hoomanH

I see this claim repeated often, but I find it very hard to believe. How on earth do you have a sample size for ‘curated’ vs ‘genuine’ (is there really even any dramatic distinction between these for the vast majority of applicants?) applications?

Do an applied math PhD and don’t be thinking what if the rest of your life.

I’m no expert, but I have heard it is almost always a waste of time to do a second PhD, as the purpose of a PhD is to learn to do good research. If you REALLY want to learn another field in depth, then maybe a masters would make some sense, as you could theoretically hit the ground running with research. That being said, it sounds like you want to remain in the field of your PhD, so why would you seek education in another? Personally, I could understand wanting a masters in some highly technical field that would be too difficult to self teach after an Econ PhD (like physics or math), but even this would have minimal career benefits as far as I can tell, and would be mostly for self actualization. My guess would be that doing a masters now would actually cause great harm to your career prospects, unless you are publishing consistently in economics all the while. For, why would any prospective employer take you seriously when you appear to be merely a credential seeker? Do the post doc if you are set on academia, or head into the private sector would be my advice. Take that with a grain of salt though, I only have a BA so you are ahead of me in experience and likely years.

boulder, sport, trad

Thank you for this insight dogbones. I’ll keep it in mind. Are you a climber by the way?

Thank you. I plan on emailing many economics professors to find a research opportunity for next year.

Yes I am sure. I’ve never put much effort into doing anything right before in my life, and for once I’m actually driven towards a goal and deeply excited about something. Just the process of learning all of this math is an awesome experience and I can’t wait to be able to apply what I’m learning to my own theory one day. Maybe if I came from lots of success I would feel otherwise, but until this point I’ve never felt remotely close to self actualization and it’s time to change that. I am waiting on feedback from my DGS on how to proceed, but I will likely spend the coming year working part time and taking 7-8 math classes including Topics in Analysis, Proof Based Linear Algebra, Mathematical Modeling, Mathematical Game Theory, Optimization... in addition to the first year PhD sequence. This is a good time for a real reckoning; I think I needed this push to acknowledge and bolster my weaknesses, as I do not want to be a small fish in a big pond.

@Bayes in your opinion is 40-50 the highest I could realistically get with my profile as it stands? I my very well take your advice on this as I’m in no real rush to apply this cycle, and aim for top 30.

I made a similar post a little while ago, but now I have included additional information and made some areas more clear. I would like to note that I took 5 concurrent courses most of senior year. Please let me know where you think I should be looking to apply, as my profile is so noisy that I really need all the insight I can get. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 20, flagship public research university. Economics Major, French Minor + lots of chem/physics/bio Undergrad GPA: 1st/2nd/3rd/4th+: 3.1/2.84/3.52/3.78 3.38 cumulative, 3.60 ECON GRE: 168 Q/164 V/4.5 W Math Courses: 1st-- Calc 1 (B-), Calc 2 (B), Calc 3 © 2nd-- Calc 4 (C-) 3rd-- None 4th+-- Linear Algebra (B+), Differential Equations (A-), Real Analysis (A, Ross), Real Analysis (A, Rudin), Topology (A, Munkres) Econ Courses: 1st-- None 2nd-- Stats for Economists (C-), Intro Economics (A-) 3rd-- Intro Economics 2 (A), Intermediate Micro (B+), Econometrics (A+), Econometrics Lab (A+) 4th-- Intermediate Macro (B-), Theories of Growth/Development (B+), Advanced Econometrics (A+), Behavioral Economics (A), Advanced Macro (A+), Advanced Macro Lab (A), Economic Forecasting in R (A-), Advanced Microeconomics (B+) Other Courses: Mechanics (C+), Thermodynamics and Waves (A), PChem1/2 (C+/B), OChem1/2 (C/B), Cells&Tissues (C-), Stem Cell Biology (A-), Cell&Molecular Bio (A), Genes&Evo&Ecology (A) Letters of Recommendation: 1) Letter from neuroscience research advisor. Head of the lab and associate professor, extremely positive letter. 2) business school professor who I know personally, we are working to publish COVID-19 survey data from a survey that we co-designed. Met him when I made presentation to his MBA class as special guest with my company. Will be extremely positive letter. 3) advanced econometrics professor who is near the top of the field and has encouraged me to chase my aim of becoming a professor. Prof was amazed by my speed of understanding and performance in class, unfortunately I never had the chance to do research with them. Research Experience: 14 months neuro research including statistical analysis, programming and literature review. Plan on using 8-9 page summary of findings with literature review as writing sample. This was originally meant for publication but due to circumstances, it never got there. Covid-19 Survey-- assessing population level outcomes and integrating accepted behavioral scales to investigate mediating factors. I designed half the survey, the prof I'm working with designed the other half and has been providing guidance. Definitely applied economics bent although professor is psychology. I am solo performing analysis on outcomes of my portion. Probably won't be submitted to journals by the time I apply, but who knows. Teaching Experience: None Research Interests: Econometrics and macroeconomics, especially relating to inequality and factors of education and technological development. Also curious about neuroeconomics/behavioral. SOP: briefly mention finding purpose and correlating it with my GPA. Different combos of Metrics/Macro/Behavioral depending on program strengths. Other: Python (3/5, have used professionally to automate demand planning and numerous coursera projects), R (2/5, several large statistical projects), Stata (for coursework). Graduated 2019, worked 9 months as a 'Product Development Analyst' before covid layoffs. Thank you for reading.

