ecomath

Hey, that post was me. A couple of my friends have also received admissions so I'm not sure if there's a second round.

With a rejection from Berkeley that ends my application season. Looks like I'll be starting my PhD in Biostatistics in the Fall. Goodbye Economics. :sorrow:

Also keep in mind that my range of programmes was very limited. I applied to 7 of the very top ones and then Toronto. Nothing in between. I may have had a better outcome if I'd spread my applications more evenly, but my location preferences are strong and I'd only move to the US if I had a very good offer. My application strategy was probably a bit atypical in that sense.

I don't think it's the letters -- I was told in no uncertain terms that they were very strong. I didn't retake the GRE (Q 165 for the person above). It's possible I was below cutoffs -- I hated writing that thing so much I was hoping I'd just scrape by with what I got.

The publication is co-authoured and I suspect it got discounted heavily for that reason. It sends a signal that I'm a good RA but it also says I worked for generous profs who were willing to put my name on the paper. People just as good as me may not be that fortunate. Other than that, I have good grades from a good university, but so do many other people. It's tough to dissect what exactly locked me out, but I'm glad I tried. At least I won't be wondering what would've happened. I actually had much more luck with my statistics / biostatistics applications and I'll probably accept one of them.

That's nice of you to say, but my profile wasn't air tight by any means. I'm not that surprised that I've been locked out of the top 10. And given that I only applied to the top 10 + Toronto, it's not too unexpected that I'd get a lot of rejections. I did get into Toronto at least. :encouragement:

Same here, but I've been rejected everywhere else so I am remaining resolutely pessimistic. :sorrow:

Institution: University of Toronto Program: PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: 36K Notification date: 23/02/17 Notified via phone, snail mail, or email: Email Comments: Only Canadian place I applied to.

Congrats to those admitted! Radio silence on my end so I'm going to take that as bad news. Although I checked the admissions site and apparently they are missing my GRE score report. I have a receipt of sending it to them with the correct codes so I don't know what's up with that. Sent out an email to double-check.

Not really sure. Mid-level jobs in government or finance would be my guess. Since the doctoral stream decidedly doesn't offer more industry-related training, I doubt our industry placement record is much better or worse than the regular stream.

Just in case anyone thinks it changes my chances in any significant way, as a quick update I got A+ in masters Math Stats I, A+ in masters Micro and A in PhD Econometrics I. I'm planning to send my updated transcript to all universities that are interested.

I did a BSc in Math and Econ at U of T, so I took math up to real analysis, and also took a few third and fourth year electives. You can find my full profile posted on this website. I didn't ask around too much, but I think my math background is slightly above average for the DSMA -- not that many people have taken real analysis. I think your math background is sufficient, and that's probably enough, since the admissions committee is simply asking itself whether you are capable of surviving a core PhD sequence.

Looking at your profile, I don't think your chances are very high for the doctoral stream. You may have a shot for the regular stream, but the quotas are indeed very strict.

I'm at U of T right now. I've found the course load to be heavy, but that's mostly because I enrolled in a pretty intense set of courses, and I also had a paper I'm co-authoring that needed to be conference-ready by mid-October, and I also had all of my TA hours this semester. It's not been fun at all, but I think my experience is atypical. The PhD sequence I'm taking (Econometrics) is a very big jump from undergrad, but it's certainly doable. I think the two most helpful things for PhD Econometrics are a really firm grasp of linear algebra and a familiarity with proofing techniques. Sometimes we will invoke real-analysis-style proofs, such as when we're proving the extremum estimator is consistent, so a bit of point-set topology wouldn't go awry. I'm not sure how many people move on to U of T's PhD from the DSMA. I think there's a few each year. Some people enter the DSMA with the explicit intention of starting U of T's PhD the following year (these people often just take the 3 first year PhD courses). Others, like me, intend to go somewhere else. And others want to go work in industry afterward.

It's a heavy workload but it's manageable. If Brenner is teaching Mathematical Statistics your year, then be ready for a wild ride of analytic geometry and measure theory way beyond the stated prerequisites. He's an amazing guy and I've learned a lot from him, but he barely covers any of the material in the syllabus and his problem sets are something else. If I could do it over, I would take his course again (it did end up being my highest grade after all), but I'd want to have a measure-theoretic probability course behind me first. If the course is taught the way it's meant to be taught, then it's possible that there will be a lot of overlap with PhD Econometrics. That's not been my experience, though.

