philipcheesy

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Regional, mid-ranked liberal arts / year abroad at LSE Undergrad GPA: 3.9 Type of Grad: Analysis course at top 10 econ Grad GPA: B+ GRE: 170Q/170V/6.0AW Math Courses: (liberal arts, As) Calc II/III, Linear Algebra, Probability, Math Stats, Diff Eq, Topology, Analysis I, Big Data Analysis; (LSE, As) Game Theory, Discrete Math; (NYU Grad, B+) Analysis II Econ Courses: standard econ major route at undergrad, nothing very advanced; (LSE, A) Principles of Econometrics Other Courses: little bit of CS, little bit of economic history Letters of Recommendation: (1) undergrad senior thesis advisor, excellent; (2) main economist at Fed, very good; (3) function head economist at Fed, good (probably) Research Experience: 2 years as RA at Federal Reserve working in financial economics, following summer internship there; senior thesis (honors); student-led research group (sophomore summer); volunteer RA with development research startup (freshmen and sophomore summer) Teaching Experience: TA for probability, calc III, and real analysis Research Interests: Maybe financial economics, maybe experimental/behavioral, maybe education, maybe labor. Honestly, I'm very open to anything SOP: Standard, and maybe I should have spent more time on this. RESULTS: Acceptances: Minnesota, Wisconsin, UCSD, BU, Cornell (off waitlist), Wharton Applied Economics (off waitlist) Waitlists: Michigan, Penn Rejections: Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Chicago, Stanford, Booth, HBS, Sloan, Berkeley, Yale, NYU, Stern, Columbia, Columbia GSB, Northwestern, UCLA, Caltech, Brown, Duke Attending: Wharton Applied Economics Comments: It was a tough season emotionally (I'm coordinating with a partner headed to law school), but things turned out great. I'm thrilled to be headed to Wharton - I think that as a small, research focused program that invests in its students, it'll be a very good fit for me. What would you have done differently? I made some sloppy mistakes in my application that probably made me look unprofessional. These would have been the easiest to fix. Getting an A in Analysis would have been nice (obviously). General advice: apply for the NSF and apply to lots of programs. If you had told me one year ago that I would be attending Wharton Applied Economics, I would have said "what?" The expected value of an extra application is pretty high if you don't have a slam dunk application. Advice to applicants from lower ranked liberal arts schools: you are dealing with some disadvantages, but they are completely surmountable. Don't fall into complacency if things are easy for you in undergrad. Push yourself into places where you will be challenged and uncomfortable and definitely not the smartest person in the room. Admission committees will be hesitant to trust your letters and grades because they're unfamiliar with your program and, if you're honest with yourself, because you were not being challenged as much as students at more selective places. Use your program as a stepping stone to take more challenging courses and enter a rigorous RA program where you can prove yourself and become affiliated with a trusted name.

Ah, I see. Thank you!

I know that for many of us the application season won't be over until that April 15th deadline (or later), but I just wanted to know if there's going to be a profiles and results thread this year. I think there wasn't one in 2016 (or maybe it didn't get linked to the sticky post of old results). For me, these old results were very useful data points as I planned my courses and research to prepare for graduate school. I'd like to be able to contribute my experiences to future prospective economists.

Nope! Here's hoping I get the next one

In my opinion, that would be crazy. You have a long, and given your top 10 admit, likely successful career ahead of you. The sooner you get that PhD, the sooner you can start establishing yourself in the field. There's no reason to believe that a top program can't train any eager student into a solid theorist. In addition, who knows if theory / structural modeling will still be what you want to do in 3 - 5 years! Maybe you'd do the masters, get through your first two years, and realize you want to run RCTs and feel silly for wasting a year. Basically, high opportunity cost and uncertain, unlikely payoff. That having been said, if the offer you're thinking of deferring is Penn or Wharton Applied Econ, then by all means please do and free up a spot for me from the waitlist :)

Anyone have movement on any waitlists to report? I'm WL at Cornell, Penn, and Wharton Applied Econ, and would choose any of them over my current top choice (Minnesota, maybe Wisconsin). I know most of this action will probably start after visit days...

Has anyone heard anything about the Columbia GSB Business Economics program? That's the last of my applications I haven't heard from or seen anything about on GC.

In my opinion, you can't go wrong with 1) expressing how excited you are about the program and how happy you'd be to receive an offer to attend; 2) sending some sort of updated material e.g. an updated resume or grades (if good); 3) attending the open house as a way to signal your interest, hobnob with faculty, and learn more about the program so if you do end up being able to choose it at the last minute, you can make an informed decision. These things might work better at some places than others, but I feel like they can only help. As someone who's waitlisted at Penn, Wharton Applied Econ, and Cornell, I share your frustration!

Duke's apparent policy of releasing 1 - 2 acceptances is really starting to get on my nerves...I'd rather they just release a big wave so that I can see it's over.

Institution: Stanford GSB Program: PhD in Economics Decision: Rejected Notification date: 2/17/17 Notified via: email to check website

Institution: Wisconsin Madison Program: PhD Economics Decision: Accepted Funding: 1st year fellowship - $23K Notification date: 2/14/2017 Notified via: email

Institution: Minnesota, Twin Cities Program: PhD Economics Decision: Accepted Funding: 17.5K TA + 5K Stipend, Notification date: 2/7/2017 Notified via: email

Some acceptances for Minnesota econ went up today. Anyone here get any news? Do you think today is going to be their main round of acceptances?

