mastaloo

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Honors Econ/Math combo major at large research university - ranked top 80 US Undergrad GPA: 3.95 Type of Grad: N/A Grad GPA: N/A GRE: Q167/V163/AW 5.0 Math Courses: Calc I/II/III (A/A/A), Linear Algebra (A), ODE (A), Intro Real Analysis (A), Discrete (A-), Probability Theory (A), Statistics (calc-based) (A), Optimization (A), Numerical Analysis (A) Econ Courses: Introductory Micro/Macro (A/A), Intermediate Macro (A), Intermediate Micro (A), 2 semesters of econometrics (A), Information and Uncertainty (A), Mathematical Econ (A), Banking and Monetary Policy (A) Other Courses: Computer science minor (basic programming, algorithms, intro software engineering), Spanish minor Letters of Recommendation: One from my thesis adviser (Wisconsin PhD), as well as one from my metrics and banking professor (Princeton PhD). Third from my undergraduate adviser. All three are likely to be very good. Research Experience: I was a research assistant for one semester and this summer with my professor listed above, studying the effect of options on baseball contract salary structure. I'm currently using this research for my senior thesis. Teaching Experience: TA for intro microeconomics course. I will be a TA next semester for a labor course. Research Interests: applied micro, specifically development, education, and labor. I'm particularly interested in Latin American development and government policy. SOP: fairly generic but solidly written Applying to: MIT, Yale, Penn, Michigan, Brown, Cornell, Duke, Maryland, Boston U, UT-Austin, UVA, Georgetown RESULTS: Acceptances: Virginia ($$), UT-Austin ($$) Waitlists: Maryland (I suppose I didn't make it off....) Rejections: MIT, Yale, Penn, Michigan, Duke, Boston U, Brown, Cornell, Georgetown Pending: none Attending: Virginia Comments: My results are extremely consistent. I got into schools which I expected to get into and got rejected by schools which I didn't expect to get into. I thought I stood a decent chance to get into Maryland, but that's alright. My strategy of applying to only a couple of realistic choices and reaching for the rest paid off. I'm very happy going to UVA, Charlottesville seems like a great place to live and the department seems like it's on the rise. What would you have done differently? I have no regrets in terms of my application strategy. The only thing I regret is not deciding to pursue the PhD path sooner. I hadn't decided that I wanted to do economic research until last summer. Had I been set on pursuing a PhD earlier in my undergraduate career, I would have taken more math courses and focused on research internships rather than private sector internships. Overall, I'm happy with how this process turned out, thoroughly enjoyed my past four years, and am looking forward to the next five.

Institution: Brown Program: PhD Economics Decision: Waitlisted - MA Funding: N/A Notification date: 3/14/2014 Notified through: Email Posted on GC? No Comments: Offered waitlist for MA, with entry into PhD program after year 1. Probably not worth it though. Institution: Duke Program: PhD Economics Decision: Rejected Funding: N/A Notification date: 3/14/2014 Notified through: Email Posted on GC? No Comments: Oh well

To nontrad dreams, I was emailed this rough itinerary: 10-10:45 Welcome, overview of program 10:45-11:15 Brief overview of fields 11:15-12 Q&A with current grad students 12-1:30 lunch with current grad students 1:30-2 small group meetings with individual faculty members 2-2:30 small group meetings with individual faculty members 2:30-3 small group meetings with individual faculty members 3-3:30 wrap up Happy Hour To TomRod, I'll PM you about meeting up.

Is anyone here planning on going to UT's open house? I booked my flight for the 20th, so if anyone else is in town then, it would be cool to meet up.

Institution: University of Maryland Program: Economics PhD Decision: Waitlisted Funding: N/A Notification Date: 3/5/14 Notified through: Email Posted on GC: Soon Comments: ​I'll take it for now

Institution: MIT Program: Economics PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: n/a Notification date: 02/25/14 Notified through: E-mail Posted on GC: No Comments: Another expected result

Institution: Yale Program: Economics PhD Decision: Rejected Funding: n/a Notification date: 02/21/14 Notified through: email Posted on GC: not yet Comments: long shot, oh well.

