Firechao

Type of Undergrad: top 15 Econ Programme Undergrad GPA: 3.7 (but only 3.4 in Economics, 3,8 in Poli Sci, and 3.6 in Math - i did a double major in econ and poli science, with a math minor). Math Courses: Calc II, Calc III, Statistics, Linear Algebra Econ Courses: Macro I, Macro II, Micro I, Micro II, Money and Banking, International Econ, Urban Econ, Econometrics I and Financial Econ Political Science Courses: Comparative politics, International Politics, Political Theory, German Politics, French Politics, Political Science Honors I and II, American Primacy, Political Economy GRE Scores: 165V, 166Q, 5.0 AW Letters of Recommendation: I understand one should be professional as I have been out of academia for a bit... This one shouldnt be a problem, as my bosses and directors have been very willing to write a good letter. The two others, one will be from a professor I took an intermediate course with, and got an A. The other from an associate professor who i took several classes with. Research Interests: Macroeconomics (more specifically monetary and fiscal policy), Political Economy, Financial Economics, Development economics SOP: General Research Experience: wrote some papers while at school, only one published (political science honors thesis), and did write another at the bank i work in. Teaching Experience: None whatsoever Other: Been working at a bank for the last few years. Speak five languages, and have some very light experience with coding (only VBA). I was thinking of applying to top phd programs, but the more I look at these forums I realize I had been underestimating the difficulty. I’ve since pivoted into applying to schools in the 15-30 range, and to masters programs that can help me get into PhD programs later. I am scared that my application is still weak though- what are my odds of getting into TSE, GSE, LSE, Bocconi, Mannheim, UBC, UWO or U of T- if these would be hard to get into, what are realistic Canadian/European options? What are good American masters programs to help for PHD that would be within my range?

What range of schools do you think would be more realistic? I do realize the more I read on this forum that perhaps I have been overly ambitious (I might still send it out to some of these schools, just because who knows), and am open to suggestions. Do you think i’d Have a shot at taking the masters into PhD route? Or do you think my profile would be too weak even for those masters programs?

Everyone, by the way, I apologize for the double thread... I submitted this one before te other one, but then I realized the formatting was bad, and submitted the other one (which ironically got accepted earlier) I sent a message to the mod to ask him not to approve this thread, but I suppose it must not have been seen. I ask that you actually disconsider this thread, and go to the other one. Thank you for your time and attention (and advice!)

yeah, I am realizing more and more with each passing day how hard it is to get into a PhD program in economics. Basically, ideally what I would like to do is, well basically, do research. I want to get out of banking mostly because although the money is good, and I get to learn a lot at my job (there’s lot of on the job training and resources made available to us), I feel like I really want to try and create knowledge as well, to have the freedom to pursue my own research interests. And I don’t want to limit myself to only basically advanced modeling (which is what is mostly done in private banks’ Econ departments), I am open to working in institutions such as world bank, or think tanks, and academia sounds like it would be nice as well. I think if i did change to political science I would have a better shot- my Poli Sci GPA was considerably better than my Econ GPA... but I don’t want to just do a PhD, I want to Econ... I’d be more willing to downgrade to a masters than switch subjects... i keep seeing public policy thrown aroun, how different is it from political science? Is it closer to economics? I guess I’ll take a look...

Thank you for your reply... so basically my best bet would be, if it doesn’t work out in the current process, to beef up my application with some real analysis through an online programmer... Would a masters program not help? I mean, it should help me get closer to academia and therefore professors that could then write me new letters right? Or do you think I wouldn’t have a very good shot at that (as in- my profile is weak even for masters programs). I also could get a pretty strong strong letter from the professor who advised me on my honors thesis, but that was for political science... would it be helpful nonetheless? what sort of school would be more realistic? I was thinking going for too 20 schools, but should I go lower? How much lower? For the grades, the big issue was a semester, where I took extra classes, and had a personal issue going on... so I guess I could address that, but nonetheless, removing that semester, most of my grades were around A- sprinkled with 1-2 B+... Chateauharte, you said you’d not likely do it if you were getting paid- what do you mean? Are there services that I can purchase for advising in this sense?

Type of Undergrad: top 15 Econ Programme Undergrad GPA: 3.7 (but only 3.4 in Economics, 3,7 in Poli Sci, and 3.6 in Math - i did a double major in econ and poli science and econ, with a math minor). Math Courses: Calc II, Calc III, Statistics, Linear Algebra Econ Courses: Macro I, Macro II, Micro I, Micro II, Money and Banking, International Econ, Urban Econ, Econometrics I and Financial Econ Political Science Courses: Comparative politics, International Politics, Political Theory, German Politics, French Politics, Political Science Honors I and II, American Primacy, Political Economy GRE Scores: 165V, 166Q, 5.0 AW Letters of Recommendation: I understand one should be professional as I have been out of academia for a bit... This one shouldnt be a problem, as my bosses and directors have been very willing to write a good letter. The two others, one will be from a professor I took an intermediate course with, and got an A. The other from an associate professor who i took several classes with. Research Interests: Macroeconomics (more specifically monetary and fiscal policy), Political Economy, Financial Economics, Development economics g SOP: general, pretty confident about it actually. Research Experience: wrote some papers while at school, only one published (political science honors thesis), and did write another at the bank i work in. Teaching Experience: None whatsoever Other: Been working at a bank for the last few years. Speak five languages, and have some very light experience with coding (only VBA). I am scared that my application is weak, in particular my letters of recommendation, and my Math. I am applying to most top schools, in particular the ones focused in macro and political economy. But I am thinking of applying to some masters programs as backup - notably NYU, Columbia, LSE and some european ones.... But I have recently heard that Some of these masters programs arent well-rated. Does anyone have any tips? Do you think I'm getting scared over nothing, or should I really go for the masters? Going for a R.A. position is probably a no-go for me, as I'm a foreigner, and I think the idea of getting the visa just for that seems quite improbable for me.

Hi, I graduated with a double major in poli-sci and economics, from a top 10 econ school, with a 3.7 GPA, with honors in Poli Sci (unfortunately however, because of a blunder i had one year when i was a bit overworked my econ gpa is only 3.3). I then went to work at a bank for two years, but now am going to apply to a Econ PHD, but I'm unsure my application is strong enough for the top econ schools. Unfortunately, since I only realized that i wanted to do a phd, at around my last year in college, i only managed to do calc 1-3 and linear algebra (with about a A- on these classes), and couldnt do Real Analysis. I understand that i need two academic recommendation letters, but i'm not sure they are very strong - one would be from an associate professor who i had lots of classes with, and the other from a professor i had a few classes with (including econometrics). The third would come from a director at the bank i work with. I understand some people recommend that undergrads full time r.a. for a while, but that is not an option for me, as i am a foreigner, and i think it would be complicated to get a visa to merely R.A. for a while. I do have some research examples, but only my honors thesis was published - and that was for political science (well, actually one other work i made for the bank was published, but that's it). As such, i'm thinking of also applying to some econ masters programs as backup... Do you have any advice? which masters programs are good? I heard European programs are good - and this would not be an issue as I speak german, french, portuguese and spanish as well. Do you guys think my profile has a shot at some of the top schools for PHD, or is my strategy to aim for some Masters programs good?