Hosea

Using the profile format I've seen in this site: PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 20 by USNEWS, BS with Honor in Econ, BS in Maths Undergrad GPA: 3.95/4.0 Type of Grad: - Grad GPA: - GRE: 161V, 170Q, 4.5W Math Courses: Cal I (A+), Cal II (A+), Cal III (A+), Honors Differential Equation (A), Linear Algebra (A-), Real Analysis (A-), Numerical Method (A), Modern Algebra (A), Probability (A), Theoretical Stats (A), Maths of Finance (A) Econ Courses: Inter Micro (A), Inter Macro (A), Game Theory (A), Ph.D. Math Camp (A), Ph.D. Micro I, II, III (A-, A, A), Honor Thesis (A+) Other Courses: - Letters of Recommendation: 1 from my undergraduate professor, 1 from my Honor thesis advisor, 1 from my RA experience at Fed. Not sure how they've written, but I trust that they wrote nice things. Research Experience: 2 years of RA at Fed Teaching Experience: - Research Interests: - SOP: Wrote how my classes and experience as RA prepared me to excel in PhD, and wrote about my possible future research topics. Other: - RESULTS: Acceptances: Waitlists: Rejections: Stanford Pending: UCB, UCLA, Michigan, NYU, Cornell, Columbia, Yale, Chicago, Wisconsin, WashU, ASU, UPenn, Rochester Attending: Stanford just sent me a rejection letter (way earlier than I thought), and I'm starting to feel nervous. It's only 1 rejection out of 14 I've applied, but I fear that I may be rejected by all. Did I aim too high, and should I have applied to more safety schools?

Thank you for your reply! I have RA experience in Fed for 2 years, and took first year micro sequence in US. Would that suffice as technically trained, or do they look for masters degree specifically? I'm unsure if it's worth a chance to contact them and apply, or if this masters requirement is a hard requirement that must be satisfied.

This is probably slightly unusual in this forum, but I'm interested in doing PhD in Australia/New Zealand, for personal reasons (think family, relationship, etc). I did my undergrad in US, so while I'm knowledgeable about PhD application in US, I have very little idea how it is done in Australia/New Zealand. I've seen in few university websites that they only accept Masters students for their PhD program. In US, many students go to PhD without masters degree. Has there been any exceptions to this rule? I think having a masters degree (at least in US) is redundant as I'll just repeat many courses I've taken before, and I feel that my background in math/econ is sufficient for PhD application - marginal benefit of doing masters is much lower than marginal cost. Also, how is their culture different from that in US? For example, econ PhD in US is typically 5-6 years, with first-year taking micro,macro,metrics, and second year taking field courses while writing their second year paper and getting into research. So first-year students, and to some degree second-year students, have more flexibility in choosing their research topic/advisors. I had the impression that PhD in Australia/New Zealand is more rigid in a sense that you have to find an advisor to take you in before starting PhD, so changing research topic/advisors may not be as flexible, and typically it's shorter than PhD in US. Is this true? I've also looked into job placements for PhD graduates from Australia/New Zealand, but I couldn't find too many information about them, especially for academic placements. I'm assuming academic placements is harder for PhD graduates in Australia/New Zealand, even within Australia/New Zealand?

This is probably slightly unusual in this forum, but I'm interested in doing PhD in Australia/New Zealand, for personal reasons (think family, relationship, etc). I did my undergrad in US (see my profile evaluation if interested: link), so while I'm knowledgeable about PhD application in US, I have very little idea how it is done in Australia/New Zealand. I've seen in few university websites that they only accept Masters students for their PhD program. In US, many students go to PhD without masters degree. Has there been any exceptions to this rule? I think having a masters degree (at least in US) is redundant as I'll just repeat many courses I've taken before, and I feel that my background in math/econ is sufficient for PhD application - marginal benefit of doing masters is much lower than marginal cost. Also, how is their culture different from that in US? For example, econ PhD in US is typically 5-6 years, with first-year taking micro,macro,metrics, and second year taking field courses while writing their second year paper and getting into research. So first-year students, and to some degree second-year students, have more flexibility in choosing their research topic/advisors. I had the impression that PhD in Australia/New Zealand is more rigid in a sense that you have to find an advisor to take you in before starting PhD, so changing research topic/advisors may not be as flexible, and typically it's shorter than PhD in US. Is this true? I've also looked into job placements for PhD graduates from Australia/New Zealand, but I couldn't find too many information about them, especially for academic placements. I'm assuming academic placements is harder for PhD graduates in Australia/New Zealand, even within Australia/New Zealand?

I'm currently RA in econ research institution. I have some concerns about my application for PhD in Economics. I'll list down my profile here. PROFILE: Type of undergrad: Top 15 in US Undergrad GPA: 3.95/4.0 GRE: Verbal 161, Quant 167, AWA 3 (planning to retake this for AWA. Confident that I can get higher score than this) Honors: High Honors for my senior Honors thesis Math courses: Cal 1,2,3 (A+), Linear Algebra (A-), Intro to Probability (A), Theoretical Statistics (A), Honors Differential Equation (A), Real Analysis (A-), Modern Algebra (A), Numerical Methods (A), Financial Mathematics (A-) Econ courses (undergrad): Inter micro/macro (A), Game Theory (A), Developing Economics (A+), Intermediate Econometrics (A), Honors thesis writing class (A+), Behavior Econ (A+), Economics of Marriage (A+) Econ courses (grad): Math camp (A), Micro I (A-) Micro II (A) Micro III (A) Letter of recommendation: One from game theory professor that advised me to take PhD micro sequence (he wrote a letter for me for RA position too). One from my thesis advisor (he also wrote a letter for RA position). One from economist that I work for currently as RA. Research Experience: Summer between junior and senior year in undergrad, but it was mostly data inputting kind of research (while it was for econ professor that is creating a massive dataset). Nothing much here, though it was researching under econ professor in econ department. Currently I'm doing a lot of empirical and theoretical work in financial economics, coding in Matlab, Stata, R, and C++. Coauthored an article, though not in an academic peer-reviewed journal. I'm expecting to coauthored another paper, which may (hopefully) be published in an academic journal. Total duration in this institution will probably be 2 years. Teaching Experience: None Current Interest: My interest has switched many times, from theoretical microeconomics in game theory to empirical financial economics, to now in behavioral economics, with its intersection in social work/ psychology. Concerns: My relationship with my current economist that I work for is not very great. Due to sudden change in the field (theoretical micro to heavy programming financial econ), there was a many bumps in the initial working period. He has told me multiple times that he is disappointed with my results. Not sure if he is willing to write me a letter, and if he did, not sure if it will be as optimistic as I want it to be. My field of interest is also not aligned with his, which makes it harder for me to be motivated to work for him. I'll also be leaving academia for 2 years to serve in a mandatory public service in my home country. Hence the earliest program that I can apply is 2021 Fall (I still have 1+ year in this institution). I'm worried that admission might think that my skills will be rusty after so many years. I'm thinking of US 25-50, with 3-4 top 15 universities as my dream universities. Is my expectation and concerns well-grounded? With few more years down the road, what can I do to improve my chance?