chtliu

Type of Undergrad: Top 40 liberal arts college in the U.S. Double Major in Math & Econ Undergrad GPA: 3.98 Type of Grad:N/A Grad GPA:N/A GRE: 170 Q 163 V 5 AW Math Courses: Cal 1-3 (A), Discrete Math (A), Linear Algebra(A) Differential Equation (A) Probability and Stats(A) Abstract Algebra (A) Stochastic Process (A) Real Analysis (A) Complex Analysis (A) Econ Courses (grad-level): N/A Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intro & Intermediate Micro/Macro (A); Econometrics (A) International Economics (A), Development Economics (A) Other Courses: Courses taken at LSE (junior year study-abroad): principle of finance (A+), corporate finance (A+); quantitative finance (A+); Stochastic process in finance(A+) Letters of Recommendation: 1. Associate Econ prof was at my liberal arts college, now at Emory Econ Department. Top 3 UK PhD. Was Summer RA to him and his letter should be very strong. 2. Econ Prof. at my liberal arts college. PhD from Top 10 US program. letter should be between good and very good. He was my advisor for a field-study project. 3. Econ Prof. Research supervisor Research Experience: 2 summer RA; 2 working paper( applied econometrics study); one on development economics, the other one on commodity pricing (GARCH model); Teaching Experience: Math Tutor for 1 year, Econ Tutor 1 year Research Interests: Development Economics, Applied Macro, financial economics SOP: fine. Concerns: undergrad school ranking ( also Econ-department pretty weak); good letters but recommenders not known in the field. RESULTS: Acceptances: UIUC, Pittsburgh, UVA, Vandy, LSE (MSc.Econ), Maryland, UCSD; all with full funding except for LSE. Waitlists: Rejections: HBS, NW, Yale, Minnesota, Michigan, LBS,Wharton, Wisconsin, Duke, Cornell, Rice, BU, Penn State, Iowa State Pending: Attending: UCSD!!! Comments: 1. applying right after undergrad is hard, unless your school is good at econ 2. masters and RA experience do matter a lot 3. careful with picking safety schools, small safety schools will care more about "matchness". For example, I got rejected by Rice probably because I have no interest in micro... 4. the application doesn't take a lot of time once your SOP is done. Marginal cost of applying to one more school is basically 2-3 hours. Hence, apply to as many schools as possible. 5. Lucky for me to get UCSD and Maryland What would you have done differently? 1. Apply to Columbia, NYU, UCLA, CMU. Basically all the schools in 10-20 range. You never know what is gonna happen. 2. Be more relaxed writing SOP, it won't matter that much in the end. Enjoy your life when applying and waiting as well. 3. Talk to more people and ask for their advice.

I am not sure about that. I think there is most likely a work requirement after year 1

Congrats! you also got into Vandy?

2 hours after I complained about not hearing back from schools, Vanderbilt kindly offered me a 21k fellowship. So unexpected and this feels so good.

thanks, let's hope for the best. Fingers crossed.

seems that Penn State and Vanderbilt are out. well, i have not heard from either of them....this sucks

same situation here. have not heard back from Wharton AE. hopefully 2) accepted without interview lol

many thanks for your guys' insightful comments. I really appreciate it. I will do my best preparing for the questions they might ask in the interview. Thanks again.

I just got an email from UVA and they would like to skype interview me for 20 mins. I was surprised to know that an Economics PhD program would actually interview candidates. I would like to gain some advice from you guys if you have had this kind of interviews before. 1. Is the interview gonna be technical(meaning asking u lots of theoretical stuff) or chill(meaning asking about the research experience and why this program, this school kind of questions)? 2. How do you prepare for it? Just going through the application package again and check out their program website? 3. How likely it is to get into the program if they choose to interview u? Any other insights are also welcome. Many thanks.

I applied to 21 schools ( 19 in the states, 2 in the UK (LSE,LBS)). Have not heard from any school yet. Anxiously waiting for the results from places like Minnesota which I believe will come out in the beginning of Feb at least according to last year's posts on Gradcafe.

obviously, your courses will be good enough for any phd program. better if you can take some additional graduate level courses but i would say the more important thing for you is to figure out what you really want to do after graduation: work or graduate school. Hard to have both. Better make an early choice so that you have more time to prepare for it

I have similar background and I am also from a liberal arts college that nobody really knows about. I am targeting at 10-25, with a few back up options(top 50). Here is my profile if you want to have a look: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/152841-profile-evaluation-2015-phd-economics-thx.html

thanks a lot for your post. One year at LSE has been great and there are many big shots there. Sadly, I was not sure if I would do a PhD in Econ when I was there. Biggest mistake is that I did not take any 300 level Econ/ Math course there and did not secure any letter from Econ department. Based on your experience, you think LSE profs are willing to give letters to students who are good in the class and exam but not much personal contact after class? What have you done to increase your chance of getting a strong letter after you come back to the states? Thanks again.

thanks a lot. I might take 1-2 top 10 schools. I guess in the coming months I will be concentrating on obtaining good letters. Any advice on getting strong letters?

thanks a lot. I think I will focus on top 10-25 schools. Top 10 is a bit of a stretch, seems to me.