twilli4

I'm doing a pre-doc in DC and heard on several occasions that UMD is especially limited funding wise relative to most schools.

I understand the difficulty of projecting on this forum; still extremely grateful for your feedback.

Of course. Among the less competitive schools to which I applied, I've already been rejected by Rice, GW, Vanderbilt, and a couple others. Additionally, I'm assuming that several other less competitive schools are IRs at this point. My struggles to get into these leads me to be very pessimistic about my chances at others schools. I tried to webscrape data from grad cafe and here to develop a good target range for me, but it looks like that information did not work. If anyone could provide me feedback on a more appropriate target range given my profile as it stands now in a typical year, that could prove very useful. Also, I'm very appreciative of the thoughtful responses from everyone in this thread. I had feared that my first two semesters may substantially disadvantage me. Hopefully I can remedy that somehow.

Hello all, I am writing this post with the admissions season not complete, as I am wondering if there are any actions which I should take in the coming weeks. I have applied to programs this cycle, but it is looking increasingly likely that I won't be admitted anywhere. Apologies for the long post --- trying to provide as much information as possible. Before I get into this, I'll post my profile in the standard format. Profile: Type of Undergrad: Top 10 LAC, Econ major, math minor, poverty studies minor. Undergrad GPA: 3.63 Type of Grad: N/A Grad GPA: N/A GRE: 165 V, 167 Q, 5.5 W Math Courses: Real Analysis II (A), Real Analysis I (A), Mathematical Statistics (A-), ODEs (A-), Introduction to Analysis (A), Linear Algebra (A), Multivariable Calculus ©, Calculus I (n/a), Calculus II (n/a) Econ Courses: Advanced Micro/Macro Theory (A), Research Seminar in Economics (A), Advanced Labor Economics (A), Advanced Macroforecasting (A-), Health Economics (A), Microtheory (A-), Macrotheory (A-), Econometrics (B+), Intro Macro (A), Intro Micro (B), a slew of other economics electives (all A or A-) Other Courses: Thesis written for poverty studies minor which was supervised by an economist and used an applied micro framework. Letters of Recommendation: (1) First letter from undergrad advisor/mentor, professor in two courses, and RA'ship supervisor. This writer is a tenured faculty with a PhD from a top school, but not particularly well known. Writer specifically recommended schools ranked 10-15 as a good landing spot for me and stated that they would write strong letter. (2) Second letter writer has supervised my predoc for two years, and we are in the process of coauthoring a publication together. He also mentioned several 10-15 schools as a good landing spot (especially Michigan). This letter writer is not particularly well known either, but am confident that he wrote an enthusiastic letter. (3) Third letter writer has also worked with me during my predoc; we have published a paper together in a top journal within the realm of public finance/tax economics. He is a more prolific researcher than the other two (and likely more well known), but doesn't know me quite as well. I still expect a strong letter from him. Research Experience: RA'ships for economists during two separate summers of undergrad. Two theses written through my final year of undergrad (one pure econ, one poverty studies). Two year predoc for an organization within the federal government (but not a fed bank). Teaching Experience: N/A Research Interests: Primarily labor economics and public economics/public finance. Also very interested in any applied micro type research. SOP: Lightly tailored for each school. Outlines research interests, a (very broad) potential research agenda, and each of the items listed in the "other" category. Very little room is left for narrative information (i.e. why economics, how I got here). Other: My current position is able to provide me with full funding (but only in years 2-5, not very valuable I know). More importantly, my current position also allows access to some unique and confidential data throughout my graduate studies. These data are identical to the SSA data which have been leveraged very successfully for research by those who can access it. My situation is as follows. This cycle, I applied to nearly 30 graduate schools. All of these are pure econ programs (the kind of schooling which I am most interested in), and they are ranked anywhere from 10-60 (think a uniform distribution between 10 and 60 with some attention paid to department specialty). The goal, here, was to be admitted to a top 60 program, and I would be absolutely thrilled to gain admission to any of the programs to which I applied. But, part way through this process, I have already been rejected from most of the less competitive programs to which I applied and am running out of hope to be admitted to any one program. If I am not admitted, I intend to try again next year. My questions for this forum are: 1) Was I unrealistic about my chances at a top 60 program? I did extremely poorly during my first year of undergrad ( 2) If I am not admitted anywhere, which seems likely, what would be the best next step for next year's admissions season? My most clear options are to (a) stay with my predoc for 1 more year, hopefully publish another paper that I've been working on, and take another class or two (phd micro/macro or functional analysis?); or (b) enroll in a full time masters program to more substantially improve my math background. If it is possible to do (a) and be admitted next year, I have a strong preference for that. How do these two options compare regarding my admissions chances? 3) In the event that I do not get in anywhere, should I contact a few admissions committees after April 15 and ask for any feedback? Is it considered rude to do so? Any advice/feedback would be very appreciated --- even if the feedback is that I'm not qualified and should look into other careers. Congrats to all admitted, and I wish everyone else who is still waiting the best of luck.