books, articles, discussions, etc) I'm now very confused, cause I'm extremely interested in these topics (especially sociology) and I feel like studying them in greater detail. So, here's some questions for you: Am I eligible for admission at a good master program in social psychology given my background? (my cv is strong, 170 gre, good references and so on) Could you recommend some psychology masters that are particularly interested in more quantitative / econ students? talking about both US and EU. Are there other options for me to deepen my knowledge about this stuff without spending too much money? Don't want to restart from the undergraduate. I know this post may sound naive to many. It probably is, afterall it's just an idea that has been stuck in my mind for some weeks! Thanks a lot in advance.

Everyone on this forum seems to think a B+ hurts a lot, real analysis is necessary, and much more... I'll just bring two examples: my thesis advisor, UPenn PhD, specialized in Theory, had a C in his only math exam in an unknown econ / business undergraduate in italy. He was also admitted to Columbia, NYU and other top programs. (2000) Good friend of mine, no real analisys, no probability, got admitted in 14 universities, basically all top 10 apart from harvard + ucla, lse, ucl, caltech, san diego. (2013) The average counts, nobody wants to punish you for a single bad day... Especially if you performed well in similar / more advanced courses.

Just go to Stanford! :-)

Once again: to get into Bocconi's master is super easy. Don't get fooled by its placement, the problem is not in the admission.

With the right letters, UCL is great for top10, even top5. thinking of Attanasio or Cripps, but I'm sure there are many other options...

Only one to consider in Italy is Bocconi. LLUIS may send its best student in ten years to T10, Bocconi send about half of its students there.

Thanks a lot guys, some great recommendations, I'm going through the various websites right now! also, another question: does any of you know how relevant academic activity to be done after sending applications is? i.e., suppose in Dec '13 one of my recommenders write "...., and for this reason I wanted him to do further research at .... For the next 6 months".

Hi everybody, I'll have a spare 6 months at the start of next year (2014) and, since I'll send all my PhD applications before, I was thinking about applying for some internship outside the academic world. Main motivations for this are the fact that I've never worked in my life and I want to experience an interesting workplace, and then decide if I PhD is really the ideal route for me (that's what I think now, but I want to be sure). Point is, I'm not interested at all in Macro / finance / applied economics, so that I'm not the ideal candidate for most internships. My main interests are economic theory, statistics, development and behavioural economics, but I'm perfectly aware these are not really usual requirements for job offers. I've got a math undergraduate degree if this can help. So, am I just talking nonsense or have you got some recommendations? I will consider any option, from BCG to J-PAL.

Yes, apply.

You can get an idea of how bad the italian accent can be by just typing "unibocconi + name of the course (e.g. Labour economics)" on youtube. I must say I'm very satisfied with the quality of teaching, and I'm confident that most courses are at a very close level to top PhD ones, as many friends who are now in the US told me so.

Remember to check merit award if you're at bocconi, you'll save up to 29k and, especially for foreign students, it's not hard to obtain it, provided you have a nice gre score.

Humanomics, here I'm citing the most famous professors, who have been here for years. There are many, younger ones who come from all over the world, but they can't compete with those mentioned yet. if you check them, you'll find most of them worked for many years in top instituions in the US. admission is very easy: most italian students are scared by ESS as it's very quantitative and academic oriented and at the same time, the university doesn't not attract many people from abroad (about 1/4 of the class is international). Anyway, just to clarify, I'm not claiming Bocconi is the best university in the world, but it's definitely a very good choice for those looking for an european master that prepare them to a top 20 (mostly top 10) PhD in the US.

Well, the differences between those courses are enormous.Economics and social sciences is the proper econ one (don't even consider the others, trust me): lots of quantitative stuff, superstar faculty (lots of professors with Harvard, MiT PhD... To cite a few: alesina, tabellini, giavazzi, perotti, battigalli, marinacci, laferrara), amazing seminars (sargent, woodford, duflo, blanchard, and a ton more just in the last 18 months), good variety of possible electives, and the possibility to spend the entire second year attending the first year of Yale PhD if you're one of the two admitted out of 100 (about 15 apply, but they're all super-qualified).I'm currently enrolled in this program and I can really recommend it, the PhD placement is simply amazing (I'm always amazed by how people on here forget this program when recommending European masters...): last year, citing just the ones I remember, destinations were Mit, Mit sloan, Chicago, princeton, stanford, harvard kennedy, lse, and many others (there were 16 people applying!)To give an idea, NYU admitted 9 of them (even if noone went there because they all had better options), Chicago admitted 6 and Yale and Stanford 4... And I'm talking about 16 applicants!The fact that the master is two years long plays an important role: there's time to become familiar with the faculty, start doing research and gain great references.These were the academic aspects. Talking about the rest, Milan's not cheap and I don't know how appealing Italy looks for a stranger right now. But if your priority is a good PhD in the US, then Bocconi ESS would be a great choice for you.Don't hesitate to ask more questions if you still have doubts!And no, I'm not paid by Bocconi for writing this :-)

UPenn and Northwestern would both be great options, Princeton would be great as well, but needless to say much harder to get in.

I've heard BU is very good for theory.Don't know anything about public policy sorry.

The fact that you were admitted to UCL clearly means that your undergrad is not THAT big of a problem... That said, it's also obvious that admission in the US will be more competitive. (but you have very good mphil grades you didn't have before, and they should be useful)Can I ask you why you're not satisfied with the UCL program? I've heard it is the best one in Europe for micro theory.Therefore, I guess it only makes sense for you to apply to some selected programs inside the top 20, otherwise I'd stay where you are...

I don't really know as I'm not from the UK... But If I were you, I'd really make an effort to retake it, just focusing on the quant part.

I'd retake GRE and try to get 167 in the Q part, I think that is a necessary condition for the top research programs in the uk.

I've got a feeling a 2.1 at a top 3 UK institution would sound better than a US 3.3, based on the fact that I know of many people without UK first class getting into top US programs. But I tend to agree with you, the official conversion would be somewhere in the range 3.3-3.6.

Exactly

Why don't you spend one more year in the UK attending a good master? That would place you in a good position to get into top 20 programs supposing, of course, that you start taking care of recommendation letters and research.

I know of people who got into Stanford but not into Stern, so yes, it seems selective.

You should be fine in at least some of those, your CV looks fine (that A+ at LSE may help given your university is unknown), and admission in european masters is far less competitive than most people seem to think. LSE is not guaranteed (but possible, imo), others in that list should be ok for sure. I'd suggest applying to Bocconi as well, it's better than most places in that list, and admission is easy (compared to the level of the MSc and its placement in good PhDs).