sevet

Are those all the topics covered in that one class?

At least for domestic students, almost everybody is funded at UBC IIRC. And it's interesting seeing the course descriptions for the "Advanced"/PhD track courses in that link, obviously there's probably a difference in how rigorously each topic is taught but the topics in the advanced courses line up almost exactly with the MA micro/metrics courses at UBC.

I'd be willing to bet that OP is

Out of those schools, I'd be willing to bet UBC takes more international students than the other 4 combined in a given year.

I know of one PhD student here that came straight from a UBC BA. I thought that was a little odd, but apparently UBC allows their own BAs to skip the MA and go directly into the PhD program.

I'm personally finding it pretty damn difficult and I'd reckon I have at least as much math training as the average domestic student in my class if not more. But pretty much anyone outside of the top few (Ie. Either very very good intuition and technical skills or simply a math undergrad) in the class is finding the material pretty difficult. Everyone I've talked to who have done the MA and gone onto the PhD program here agreed the jump from undergrad to MA is much worse than the jump from MA to PhD. That makes me wonder just how good the people jumping straight from undergrad to a PhD must be.

Theoretically, you could do the year of school and try to pick up a RA position for the gap year if you don't apply for a PhD program straight away.

What were your grades like in your math/econ courses? All I know about european programs is that they're gonna cost you a good chunk of money. As for Canadian programs, I wouldn't bother applying to Queen's or UWO as an international student, the competition is just too intense and unfortunately I don't think your application is gonna put you at the very top of that list. I'm not sure about McGill, but I think Toronto is also pretty picky about taking international students. They should be better than UWO/Queens though. UBC takes by far the most international students out of the Canadian MA programs, probably more than all the Canadian schools you named take combined.

Not sure why this thread got so derailed but to go back to the OP's situation, I'd say if you don't have a burning desire to do a PhD, try your hand at a MA first. It's been quite an eye opener for me so far in terms of difficulty and really reevaluating a lot of things including my interest in certain topics and economics in general. If you have a stellar UG background, doing a good MA program will either only give you better information on what you want to do or help you realize you don't want to spend another 4-6 years of your life in school.

I took a numerical analysis course, which focused on applications on economics problems. Was very interesting and taught me a lot of coding, but I don't think I'd say it's particularly useful in general.

That's either the most intense course I've ever seen or I'm missing something. I took a course dedicated to just linear programming (ended up being a waste of time) during undergrad, not sure how one single course could cover all of those topics in less than 4 months .

The VSE's course offerings are available online on their website. And from what I've read here, unless your performance in a MA program is stellar, it does nothing but perhaps make you a safer bet than another undergrad applicant (which may be a good thing or a bad thing).

Last year's MA-to-PhD placements were disappointing for UBC imo. Out of 6 applicants, 4 remained at UBC (2 also had Toronto offers) and 1 went elsewhere.

Again just providing anecdotal evidence for UBC here but last year's PhD cohort has 2 UBC MA grads out of 10 shown online, and I believe the incoming PhD class has 4 UBC MA grads out of 10.

I can't say for other places but UBC does have rare direct entry acceptances. Looking at the past cohorts, for the last 4 years they have at least one student still listed on the page (ie. passed comps and stuck around) who only has a bachelors.