Thank you.

Okay. As an alternative, if I could enroll for fall quarter, would it make sense for me to take Topology and stochastic processes, and/or a grad/undergrad micro course? Grades should be out by mid December so I should be able to make the deadline for some applications this year. I’m self-teaching point set topology one the meantime anyway and I keep seeing stochastic processes mentioned on this forum. Just trying to understand all of my options.

I appreciate the input and had not really considered this. Out of curiosity, do you recommend any pathways for earning income while enrolled in one or two first year PhD sequences? I imagine that RA at my university would still be out of the question (all allocated to PhD students) and full time employment with two concurrent grad courses sounds extreme. I do have the opportunity to pivot right now and may be able to use family resources if necessary, but self-sufficiency would be ideal. I am in a large city, and so much is remote now, so perhaps I can find options. Edit below: Startz, how high would I need to rank, say in the micro sequence, in order to improve my chances at the top 20? For context my institution is just below top 10 for grad Econ.

Hello, first post on here. I would like to know what is reasonable for me before I get my hopes up. Is something in the 20-30 range attainable? For context, I would rather wait another year and improve my application than attend a school ranked 50+. I am very interested in pursuing a career in academia. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 20, flagship public research university. Economics Major, French Minor + lots of chemistry, biology and some physics. Undergrad GPA: 3.35 cumulative, 3.65 last 2 years, 3.60 major GRE: 168 Q/164 V/4.5 W Math Courses: Calc 1 (B-), Calc 2 (B), Calc 3 ©, Calc 4 (C-), Linear Algebra (B+), Differential Equations (A-), Real Analysis (A+) Econ Courses: Stats for Economists (C-), Intro Economics (A-), Intro Economics 2 (A), Intermediate Micro (B+), Econometrics (A+), Econometrics Lab (A+), Intermediate Macro (B-), Theories of Growth/Development (B+), Advanced Econometrics (A+), Behavioral Economics (A), Advanced Macro (A+), Advanced Macro Lab (A), Economic Forecasting in R (A-), Advanced Microeconomics (B+) Other Courses: Mechanics (C+), Thermodynamics and Waves (A), PChem1/2 (C+/B), OChem1/2 (C/B), Cells&Tissues (C-), Stem Cell Biology (A-), Cell&Molecular Bio (A), Genes&Evo&Ecology (A) Letters of Recommendation: 1) Co-signed letter from neuroscience research advisor employed by my university and the head of the lab; 2) business school professor who I know personally, we are working to publish COVID-19 survey data from a survey that we co-designed, 3) *unverified* advanced econometrics professor who is near the top of the field and has encouraged me to chase my aim of becoming a professor. We are in touch and have been communicating but I didn't feel ready to ask her for a letter until now-- asking her this week or next. Research Experience: In neuroscience lab-- adapted github python script to parametrize neural power spectra, used this to transform and analyze multiple datasets of 100+ patients. Analysis included review of related literature and basic statistical tests. This was ongoing for 18 months. Covid-19 Survey-- assessing population level outcomes and integrating accepted behavioral scales to investigate mediating factors. I designed half the survey, the prof I'm working with designed the other half and has been providing guidance. I am solo performing analysis on outcomes of my portion, the plan is to publish the results in the next few months. Teaching Experience: None-- impossible for undergrads to get RA at my institution; chose extracurriculars over tutoring. Research Interests: Complexity and macroeconomics, although also curious about neuroeconomics/behavioral and I am sure that econometrics will be a key part of my toolkit. SOP: I dealt with a combination of depression, anxiety and untreated ADHD throughout undergrad but especially in the first 2 years-- would it help to mention in SOP? Other: Python (3/5, have used professionally to automate demand planning and numerous coursera projects), R (2/5, several large statistical projects), Stata (yuck). Graduated 2019, worked 9 months as a 'Product Development Analyst' before covid layoffs. I am worried that my performance in micro courses is going to be an issue (they bored me at the time, so not in terms of my capabilities), and I have no idea how my poor early math grades will be seen. Thank you for any input you may have.