jfan411

For 2017 Fall Economics PhD application, some schools ask for a fall 2016 grade report (like Princeton) and some says submitting it is optimal. I wonder do people usually submit the fall grade report? Is it important or not? In what conditions should it be submitted? I guess that if you take substantially hard courses it would be a good idea to submit the grades. But will a bad grade for one or two courses (for example, a B among couple of A and A-) ruin the admit's impression on the applicants? Can anyone offer some views or advice? Thanks!

I have a pretty good GPA and nice transcript until this semester, probably because I did not take really hard courses before. This semester I took four fairly hard courses, as compared to my previous profile: two advanced econ courses in econometrics and microeconomics, an honors course in real analysis and a math graduate course in probability. I got four A-'s, some of them very close to A. Now I am worried whether this result would signal my inability to do hard courses and hurt PhD application. I aim at top programs. I guess A- does have an influence but do not know how it would be in such a condition.