extrememildness

Anyone know the date of UCLA's visit day?

Hi everyone, I am currently planning to apply for a PhD starting in the fall of 2018. However, I've been increasingly looking into my options in case I don't get any decent offers this round (coming from Europe, I'm finding it extremely difficult to gauge my chances). So I've been toying with the idea of applying to one or two year research fellowships as a potential way of strengthening my profile in case it doesn't quite cut it (and also allow me to make contacts within the US, which presumably have a lot more weight). I'm referring to jobs like these: Research Assistant Positions not at the NBER Does this seem like a reasonable fallback option? If so, does it make sense to apply to such positions before getting answers for grad school? I would be afraid to apply to a position only to say no later, potentially pissing off some very important people in the field. But on the other hand I'm not sure how long these applications usually stay open for (I see some deadlines have already passed, in fact). Any advice is appreciated :shy:

Thanks for the advice! I will try to dig around to see where others have gone to. Unfortunately, it seems only very few students generally are interested in pursuing a PhD in the US from here (including my current cohort), so it's a bit difficult to get data on this question.

Hey everyone, looking for some advice PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top European Business School, Economics B.A. Undergrad GPA: 5.34/6 (3.56 when linearly converted) Type of Grad:Top European Business School, Quantitative Economics M.A. Grad GPA: 5.34/6 (3.55 when linearly converted) GRE: Q 170, V 170, AWA 5 Math Courses: BA level: Statistics (4.5/6)MA level: Statistics (5.5/6), Mathematics (5.5/6), Adv. Math and Statistics (4/6), Dynamic Programming (6/6) Econ Courses: BA level: Micro 1&2 (5.5/6, 5/6), Macro 1&2 (5/6, 5.5/6), Metrics (5/6), Game Theory (5/6), Behavioral Econ (6/6), Trade (5.5/6), Economic Growth (5/6), Labor Economics (5/6), Environmental Economics (6/6) MA level: Adv. Macro 2 (5.5/6), Adv. Micro 2 (5.5/6), Finance (5.5/6), Metrics 1&2 (5.5/6, 5.5/6), Industrial Organization (5.5/6), Central Banking (5.5/6), Microeconometrics (5.5/6), Time Series Metrics (5/6) Other Courses: Programming ®, Business and Law classes (BA), some compulsory humanities classes Letters of Recommendation: MA thesis advisor, also RA'd for him 3 months, and had two classes with him. Very well Professor I'm currently RA/TA'ing for, also had a class with him, close personal contact Third letter writer will probably be a professor I had for a class with a research project. Research Experience: BA thesis, good grade (5.75/6) 3 months RA, mainly data collection. 5 months RA (different prof), helping on various projects, also focused on data work. Teaching Experience: None direct, prepared a lot of teaching materials (slides, exercise sheets) over last few months. Research Interests: Applied Micro, possibly Theory SOP: None yet Concerns: Lack of math courses (can't really be helped, at my university). Even though I've had to use a lot of Calculus, linear algebra, a little real analysis, haven't had classes specifically on these. Rather small and unknown school for Economics (very well regarded in Management though). The professors do have a decent amount of contact with the US though. I'm wondering if I have a shot at Top 20 US. Any advice is appreciated!