SwissEconomist

How strong is the reputation of the University where you did your studies? And how strong are your LOR? Regarding your GRE. I don't know what the cutoff is that these universities use (it's normaly somewhere between 160-169) if you score over the cutoff admission comitees won't care much about the score anymore. Now the verbal score is normally not very important, but having a 142 is quite a bad signal.

I think the big question regarding the Predoc vs Master decision is whether you rather want to do your PhD in the US or in Europe. But given that your bachelor is from a no-name university I think it would be anyway a good idea to do a master at a good university.

Your profile looks very good and you should have a fair chance at top PhD Programs. If you want to increase your chances for a top 10 US program you should do a predoc (to do one has become more and more important over the last years for US programs). However if your LoR are very strong (which is sometimes hard to evaluate as you normally don't know the content) you could also be admited at a top program without doing a Predoc.

I mean the Bocconi Econ Master is one of the best Masters when it comes to PhD placement and the ECB traineeship definitely works somewhat as a substitute for RA work. Therefore I would recommend that you apply to a bunch of Universities in the top 10 and the top 20 of Europe (I would ask your Master Thesis Supervisor for advice for which Universities you should apply - which will also tell you something about the quality of the LoR he/she will write). If you don't get into a program you like than you can still try to get a Predoc Job and reapply in the next year.

So your math grades are not particulary good. But can you tell me in which european country you did your bachelor and master that makes it easier to evaluate your grades (because the level of grade inflation is pretty different between the different european countries). Maybe you could also say how you rank within your program (top 10%, top 20%, top 30%, etc.). Regarding your GRE, your verbal score is fine but try to get your quant GRE at least at 165. It is a pity that you don't have any RA experience that could be a major drawback when it comes to your application. Is your ECB traineeship comparable with a RA or is more like a regular finance job?

The Master in Statistics at ETH Zurich is a pretty solid program and it doesn't require a Bachelor in pure Math.

IIM-A has a good reputation and the fact that you have worked there as a RA is definitely quite useful for your PhD application. On the other hand a University which is top 100 of India is probably pretty much unknown in Europe and the US and they will be a huge drawback when it comes to your PhD application. So I don't know where you plan to do your PhD (USA, Europe, Asia) and what you want to do after it, but I think that the chances for you to get into the top 20 of either Europe or USA are very low. However there are of course many other decent PhD-programs which are much less selective than the top ones and where I think you have a good chance to get in.

In which country did you do your Bachelor and Masters Degree and how is your University ranked within this country?

A European Master Degree is definitely a good way to increase your chances for a top 10 PhD Program. In France the best Master Program would be the one by TSE but PSE also offer some decent master programs. In Germany the best choice would be Bonn (especially strong in Micro Theory) but Mannheim and LMU are also quite good. You might also want to consider to apply for UK Universities and hope that you get a scholarship (LSE is obviously the best choice there). There are also some other good Master Programs in Europe you might want to consider depending on your preferences: Italy Bocconi (unfortunately expensive but they have excellent placement, their Master is better than their PhD) Switzerland Zurich (particulary strong in behavioral and experimental econ, their PhD is better than their Master) Graduate Institute Geneva (good Option when you want to work for an international organisation in the long run) Netherlands Tinbergen (many scholarships available)

So your research experience is pretty good but unfortunately your grades aren't (especially Calculus I-III and Econometrics I/II don't look good). This will make it quite difficult for you to get into top PhD programs. However I don't know whether Universities like SOAS or The New School care that much about grades. But keep in mind that those Universities have not the best reputation when it comes to economic research.

In Germany many universities offer so called individual doctorates where you just need a professor who is willing to supervise you. If the professor agrees it should be no Problem to do your PhD part-time and remote (obviously without funding). The top Universities in Germany obviously only offer structured PhD Programs (in the same style as in the US) but there are still many decent universities which offer that kind of doctorate. Examples are the Universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg or Augsburg.

I think for an career in the private sector it would be better for you to just do an Master in Economics. With a Master in Economics and a PhD in Math you should be well qualified for most industry jobs and you don't lose another 4-6 years. I'm not even sure if a second PhD is useful if you want to do an academic career in economics. Probably also in this scenario just doing a Master and/or some self learning would be the better approach.