Queen's doctoral stream is called Program Pattern III on their website. According to my offer letter, "pre-approval to Program Pattern III is offered only to our most qualified applicants", so it's by invitation. By the wording it seems as though you can select Program Pattern III even if you didn't get pre-approval, but I'm not sure how that works. I ended up choosing U of T's doctoral stream. Looking at my cohort, I think the main differences between the doctoral and regular stream students is that the doctoral stream students tend to have better maths preparation and many have research experience (which probably indicates better letters). The gap between the two streams isn't insurmountable, but I think the doctoral stream students tend to demonstrate interest / potential in a research career.

LOR's matter relatively more for the U of T Doctoral Stream because it's partially a funnel into U of T's PhD programme. Same goes for Queen's, which (as I learned last year) also has a Doctoral Stream, but it's by invitation not by application.

Speaking as someone who is also applying with a co-authored paper, I think it all depends on what your letter writers say about your contribution. Personally, I corrected some small (and one major) mistakes in the existing code and I have made one or two minor methodological contributions. Most of my contribution has come from doing the grunt work very well, which is a characteristic that many other applicants will have as RA's. The difference between an applicant with a co-authorship and an applicant without one could be as little as the generosity of the people they RA'd for, so it all depends on how much you contributed, which is going to be communicated through your letters.

Sure, I cleared it.

I'm in the same position, with a co-authored paper heading for a top field journal. I don't think the co-authorship itself is helpful for admissions, but the fact that you contributed enough to a paper to be included as an author should indicate that your letters will be very, very strong.

I was admitted to LSE's EME last year, and I applied around the middle of January, so it's not too late. I can't say whether applying that late significantly lowered my probability of being admitted, though. The only problem I found is that, since I was admitted so late (end of March), I had to make a decision on my other admissions before I heard from LSE.

Thanks for the advice! The paper is forthcoming, I believe. The follow-up paper is in early stages, but my co-authors seem enthusiastic about it (which might be discussed in my letters). I think my MA grades will be okay. I've had to commit a lot of my time to working on the paper (which is fine, because I enjoy it a lot), so they won't be amazing. I wasn't planning to send my first semester grades unless I was explicitly asked to.

Quick bump.

Hi everyone. I'm applying to PhD's this round, and I have a couple of lingering concerns about my profile. I am applying to the top 10, along with a couple of top Canadian and British universities. Undergrad Institution: University of Toronto Major: Mathematics and Economics GPA: 3.7 Masters Institution: University of Toronto Major: Economics GPA: In progress Honours & Awards: Graduate fellowship, 2 undergraduate research awards (for full-time summer research), several academic awards for grades in economics and mathematics courses Type of student: British citizen, Canadian permanent resident GRE: Q 165, V 161, AW 5.0 Courses: Undergraduate: Calculus I (A), Calculus II (A-), Calculus III (A), Linear Algebra I (A), Linear Algebra II (B-), ODEs (A), Abstract Mathematics (A-), Real Analysis w/ Rudin (A+), Graph Theory and Combinatorics (A+), Chaos, Fractals and Dynamical Systems (A+), Linear Optimisation (A+), Nonlinear Optimisation (B+), Econometrics I (A), Econometrics II (A), Microeconomics (A-), Macroeconomics (A-), seminar courses ranging from B+ to A. Graduate (all ongoing): PhD Econometrics I & II, Mathematical Statistics I & II, MA Micro, MA Macro Research Experience: - Full-time summer research in theoretical political economy with an economics professor. Summarised and re-derived existing models, and developed a couple of (simple) ones to supplement an applied paper. - I did part-time research with 3 economics professors, which turned into full-time research over the summer, which turned into a co-authorship on a paper which will be published in a top field journal. I will potentially be co-authoring on a follow-up paper, which is in early stages. I would say the research is quite technical; it involves calibrating a model and generating counterfactual predictions from it. - I wrote a major research paper and did very well on it (A+). I was told informally it was one of the best papers the professor had seen. I am using it as my writing sample. Teaching Experience: TA for core undergraduate econometrics course. Letters of Recommendation: - One from the professor I did research for in political economy. - One from one of the professors I am co-authoring with (the one based at my university). - A joint letter from the other two professors I am co-authoring with. I think all of them will be very, very strong. I think my letters are the strongest part of my application. SOP: Standard, maybe even below average. I'm not good at that sort of writing. Comments: I have an uninspiring GRE score and a couple of duff maths and economics grades, which makes me concerned about the top 10. On the other hand, I am on track to publish in some very good journals, which isn't something I see from other applicants. I'm not sure how this all balances out.

As a Canadian citizen, I think you have a good shot for all of the Canadian MA's with funding. They're really not that competitive if you're a citizen or permanent resident (I'm in Toronto's Doctoral MA, so I speak from experience).