marymerry

Are you Chinese? If you want to find a faculty/industry job in HK/mainland China, HKUST is a good choice. The school has a great reputation in the SE Asia area in general.

I think you should go to UBC if you want to do a PhD. It's likely to increase your chance of getting into a Canadian econ PhD program, and the MA is valued in the US as well.

Hi, I applied to UT and haven't heard from them. I'm an international student. May I ask if you are Canadian? Do you know if UT does interview for all prospective admits? Thanks!

A friend of a friend went there. It seems if you do well enough (pass the first year PhD courses, maybe) you can get admitted to the PhD program. I'm not sure how this works exactly. You should email them to figure out.

You might consider applying to Duke's masters program in stat and econ. It is a rigorous program and you can build up a better profile by taking PhD level courses. Duke also has a strong stat department, especially if you are interested in Bayesian statistics. In terms of math, I think you have taken more than enough to apply for econ PhD programs. You are correct that your background is plain. And frankly speaking, I don't think your rec letters will make you stand out in econ applications.

I've taken a class with Bellemare, and he is indeed a very good adviser, for masters and PhD students.

Yes this is true.