Undergrad Institution: Uni in the NL
Major: Economics & Business Econ
GPA: 4.0 (international degree, US style GPA reported on transcript)
Masters Institution: Applying atm to top 10 European masters in Econ.
Honours & Awards: Two honours programmes at my uni, also on transcript, giving an additional 45 ECTS (60 ECTS is 1y of study load)
Undergraduate Courses: standard stuff inc. few business econ courses (mandatory). Degrees here have little formal math courses, I have one intro math course, and am now taking 'advanced mathematics'.
GRE: studying atm, will be retaking until I get 162+, 169+, 4.5+ (not native speaker).
Research Experience:
Did a RA'ship for a professor in my 2nd year.
Letters of Recommendation:
Two good ones, from Profs that know me very well.
Would need to get others at master ofc.
Applying to: Top 10 US schools
Top 5 would be my ambition.
Research Interests: Macroeconomics (microfoundations), monetary economics, and ~fundamental theory (my second love is philosophy).
Did a LSE summerschool in Money&Banking last summer. Currently writing thesis on forward guidance.
I have several questions:
- What would be the best master in Europe in terms of US PhD exit options? I am applying to both 1y and 2y programmes. Some are 1y Msc's others are 2y Mres/Mphil. As I've heard so far, I would have the best chances from a good UK program. (2y Oxford Mphil, 2y Warwick Mres, 1y LSE, 1y UCL). I would much appreciate any thoughts on what would be the best choice. In case of 1y masters, I would probably do a full time RA'ship after? Which brings me to the next question.
- Do I have any chance if I apply coming round? The problem is that I'd apply 3 months in my master, so not much to go on except for maybe reputation of master school. I imagine it will be hard to get good RL's in such a short time. I would prefer next round. Partially because if I'd do a 2y master here, and then go to US PhD, the first 2 years would be lot of repetition (if e.g. one comes from Oxford Mphil).
- What would be the best way to boost my profile in the coming 1 or 2 years? I was thinking of:
Rank in the top of my masters ofc.
Real analysis course at LSE, which is a summer school, to get an A or A+, just to signal proficiency in math? (I would probably study it before actually attending, to make sure I get a good grade)
Try to find some summer research job. I've been trying to find information on something in the US, but its hard to find, and most stuff seems only open to US residents. Looked at Feds and summer RA'ships at top uni's, Any advice here? Really looking for something like this for this summer
Write a kickass thesis (on forward guidance), hopefully to signal consistency in interests. Several courses on monetary econ, the summerschool last year, and then the thesis (possibly monetary econ as field course in master). Possibly a thesis prize.
If possible, probably only in 2y master, doing more RA'ships
- Would it make sense to use 1 LoR from bachelor and 2 from master when applying for PhD, or all 3 from master?
- What specific points make a LoR strong?
In general, I find it hard to evaluate options as most information I can find is US-system based.
Any advice on how to boots my profile would be much appreciated!