I think its important to have some additional information. How old are you? Do you have taken any Economics classes so far? What is you STEM PhD in? Is it something math-heavy like Physics/Math or more something like Biology/Chemistry? Why do you want a PhD in Economics? Academic Career or do you want a certain Job which require a PhD in Economics (for instance at a central bank)? Whats your research interest within economics?

Type of Undergrad: one Bachelor in Economics and one in Business Administration at one of the best European Business Schools Undergrad GPA (Economics): 4.0 equivalent (Top 5% of Cohort) Type of Grad: 2 Year Master in Economics at a Top 10 European Economics Department Grad GPA: 4.0 equivalent (Top 5% of Cohort) GRE: 165 quant Research Experience: One year Research Assistant for a Math Prof. which does Research in Game Theory at a Top 10 University Letters of Recommendation: One from a very well known Prof. with whom I wrote my Master Thesis, one from a Prof. with whom I wrote my Bachelor Thesis and one from the Math Prof. I assume all three where pretty strong. Teaching Experience: TA for Intermediate Micro Research Interests: Labor and Public Economics RESULTS: Acceptances: Bonn, Zurich, Mannheim, St. Gallen Rejections: LSE, UCL Attending: Zurich Comments/What would you have done differently? I messed up the GRE due to an unexpected illness. Without that I would have scored a much higher score. I guess that with my low GRE score I was probably automatically sorted out at UCL and LSE. Nevertheless Zurich was anyway my top choice so I'm very happy with the results.

I would probably focus on continental Europe because many british Universities often have a certain minimum GPA which often is 8.5 and therefore to high for you (however check the webpages to be sure). Given your profile I would particulary recommend applying at Mannheim and PSE, they are both pretty good and you should have a decent chance. TSE and Bonn are much stronger (same level as Zurich) but I think your chances there are not so good (but maybe try it nevertheless). As safety schools you could consider Munich, NHH or St. Gallen (they are all decent and have good funding). In my experience pre-docs are especially useful when you are applying to the US or if you don't have enough research experience. Both is not the case in your scenario so I would rather focus on your PhD Applications.

So out of the 4 Universities you mentioned Zurich is definitely the most selective one. I think getting accepted there would be very hard given your profile. However I would still apply because there is a lot of uncertainty in the process. For the other Universities you mentioned I think you should have a decent chance to get accepted, especially given the fact that you have a lot of research experience. I would recommend that you also add some other Universities to your list so that in the end you have maybe 8 Universities.

I don't know the Spanish grades that well. Is 8.2 top 20% at Carlos III or more like top 30% 40% 50%? And could you tell a bit more about your letter writters? Are they Senior Faculty from Carlos III?

That is true for the US but not for most European Universities. Yes a Math Major with a Minor in Economics would also be fine, but a Master in Economics is highly prefered to a Master in Finance and Management by most European Universities. Some programs (such as Oxford) will not even consider you for direct entry, because a degree in Economics is a necessary requirement for them.

To be honest I think it will definitely be a disadvantage that you don't have an Economics degree if you would try to apply for a PhD in Economics. However you could still give it a try, especially at Business Schools you still might have a fair shoot (for instance LBS, St. Gallen, HEC Paris are Business Schools with decent Economics PhD). For a PhD in Finance you're Profile already looks much better, however I don't know that much about PhD Admissions in this field.

Well what you are describing is basically Urban Economics which is a Subfield of Economics. So studying Economics definitely makes sense. In general, I would rather do a 2nd Master than a 2nd Bachelor.

As far as I know if you don't have an offer yet they should tell you sometime next week if you are on the waitlist or rejected.

Congrats! But sorry I don't know it either.

Well I'm one of those two on GC. But I don't know of any others. But Mannheim sends their admissions in at least 2 batches because it has an early and a main round, as stated on its website:

University of Mannheim has just send out some offers.

I'm not sure but I've heard that this with the two batches at the University of Zurich is correct. I've heard that the first batch gets full funding directly and for the second batch access to funding is conditional on the interview performance.