jesspacito

Thanks for the reply! From combing through all the past "Profile and Results" posts, my impression was that my MA coursework would have led to a much higher expected outcome, since I opted to take all the first-year PhD courses and did well in them (except Macro II :crushed:). What aspects of my profile do you think I would have to improve in order to expect acceptances from higher-ranked schools?

My profile is below. Underneath that, I’ve written a few questions about my application, specifically about how to ask for LORs given some bad signals to profs and whether to address a permanent physical illness that came about halfway through my MA. Thank you in advance for reading my post! Any input is greatly appreciated. Type of Undergrad: Honors BA in Economics + Minor in Mathematics from Canadian university (top 50), 2014 – 2018. Undergrad GPA: 81 Econ, 77 Math or 3.7/4.0 Econ, 3.3/4.0 Math Type of Grad: MA in Economics from same Canadian university as BA (top 50), 2018 – 2019. The degree was a master’s but students can take the full first-year PhD course sequence, with option to take the prelims as an application to the 2nd-year PhD program. Grad GPA: 86 or 3.9/4.0 Grad Courses: PhD Micro I (85) PhD Macro I (84) PhD Metrics I (89) PhD Economic Mathematics (98) PhD Micro II (82) PhD Macro II (74) PhD Metrics II (81) MA thesis (92) GRE: 165V/166Q/4.5AW Undergrad Math Courses: Single Variable Calc I (72) and II (71) Multivariable Calc I (76) and II (88) Linear Algebra: Intro (72), Intermediate (67) Ordinary Differential Equations (74) Real Analysis (76) Undergrad Econ Courses: Micro: Intro (71), Intermediate I (87), Intermediate II (77), Advanced (80) Macro: Intro (61), Intermediate I (90), Intermediate II (78), Advanced (74) Metrics: Intermediate I (74), Intermediate II (81), Advanced (88) Other Econ: Labour (80), Math for Economists (90), Political Economy (88), IO (88), Empirical IO (88), Economics of Human Behaviour (83), Senior Thesis (87 over 2 semesters) Letters of Recommendation: I haven't requested any yet, as I'm still looking for advice on this Each of my LOR writers would know me in the same capacity—as a student in their PhD classes. I had great attendance, and was always attentive and interactive in class. I did not speak to them much outside of class. The 3 profs would be from (1) Micro I, (2) Metrics I, (3) both Econ Math and Micro II Research Experience: MA thesis was a literature review + research idea proposal (we weren't supposed to actually carry out the research) BA thesis was mainly empirical research using regression analysis. Research Interests: Microeconomic theory: consumer/decision theory, revealed preference Econometrics: nonparametric methods Public economics: poverty, education, health Teaching Experience: 2018 – 2019: TA for Introductory Micro and Introductory Macro 2017 – 2019: tutoring for my department’s economics tutoring centre 2019 – Present: private tutoring SOP: Background: I mention my MA and explain why I want to pursue a PhD after a year working in the private sector (data analyst) Courses: I highlight my MA coursework and my favourite courses Research: I explain my research interests and my research experience Other: I talk about my programming work relating to statistics and data, from my job and from my personal work, and how I hope to apply it to my research Other: Programming skills: I currently use R, Python, SQL, VBA at work for data processing and some regression and machine learning analysis. I used STATA and MATLAB when I was in school. Notes and Questions: I mention programming skills under “SOP” and “Other”. Is this relevant? To what degree should I emphasize these skills? My performance began to decline during my second semester due to the onset of a permanent physical illness, however I was not visibly ill and I did not tell anyone. It wasn’t until after my MA that I was able to get the symptoms under control and get my life back to normal. My profs are not aware of this aside from knowing that I wrote my exams with disability accommodations. I was given the opportunity to take the prelim exams, where I passed only micro on the first try and failed macro on the second try. On paper, there’s no evidence of this since I was a master's student, but my profs are likely aware of my exam results. Before I ask them for letters, I was thinking I should highlight that I was a master’s student and not a PhD student, since they probably don’t know that and because I think it downplays the severity of failing those exams. I believe my illness greatly affected my performance, but I’m not sure if that’s something I should share with them--ultimately, is there a net benefit to disclosing this info to my letter writers? Or on my applications? And the main question: given all this information, what rankings do you think I can get into?