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Good to know (and good of you to clarify!). Do you agree with tutonic in that 2-3 years of RA experience would be necessary in my case? Is there something that I could do other than working as a RA that could make me competitive for top 10 (that is, what is the thing that the other half of successful top 10 applicants are doing?).

Good to know. I wasn't aware that you needed a full 2-3 years of academic RA experience to be competitive for top 10 (I do have +3 years of experience working on economic research projects in the private sector, but I do know that it isn't the same). Still struggling with the decision bc the Top 20 program that I got into isn't particularly a good fit for me in terms of research interests. I still have to hear from some programs, so we'll see. Thank you for your advice!

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Econ Undergrad GPA: No GPA calculated; graduated at the top of a 100+ people class GRE: 170 Q; 165 V Math Courses: Linear Algebra, Multivariate Calculus, Probability, Statistical Inference Econ Courses: Several Macro and Micro courses Other Courses: Several Advanced Econometrics courses Letters of Recommendation: 1 great letter, 2 solid letters (all from professors) Research Experience: No academic RA experience. 3+ years of professional experience Teaching Experience: No teaching experience Research Interests: Applied macro; Time-series econometrics SOP: Average Other: International applicant; studied abroad for a couple of semesters on a merit based scholarship With this profile I managed to get a Top 20 US PhD funded offer + several Top European master's offers (most of them fully funded; some with teaching duties). I do know that I am extremely lucky to have been offered all of this, but I am really struggling as to what to do. Would accepting one of the master's offers instead of the PhD one be: (i) potentially useful, as I could perfect my application (get some recommendations from well known professors, do some RA & TA work, take advanced math courses) and have realistic chances of getting into a Top 10 program in 1-2 years time, or (ii) extremely stupid, as the application process is very noisy, and my application wouldn't be that much stronger even if I got a better letter and RA experience. I know this might be an obvious choice for some people, but 5/6 years is a very long time, and I would really like to do the best I can in terms of placement. Thank you for your input!

​I am currently deciding between accepting a top 20 US PhD offer and some offers for top European master's. My ultimate goal is to do a PhD, and I am wondering as to whether it would be possible to be accepted to a top 10 US program after finishing a European master's. The main questions I have in this regard are: Do UK master's (LSE, UCL) offer the option to do RA work? (I believe that this would greatly improve my application, as I don't have RA experience in academia). If I start the master in Fall 2020, would it be possible to get some recommendation letters by the December 2020 application period? Or is it customary to finish the whole program before asking for recommendations? I would greatly appreciate any information in this regard!

Received my Cornell email at 09:50 a.m. EST. I don’t know if they’re sending emails one by one or in bulk, but you could probably figure that out by asking other people at what time they got their emails. Best of luck!!

I have the same question. Seeing some interview requests for Johns Hopkins in GC and I haven't received one.

Should I assume an implicit rejection from Columbia at this point? Several acceptances were registered at GC.