Kogoroo

Wow, finding a supervisor and having a proposal in a year seems excruciatingly difficult, especially the former bit when you consider the language barrier (or is that a non-issue)? jrdonsimoni, is this common in the UK?

Also, are there any certifications or any form of correspondence courses they take seriously? I'm self-teaching myself a good amount of mathematics in any case, I was wondering if there are any formal qualifications I could get. Or are there none any institute would care about?

Seen this being discussed around here, pardon me if there is a thread that has already addressed this (do link me to it). As some of you may know, applicants outside the U.S.A. have close to no exposure to pure math (in most cases) because it's not a part of the way our courses are structured (we tend to me more specialized), which is why most "math" is incorporated into the subjects itself (maybe to a lesser degree in some cases). In any case, we usually compensate for this (/try to) by studying through a masters before applying for PhD programmes. Some universities (I think it was Cornell) blatantly say that subjects like "Mathematics for economics" are not substitutes for pure math but I'm wondering how these cases are evaluated by most institutes in the MRM (say top 50-60ish) range. How put off are they by no pure math? I'm guessing many people here find it appalling because no math for a U.S. student means he didn't elect for it (which might be a red light) but for an international, do they give you a pass since you have no choice (more or less)? how much of a pass is given? I know the answer can vary from case to case and university to university but just trying to get a general opinion.

Sorry for the slightly off topic post but, how much emphasis is placed on non-quant GRE scores? Do they still have criteria for deletion?

I'm an Indian aspirant here too (still pursuing a masters though), always curious to see how we end up getting placed. Btw, I think you might find this profile useful, I think the guy studied at D-school, seems like it. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/152633-profile-evaluation-2015-international-read-indian-student.html Also, any clue how competitive the Cambridge MPhil is? And, good luck! :)