kachris

I'm a year out of undergrad and am just starting to think about the process of applying for an econ PhD. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure on my chances so I'm hoping to post here to get some advice. A brief profile and questions are below... I graduated with a BA in econ from a small, no-name liberal arts school. 3.7 GPA overall. I haven't taken the GRE yet so no scores there. All A's in my econ classes (including econometrics) besides intermediate micro (B+) and one econ elective (B+ as well). Math courses include calc I & II and stats. A's in all three. I had very close relationships with my econ professors to have solid recommendation letters, however none of them are by any means famous in their field. I have two main questions/concerns. The first...will coming from a school with no reputation hurt? I suppose there's nothing I can do about this now, but just so I'm prepared. Second, I realize I'm lacking quite a bit in math courses. What should I do to supplement this? Should I be looking to get a masters first? If so, in what (I likely won't get into a stats program because of my lack of undergrad math). Should I just take grad level math courses that PhD programs recommend? I definitely want to note that I'm not aiming to get into the Harvards of PhD programs. I love research and data and I think a PhD in this field would set me up for a career I love. Any advice? Thank you so much!

I'm one year out of undergrad and just starting to think about preparing to apply for PhD programs. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed already and was hoping to describe some of my goals here to get some feedback on where I currently stand vs. where I should be. Although I'm sure it will be clear as you read, I don't know a lot about these programs/how everything works. Apologies in advance. I got my BA in econ from a private liberal arts school. Not a big name school by any means. 3.7 GPA. No math focus beyond what was required for an econ degree (business stats, calc i & ii). I haven't yet taken the GRE so no scores to report there. I had very close relationships with my econ professors but again, they're not huge names in the field. I have two main concerns. The first is easiest to address since I can't really do anything about it...a lot of people's backgrounds on here seem to be from high-profile undergrad schools. Will my no-name degree hurt? The second has to do with my minimal math courses. Should I take math courses at a local university to round myself out? Try to get a masters first (a problem arising from this approach would be what to go for, I likely wouldn't get into a math program with such a limited background). I do just want to note that I am obviously not trying to apply to places like Harvard. My career path doesn't include winning a nobel prize. I love research and data and this seems like the appropriate path to pursue. Any other suggestions are welcome. Thank you all so much!