libre147

My experience last year was similar to EustaciaVye. I was an international student in a master program in economics. The program allowed me to fill in the requirements for intermediate economics, statistics, and mathematics. I also worked as a TA for the department and therefore had more opportunity to get good LORs. In term of academic preparation, the experience does not give me a competitive edge, but it helped refresh on some economics concepts. I guess the situation would be different if you do your master's in a PhD granting department. I think the extent to which a master's degree improves your chance of success (in getting admission and doing well in the PhD) depends on how much value it can add to your profile. In my case the improvement was tremendous. And like EustaciaVye has said, you can enroll in an econ program and take additional math courses at the same time.

Power Prep 2 is my sole resource. It is free, from ETS, and contains a good amount of questions.

This may be a very trivial question, but I would like to hear your opinion on this. Do you think that poor performance in a math class (such as Differential Equations or Real Analysis) will matter beyond the time you have admission to a PhD program? For my case, I have been travelling a lot for school visit, and therefore my grade in Real Analysis suffer a little bit. I know that the future university may not look at the grades as I am already accepted to their program, but is there any chance that this last-minute poor performance hurts my chance to receive additional financial aid or placement prospect? My adviser told me that at this point, such bad grade may not matter much since my performance at PhD level will received more attention, including my research and job market paper.

Visitation days gave me the most reliable and determining information for my decision (of course after some filtering to see things more clearly). Posts on urch have been extremely informative and helpful. I owe a big thanks to everyone on this forum.

Finish my master by mid May, travelling to Chapel Hill, set up a new home (hopefully this can be long term), spend some time touching my graduation paper, research the faculty, brush up a little bit on Math and intermediate econ. (may not be as productive as it sounds). And finally, discover life where I will call home for the next five year!

I took the TOEFL test this January. There would be no hard copy unless you requested and paid for the report. Information on the hard copy is identical with what you see in your online report, just with your tiny picture on the top right corner.

Type of Undergrad: International, prestigious in country, unknown worldwide. Undergrad GPA: 7.92/10, WES evaluation: 3.52/4.00 Type of Grad: 30-ish regional, unknown Econ. ranking. Grad GPA: 4.00/4.00 GRE: V 156 Q 167 W 4 Math Courses: In home country: Advanced Analytics (B), Advanced Algebra ©, Theory of Probability and Statistics © , Theory of Economics Statistics (A). In US: Multivariable Calculus (A), Linear Algebra (A), Intro to Real Analysis (pending), Differential Equations (pending) Econ Courses (grad-level): All As: Econometrics, Applied Microeconomics Theory, Applied Macroeconomics Theory, Research Methods and Statistics (2 semesters), Time Series Forecasting, Health Economics, Capital Market. Econ Courses (undergrad-level): In home country (WES Grade): Inter Micro. (A), Inter Macro. (B), Adv. Micro. (A), Adv. Macro. (A), Environmental Econ. (B), Public Econ. (B), Development Econ. (B), Econometrics (A) Other Courses: none Letters of Recommendation: 3 to 4 LORs from Economics professors. Must be very strong since I had been working with them in many data assignments. Research Experience: 1 BA Thesis (A), 2 term papers relating to health economics, 1 academic presentation award. Forthcoming: a master's project in health economics, a chapter in an edited volume (co-author). Worked as a GA for Economics Department for 5 semesters, working as RA for CIS department for 1 semester. Teaching Experience: TA in an intermediate economics course.. Research Interests: health, behavioral, applied micro. SOP: personal and memorable. RESULTS: Acceptances: UNC Chapel Hill ($$ + fellowship), Notre Dame ($$), NC State ($$ + fellowship), Tennessee (n/a), CUNY (n/a). Waitlists: Johns Hopkins (later rejected). Rejections: Georgetown, Texas A&M. Pending: Georgia. Attending: UNC Chapel Hill. Comments: - I think I had a successful application cycle, judging on low performance and high yields. - I was torn between UNC Chapel Hill and Notre Dame. The information from visitation day helped me make the final decision. - All of the professors who wrote LORs for me knew me extremely well. We met almost on a daily basis for the last two years. What would you have done differently? Nothing. Johns Hopkins was my dream school, but I had done anything I could to show them my interest. My personal advice: I would not have had the courage to apply to places like UNC and JHU without constant encouragement from friends and the professors. Stick with your friends and your professors who encourage you.

Does anybody know the legitimate cut-off time of the April 15 resolution day? I wonder if there is any time restriction (such as before midnight or 4 p.m. on that day).

Econhead!

This may come across very naive. Would an email notification to the DGS enough for accepting/declining the offer, or should you also fill in the form on AY?

Institution: Johns Hopkins University Program: Economics PhD Decision: Waitlisted Funding: N/A Notification Date: 3/23/15 Notified Through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Very happy, hope that notification will be made soon.

I was one of the incoming students at the Visitation day. In my opinion, what applicant12 and rob59404 shared still holds true. I just add some observations here: - There were 10 incoming students at the event, 3 of whom were international students. - Funding: $19,000/9 months + 3-$4,000 during summer. As far as I remember, there is no teaching requirement for that summer stipend. - Course sequence: There will be 2 comprehensive exams after first year, for Micro and Macro. Attrition is not the department's goal, and it appears not to be ranking-based. No field exam after the second year, but students are required to present a second year paper. The department seems to involve students in research activities early (which I like!). MATHLAB seems to be used to be extensively. Stata will be used in the second econometrics course. - RA/TA duties: 1st year students attend classes, grade, and hold office hours. 2nd and 3rd year students work as RA, duties vary depending on the professor. 4th year students serve as a TA or teach their own courses. There will be teaching evaluations from the department. 5th year students do not have much duties so that they can focus on job market. Quantitative methods are integrated into the first year courses. - Since the department has been growing fast, professors' offices are separated into 3 different floors. Some students share offices. But this will be resolved after the completion of the new building in 2017. - I had the opportunity to talk with some professors in the micro-group. The professors seem to be very supportive of student research. It will be a great joy to study and work with them.

Institution: NC State Program: Economics PhD Decision: Funding Funding: Fellowship + TA Notification Date: 3/17/15 Notified Through: Email Posted on GC: No Comments: Very happy.

I am ;)

Institution: Georgetown Program: Economics PhD Decision: Rejected Notification date: 3/12 Notified through: Website Posted on GC: No Comments: My first rejection, but I feel relieved. Congratulations to those who are admitted!