The core math courses mentioned on most econ/policy program websites as the minimum are multivariable calculus, linear algebra, probability, and math stats. Make sure to take these in the math department as opposed to econ department equivalents. Good luck!

I work with a recently graduated Wharton PhD who told me that at his program, and finance programs in general, they don't necessarily interview everyone they extend offers to. He himself was never interviewed before being accepted. Plus, I'm sure that as with regular admissions, schools focus on a first tier of candidates and see how many seem like probable admits/attending before sending out more waves of interviews.

Another option is to get more experience so that you can have a better shot at a top 30. I think some graduate school courses, maybe in statistics or if you can find a real analysis course, would be especially helpful for your profile. That way you can really show your grades are improving and fill in quantitative gaps. Then again, if you have to spend two more years and possibly a significant amount of money to do this, it might be better to take what you have at your current school than spend so many resources just to move up one tier.

Very cool, thank you! I'm working on an econometrics senior thesis right now, so I'll give this a spin and let you know how it goes.

Thank you for the replies everyone. I am definitely hoping to strengthen my potential LORs before November. coffeehouse: My fear with such a strategy is that by applying to the fifteen top schools, I'll have a greater chance of being shut out then if I apply to 12 schools that are a mix of safeties/reaches. What if I've misjudged the strength of my application, and I really just don't have what it takes to make top 20? I guess I have some risk aversion; I'd rather take a 95% chance of going to a top 30 in 2015 than a 75% chance of going to a top 15 (especially if that 95% chance of top 30 means I still might go to a top 15). I suppose it depends on how much time these applications take. I would feel secure applying to the whole top 15 + 3 safety applications, but is 18 applications reasonable? From those who have gone through this process, what would you estimate as the number of hours per application? I'm guessing there's some economy of scale, once you've done 1 the rest go a bit quicker.

I'm currently finishing up my third year abroad, and I can't believe that applications are just around the corner. Any advice on what you think is realistic is appreciated! PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Small midwest liberal arts school ~top 60. One year abroad at top UK econ university Undergrad GPA: 4.0 (so far) GRE: NA, I should be able to study and get a good score on this Math Courses: Calculus II & III (A), Linear Algebra (A), Probability (A), Mathematical Statistics (A), Differential Equations (A), Topology (A), Real Analysis I (A), Game Theory (abroad, IP), Discrete Math (abroad, IP) Econ Courses (grad-level): NA Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Principles of Econ (A), Intermediate Micro (A), Intermediate Macro (A), Money and Banking (A), Industrial Organization and Public Policy (A), Topics in Fiscal & Monetary Policy (A), Econometrics (abroad, IP) Other Courses: Letters of Recommendation: I think I'll likely ask my senior thesis advisor, which should be very positive although he is not well known. I will likely also ask my current econometrics prof, who has a top 5 PhD and should be positive if the course goes well, although she doesn't know me as well as my advisor. I'm still thinking about my third letter Research Experience:Two summers as a research assistant for a small non-profit focusing on development, one summer doing interdisciplinary student research. I will be doing a lot of work on my senior thesis over the summer/fall that will involve econometrics. Teaching Experience: NA Research Interests: Development, Econometrics, macroeconomics, I'm not too committed to any one field yet though SOP: NA Concerns: My undergrad institution isn't well known and I don't have a well known letter writer who is firmly in my corner Other: Over the summer, I'm hoping to intern at the Federal Reserve and pick up a third letter well known letter writer who can speak to my research skills. I'm also going to apply for the NSF grant. Applying to: My thoughts so far are: Stretch: Harvard, University of Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley, Northwestern Possible: University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, UCSD, University of Wisconsin, UCLA Fit: University of Maryland, Boston University, Ohio State University Safety: Michigan State University, Indiana University Do you think these 15 seem reasonable? Am I being crazy even thinking that I'll have time/energy to apply to 15 schools? Any schools that you think I'm missing/shouldn't be applying for? I will admit that I have a bias towards remaining in the midwest. I'm especially curious about what you all think good safeties would be. Thank you for the advice!

I agree with nontrad dreams. Even students who are quite good at math will likely end with one or two B/B+/A-'s simply because you have to take a lot of math courses before applying.

I'm a sophomore at a small, top 70ish small liberal arts school with an okay economics department. I'm extremely interested in pursuing economics graduate school, and have been following this forum for a little while now. I'd really like to get into a top 20 program (wouldn't we all?), and so far I've been able to take oodles of math courses while maintaining a 4.0 (I'm taking real analysis this semester). My only problem is research. The professors at my school's economics department seem to like me, but when I ask about opportunities to serve as a research assistant, it seems like nothing exists. The department is in a bit of disarray and they all seem too busy teaching to do much serious research. So, for someone like me who wants to get research experience and LORs that will make me competitive at top programs, what's the best path? I found an opportunity over the past summer to work long distance as an RA for a young World Bank economist on an interesting project, and I could continue down that path. But, is that the kind of research experience top programs are looking for? Plus, is it even worth getting a LOR from someone who's not a professor and has never taught you in a class? Would it be worth it for me to look into the math department to do research there and get a LOR, or would that be bad because it wouldn't be from an economist? As a side note, I'm going to LSE's General Course next year, so I have a very long summer this year but almost no time next summer to do something formative. Also, does anyone know if there are RA opportunities for undergraduates (and more specifically GC students) at LSE? Thanks for your advice!