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bcube

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  1. Thanks for your post OutOfGame. How much will having a Master's thesis(from a very well known non US masters and with a letter from the thesis supervisor) as one's only research experience hurt? In between my MSc and starting a PhD in the US, I have to return to my home country for a year. I can RA there for a whole year, however the professors there are not even close to as well known as those where I'm doing my MSc. How would a strong course work based letter from a famous economist compare to an equally strong research based letter from an unknown economist? If I stick to the better known writers from my master's institution while RA-ing back in my country, will the RA experience without a letter count for anything? I know it's very hard to come up with specific answers to these questions, but I'd appreciate any thoughts.
  2. Some programs let you take one or more of what are essentially first year PhD courses. Doing well in those is a great signal for a PhD, similar to US undergrads taking grad courses. LSE, particularly the MSc EME and BGSE(I'm sure there are others as well) let you take a bunch of PhD level courses and those interested in PhDs usually take at least a couple.
  3. While I know very little about the behavioral economics masters programs, it makes little sense to pick a masters based on your research interests unless you are pretty sure you want to stick on at the same university for a PhD. The standard masters- LSE, Barcelona GSE, UCL etc are probably your best bet. If your ultimate plan is to apply for a PhD outside the university you do your masters at, you'll probably want to load up on as many advanced micro/macro/metrics courses during your msc, and the presence of good behavioral faculty will have very little impact. If Bonn does place well into PhDs, however, then that sort of program might be a good compromise.
  4. Shehzad, while I had already done a Masters, my grades and letters weren't great. Funding was a major constraint for me as well- my funding for BGSE came from BGSE itself and inclded living expenses. For the UK, I got the Commonwealth scholarship- these external scholarships are probably your best bet for the UK, funding from UK universities is hard to come by. As far as I know, Bangladeshi nationals are eligible for the Commonwealth schol. as well and it covers pretty much all expenses.
  5. I applied to the Master's you mentioned this year. I'm from another South Asian country and we have a similar system where econ students aren't allowed to take courses from the math department. I had a Master's from the top instituion in my country and we'd done all the math that most US undergrads do in Math for Econ type courses (including topology, some stochastic dynamics etc.). While I had a perfect GRE score, my grades were certainly not as good as yours. I managed to get into BGSE, UCL and Cambridge with full funding everywhere. Given your grades and letters of recommendation (while famous letter writers are great, not too many people from our part of the world have access to them) I think you'll definitely make it to most of the master's you apply to. It makes very little sense for you to apply for a PhD right away. If you can repeat your undergrad performance at a well known master's, the range of schools you'll have a shot at will change dramatically. Doing a master's will mean your application is delayed by two years(you can't apply during your MSc since you wont have gotten any new grades by then), but I think it's well worth it.
  6. LSE definitely doesn't have one of the top 5 econ departments in the world- top 15 at best. I can't see anyone ranking LSE ahead of NYU, Northwestern, Yale, Columbia, Berkely etc. all top 10 depts. LSE as a dept would be around the level of Duke(top 15ish), it's still very good but definitely not top 5(while it isn't a good indicator and has several flaws, REPEC puts LSE at 28). In terms of a PhD program it's probably a bit like Cornell in that it punches below it's weight when it comes to placements etc. It is the best department in Europe overall, but there are better places for your PhD in Europe if you have certain fields in mind- UCL for microeconometrics and theory, UPF for Macro etc.
  7. The best places in Switzerland are Zurich for Experimental/Behavioural, Lausanne for Macro and Econometrics and the Graduate Institute(IHIED) in Geneva for Int Macro, Trade and Development(this place is less oriented towards academia, but they place very strongly into int organizations and have some very good researchers). I'm not sure about Zurich, but the IHIED and Lausanne pay students with TA/RAs CHF 3000 a month. Taking the cost of living into account,this will afford you the normal grad student lifestyle- maybe a little better in Lausanne. If you are interested in finance, then the Swiss Finance Institute is excellent- amongst the top 10 worldwide by research output. It's a consortium of 4 universities though, so I don't know how much access you'll have to various faculty members.
  8. As far as I know, the LSE PhD program has some pretty severe issues. Based entirely on heresay, I believe the program is very impersonal. The only evidence I have that points to this is that there are more than 50 students in their 6th year at LSE. That is a very worrying statistic. Stipends compared to cost of living, office space etc are not great either. The last few years placements have also been poor. I'd pick any US top 20 over LSE.
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