Shalom Ichthys

Just save two years time and go ahead. This can mean a lot in terms of salary between a graduate student and a tenure-track AP. Of course, you can postulate that entering a marginally better school in two years time can improve your lifelong income, but does that justify taking the risk? Well, it all depends on your risk aversion parameter.

I think the State of Washington is having a tight funding at this moment and budget cut seems inevitable. Do you have a chance to visit Seattle? Sometimes, a place you want to stay is conductive to studies.

Choose HKUST if you can for its better ranking and resources. Thanks!

For oligopoly, you may need some game theory. After all, I would review consumer and producer theory because it is all that supply and demand are based upon. However, I agree with the above that you better begin reading and then to see if you need anything beyond micro theory, say econometrics in empirical I/O.

I think you may need to retake GRE to brush up your math to somewhere like 165 or so, and also do some self-study in math, say mathematical statistics and real analysis, to warm yourself up. Also, you may consider three recommendations from those who can speak for you the most and have a good reputation in the field, out of five. Lastly, I think more emphasis is on your current policy work and your master's studies and then undergraduate is less important in comparison, at least from my perspective.

I think your GRE is okay, and it's normal to work for a couple of years before embarking on graduate studies. Well, one thing you have to consider is your referees' reputation and connection in the field. What are their fields? Are they well or lesser known to the faculty members of the universities you wish to apply for? Do they have some connections as alumni or co-author?

If you can find a position in university, whether RA, TA or administrative assistant, in that environment I think it's conductive to studying, at least you may go to the library to look up some books in real analysis or whatsoever (which I did while I was a fulltime TA before I did my PhD). Else, self-study for the coming few months lest you wasted it. Keep on studying so that you would not find it particularly hard to readjust yourself to the busy schedule of PhD.

I think it's good enough to go. They look at quant more than verbal

Well, were I have some previous research experience to begin with :) Anyway, having something solid to mention is always better than none.

I have no doubt on your quantitative skills, and I would suggest you to brush up the GRE Quant score. Well, for HKUST, have you considered their Ph.D. in Finance as well? Your industry exp. may help. If you happen to be in Hong Kong, perhaps you can join SBM's lunchtime seminar series to know some professors. Last of all, the Ph.D. program in Econ of HKUST doesn't admit too many students, though being a non-Chinese would be a plus.

I dropped the name of either the Department Head or the research director, or put it simply, someone who has power, so as to increase my odds of admission, and then tailor-making my research interests based on them. Not sure if it works out well with you.

I suppose that you know the tools, just that you need to be more scrupulous in checking the answers.

The competition for Ph.D. admission in HKUST is really tough, and it's a theory school indeed. Well, you have to be math competent to survive the rigorous training in the first year and onwards. Have you done anything like economic proofs before in your masters' programme? After all, may you justify why HKUST is your cup of tea?

If the programme you intend for doesn't emphasise that much on verbal, then a loose recitation may do. For me who do economics, they don't look too much into verbal score so I just got 150 out of 170 for remembering 300 words or so. However, if your programme does work on language aspects, then perhaps it justifies for a higher score.

I think most schools consider academic referee >= previous publication (if any) >= GPA >= work experience/ extra-curricular activities/ community services I used to work for a few years before I apply to the doctorate program, and I would say that working experience with a bank is not that much related to future research, unless you are doing something like monetary economics and you have some sort of encounters with the Central Bank, etc. Well, even so, a class on monetary economics might be overly theoretical at the junior level, which is more like data crunching and writing reports. I used to work in a commercial bank before, and I had a personal experience of bank run (in which everyone rushed to withdraw money at the same time) that I had to work long hours to answer phone calls and keep the queue in shape. However, a model on bank run considers something like credit rationing, deposit reserve and back-up by the Central bank, etc., that is 'too much' for me as a junior guy to deal with. So, I am not sure how much of your work experience can be transferred to the PhD study, though it would give you some sort of personal experiences that may inspire your research, I don't know, but it can be the case in future :) Another reason that I took two years off after my Master's program before I apply to Ph.D. is that I can buy time to self-study the math, say mathematical statistics, differential equations and real analysis, etc., during my free time. Also, I can save for my future studies. Even though I am paid as a graduate assistant, having some precautionary saving would nevertheless allow me to prepare for some extra spending, such as buying and maintaining a car. As a foreign student myself, I desperately need saving before I come to the US for graduate studies. Lastly, I still find working in the industry for a couple of years (and no more than that) does help in refining my social skills and work attitude, which is universal but nonetheless applicable to my service as a graduate assistant here, for example, how to allocate time more efficaciously and how to take notes in a meeting and keep the schedule of work in check, etc.. After all, it's your decision for which you may talk to some other graduate students, in particular, those with work experiences, to see how they fit in graduate studies from day one. Thanks and every best!

Meditate and pray may help. One may listen to classical music while attending the problem sets, but this does not work when you take the real exams. But as a beginning, this may also work.

I think reading and writing shouldn't be too much of a problem, but recitation of a long list of glossaries may take up the whole summer, according to my friends' experience. Hope it helps :)

On average, you have 2 to 3 sentences per paragraph, right? For an argumentative essay, that's too short to develop an argument or elaborate your stance. The number of sentences per-se shouldn't be a problem, if you use connectives to 'elongate' the sentences. Yet, the excessive use of connectives may make your elaboration obscure. For me, I only use one connective per sentence, and end one point with a full-stop. This said, I may have 4 to 5 sentences per paragraph, depending on the coverage of my arguments. However, there is no particular norm to the number of sentences, and it may vary with the context. You may post a sample essay here so that we may have a look. Thanks!

Just curious, coz I have heard that offer should be made soon.

I go along this line. I actually had my TOEFL taken on Jan 12 and my results released in late Jan. However, in a few days I received one offer for grad. admission. So I suppose TOEFL is like a tie-breaker. If you are good in recommendation, GPA and GRE (not to be missed!), they might have already decided to admit you and tell you to supplement the TOEFL score later. Of course, this may not work for all schools, especially if the competition is tough. All the best!

I think in the end they will require you to supplement the latest transcript, because they all suppose you got your fall grades by this time.

I think your profile is pretty strong, and some research experience, perhaps co-authoring with some famous professors in the field, will help you much. After all, the recommendation letter is somehow a subjective evaluation, but publication is an objective indicator of what you have contributed to the field. For courses, I think grad level of macroeconomics may be good as well. Not sure if you've done dynamic programming, but Bellman equation is so pervasive in both micro and macro... Best wishes!

Our econ professor uses MWG and Nicholson-Synder interchangeably, and both are good books. For Jehle-Reny, it's a bit easy if you intend to pursue an econ Ph.D., though A Course in Microeconomic Theory by Kreps would be interesting to begin with.

I have self-studied Efe A. Ok's book, but I understood a little on my own. It's a good book, though too technical for me as going for applied field. However, my school requires us to study Simon and Blume and also de la fuente, the former is easier while the latter requires a bit of hard work.

How about if I got admitted into an applied program with no one focusing on mechanism design? How to work out my thesis if I am truly interested in such respects?