kexin

OK. I would say, as Asians like us, who did our undergraduate studies outside the US, we really don't know there are many econ master programs in universities ranking after 50 (econ). That's because when we seek for information, we ask our peers, we refer to some forums, and what we get is we may apply to programs at Duke, Wisconsin, Boston, UT-Austin, Penn State, Chicago MAXSS, MARCM, Cornell AEM, Tufts, and some others. We would generally only apply (some of) these programs if we wanna pursue a PhD later. We just don't know there are numerous other terminal MS programs, industry-oriented maybe. (No offense) Most of these (I believe?) provide access to PhD sequences. Many foreigners, like us, are lack of information that there are many many MS programs in other schools.

But why would one potential PhD applicant apply to such a program? There are still a couple of masters program designed for PhD preparation, and some of them have already built reputation. One can only apply to academic-oriented masters programs, right?

1. Race matters in review of PhD admissions in the US, because diversity matters. Don't know whether that's true or not in Europe. 2. My point is, the systematic differences in the placement records btw Europeans and Asians are from the quality of students, not the training per se. Of course the signal sent is same within the same cohort, given the same performance. 3. The demographic information of successful applicants is from some graduates. Almost every year, there is about one student share info he/she like this on online forum (not urch).

I am not able to answer that unfortunately... just a kind reminder I sent you a private message also

The pooled placement data of European programs are not that informative to Asian students. Most of sparkly placement records are from Europeans rather than Asians. Asians are not in the sample pool with others when adcom in the US review applications. There are so many Asian applicants! That's why I have to rely on anecdotal evidence. I do agree that getting good grades in a rigorous European program is super helpful signal, as the GPA inflation is so severe in the US such that many applicants have a near 4.0 grade, then only letters tell apart applicants. But conditional on one may not be the best student, it is more likely to get a near-perfect transcript in a US program. If one get an awful transcript in a rigorous European program, that would hurt unless he/she has super strong recommendations.

Meh, I know decent European programs provide very rigorous training, but what I say is about connections. I didn't assume OP would be the best student in the MS program, but given OP's rank and the undergraduate institution, my educated guess would be OP would get a satisfactory ranking as long as OP put enough efforts. Finally, different consumers have different willingness to pay and budget constraints. Although some consumers may think it is a bad idea to attend a costly US program, others don't. I know many would like to pay a lot for a marginal increase in the probability to get into a top 20 PhD program in the US.

Asian student here. I highly recommend you to pursue your masters in the US as your prospective letter writers are likely to have enough connections within the US (if you can afford this option). Duke MAE, Wisconsin MS, Chicago MAXSS, etc. are very suitable for you. The programs you mentioned in Europe are decent and cheaper for sure, but they may not be the most helpful ones since you wanna pursue your PhD in the US, which is because the faculty members there generally have less connections to US institutions. As far as I know, there was a Chinese student who did her masters at CEMFI and then came to Maryland for PhD. There are also some other Chinese students who completed masters in other programs in Europe and got into a top 30 school in the US, and I guess your case would be comparable. Among the programs you listed, I think BGSE, CEMFI, Bocconi are very good. I don't know much about PSE. The master program at TSE may not be that good because of poor teaching. (confirmed by several current students) Of course if you have enough money just go to the US for master directly. I notice that some Korean PhD students in top 20 programs did their masters at SNU, so do you think it's a good idea to do your master at SNU? I guess that would be the cheapest choice? (don't know much about tuition fees in Korea) I hope the information above could be helpful. Don't hesitate to let me know if you have further questions. And, good luck!