I technically got an email late last night, but I didn't see it until today.

Institution: University of Virginia Program: Econ PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: Full funding Notification date: 2/15/14 Notified through: email Posted on GC: Not yet Comments: Great feeling to get that first acceptance!

Type of Undergrad: Honors Econ/Math combo major at large research university - ranked top 80 US Undergrad GPA: 3.95 Type of Grad: N/A Grad GPA: N/A GRE: Q167/V163/AW 5.0 Math Courses: Calc I/II/III (A/A/A), Linear Algebra (A), ODE (A), Intro Real Analysis (A), Discrete (A-), Probability Theory (A), Statistics (calc-based) (A), Optimization (A), Numerical Analysis (A) Econ Courses: Introductory Micro/Macro (A/A), Intermediate Macro (A), Intermediate Micro (A), 2 semesters of econometrics (A), Information and Uncertainty (A), Mathematical Econ (A), Banking and Monetary Policy (A) Other Courses: Computer science minor (basic programming, algorithms, intro software engineering), Spanish minor Letters of Recommendation: One from my thesis adviser (Wisconsin PhD), as well as one from my metrics and banking professor (Princeton PhD). Third from my undergraduate adviser. All three are likely to be very good. Research Experience: I was a research assistant for one semester and this summer with my professor listed above, studying the effect of options on baseball contract salary structure. I'm currently using this research for my senior thesis. Teaching Experience: TA for intro microeconomics course. I will be a TA next semester for a labor course. Research Interests: applied micro, specifically development, education, and labor. I'm particularly interested in Latin American development and government policy. SOP: fairly generic but solidly written Applying to: MIT, Yale, Penn, Michigan, Brown, Cornell, Duke, Maryland, Boston U, UT-Austin, UVA, Georgetown

Hi everyone. I've been lurking on these forums recently, and I was hoping to get some feedback on my profile for the coming year's application process. So here goes nothing: Type of Undergrad: Econ/Math combo major at large research university - ranked top 100 US Undergrad GPA: 3.96 Type of Grad: N/A Grad GPA: N/A GRE: Registered to take it next month. I usually get 1 incorrect answer on each quantitative practice test (hopefully I eradicate that by August). Math Courses: Calc I/II/III (A/A/A), Linear Algebra (A), ODE (A), Intro Real Analysis (A), Discrete (A-), Probability Theory (A), Statistics (calc-based) (A), Optimization (A). I'm taking numerical analysis next semester as well. Econ Courses: Introductory Micro/Macro (A/A), Intermediate Macro (A), Intermediate Micro (A), 2 semesters of econometrics (A), Information and Uncertainty (A). I'm taking mathematical econ and banking/monetary policy next semester. Other Courses: Computer science minor (basic programming, algorithms, intro software engineering) Letters of Recommendation: I plan on getting one from my research adviser (Wisconsin PhD), as well as one from my metrics and banking professor (Princeton PhD). Third TBD (but from econ dept.). Research Experience: I was a research assistant for one semester and this summer with my professor listed above, studying the effect of options on baseball contract salary structure. I plan to use this research for a senior thesis, and my adviser said that we might publish. Teaching Experience: n/a Research Interests: applied micro, but no specific field as of yet. Possibly demographics, labor, or education. SOP: not written yet My main question is which range of schools I should target? I was thinking 20-30 based on what I see on these forums, but reaching up to some top 20 schools. Additionally, which non top-10 schools are best for applied micro? I'm mostly concerned with the fact that I don't attend a top ranked university for undergraduate. Will that keep me out of the top 20? I'm also concerned with my level of math and lack of graduate level econ. I feel like I should take one more analysis class, but I won't be able to until Spring semester. Will schools look favorably on that even if it's after the application process? Same goes for taking a grad level econ course. Thanks for the input, I enjoy reading these forums regularly!