olemacoluap

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: economics - Latin American university (among top 10 econ/business latin american deparments) Undergrad GPA: I am not sure about conversion; 9.4/10; highest grades of my year Type of Grad: master of accounting (the first two years of an accounting PhD) Grad GPA: 8.7/10; third highest grade of my year TOEFL: 102 GRE: next month Math/Stat Courses: (only As) Undergraduate level: calculus I, II, and III, linear algebra, statistics I and II Graduate level: introduction to real analysis and dynamical systems I and II Econ/Finance Courses: (only As, except asset pricing I and corporate finance I, which I got Cs and international economics, which I got B) Undergraduate level: micro I, II and III, macro I and II, game theory, public econ, monetary econ, econ growth and development, international econ, econometrics I, II, and III, finance I, II, III and IV Graduate level: micro I and II, econometrics I and II, asset pricing I, corporate finance I, macro I, econ growth and development Accounting Courses: (some As, some Bs) Undergraduate level: accounting theory, financial accounting, cost accounting, analysis of financial accounting Graduate level: asset pricing with accounting variables and seminars Letters of Recommendation: They are PhDs from top 10 departments of economics and have relevant international publications; one of them has tenure in a top 50 econ department 1. Econ PhD; econ department director; I had 4 subjects with him and I was teaching assistant; he is supporting me a lot. I expect to get an excellent LoR from him 2. Visiting scholar; I just had one graduate level subject with him, but I had an excellent performance and when he asked me if I had intention to study in USA, he told me that he would write a LoR for me (this one has tenure in USA). I expect a very good LoR from him 3. Professor of micro (graduate level); again, just one subject, but I performed pretty well and he told me that he would write a letter for me (but differently of the american professor, I had to ask him for the letter and he did not demonstrate the same enthusiasm). I still expect a good LoR since he told me he would write, I performed very well in his classes, and I have a good relationship with him, but I do not expect something more than good. (Maybe other options I have would be better: 1 PhD from a top american stat deparment, 1 PhD from top 10 econ department or 2 PhDs from top latin american econ departments; they know me very well, I am very very close to them, but they do not have the same amount of international publications like the ones cited above, although they still have good publications) Research Experience: two years supporting my econ professors' researches; undergraduate thesis; master thesis Teaching Experience: only undergraduate level: micro III, calculus I, statistics I, and econometrics I Concerns: 1. Low TOEFL grade (I think I will retake it) 2. GRE verbal section. I expect perfect score for GRE quant section, but low score for verbal section 3. Few math classes in comparison to competitive profiles that already appeared in this forum 4. Prestige. My department is young. It is still getting prestige. It is already well known in Latin America, but not in USA/Europe 5. Age. I am still 21. I will finish my undergrad and grad programs at the same time. I do not know if american/european professors will see it with good eyes. It may sound like a good productivity sign, as well as it may sign like I studied too many things at the same time and, consequently, did not absorb everything that I could absorb from both programs (although my grades were pretty good in both programs). And maybe it is something normal in USA and I do not need to worry about; it may be just a storm in a teacup 6. Accounting program. Although the courses I took in this accounting program are very similar to the available ones in econ programs - I used Mas-Colell for micro, Greene and Hamilton for econometrics, Cochrane for asset pricing, Tirole for corporate finance, and Bartle for analysis (ok, this last one may be soft for econ programs) - the name of the program is still accounting. I do not know how american/european econ professors face it 7. First application. Because my university is still young, I will be the first student to apply for a PhD program after making a master program. Some students already studied in top USA departments, but they were just visiting students 8. Gap. There is a 6 months gap between the time i conclude my undergrad/grad programs (december) and the time the PhDs I am applying for starts (after july), then I can take some math or stat classes (master level) and improve my math/stats skills I would like to know what are my chances of going to top 20 USA econ PhD programs or top 10 european econ PhD programs. I know the answer may be that I have very very low chances (or even no chances), then I also would like to know which american and european departments are more appropriate for my profile. And I would like to know if a master program in economics would be a good idea for me (and which programs are more appropriate for me). I am also considering Accounting PhD programs that are econ-oriented, then I would like to know what do you think about my chances. Thank you very much!