mirth67

Thank you so much, to tutonic for replying again and jrdonsimoni for your advice. tutonic, I will definitely be using the Math Camp to improve my quantitative skills. I'll also do a few free courses to brush up on additional, helpful topics before my Master's. Thank you for being frank about the difficulty of getting into a good PhD program. I understand that I will have to perform exceptionally in my Master's to make up for my background. jrdonsimoni, thank you for the information regarding IMF! So far what I've seen mostly comes from other forums like EJMR. Yes, the Advanced Diploma at Cambridge is definitely one I am considering. It is indeed quite an expensive program, especially including the MRes if I succeed in progressing to it, but I reckon that I would be able to get some level of external funding and also be willing to pay more for the Oxbridge name. BGSE seems a bit irrational now as the Advanced track is notoriously difficult, but I will be targeting Bocconi and some other places such as IHEID (Geneva), CERGE-EI, SSE, UC3M, and Science Po. They seem to be within a good range and also encourage non-econ applicants. Thanks once more for your advice! I was feeling quite anxious at the time I posted this but now I feel more informed. I hope I can come back to this post in the future with a happy update!

Hey! Here are my thoughts/recommendations: For your body paragraphs, it might be a good idea to give specific examples. "For example, manned flights may provide crucial information about how the human body reacts to specific environments in outer space, which is not possible through unmanned flights." This kind of example makes it easier to understand your point and also demonstrate the weakness of the argument. I think the second paragraph about the costs and risks is not a very strong point. If I could suggest an alternative criticism to make of the argument: the costs and risks for manned and unmanned flight may not be the SAME, i.e. one could be expensive/risky in terms of money, and another in terms of the technology used. Different engineers could be needed to make the two types of space craft. Thus the comparison of cost/risk is not equal for the two. You should try to have 3 body paragraphs. For argument essays, 3 criticisms of the argument will lead to a strong essay. Another weakness here could be that cost may not be the priority for the space agencies. For example, support may be stronger for manned flight due to the general public wanting to see humans in space. Something I like to do in my conclusion is give suggestions to how the author could improve their argument based on the flaws I pointed out. For example, if we talk about the first weakness of the two types of flight collecting different types of information, you could say that the author should address this by confirming that both types of flights are designed for the same purpose, and hence interchangeable. It might sound repetitive, but it's a good way to show that you know what the author can say/do to make their assumptions become a part of the argument. I would also recommend changing the cadence or flow of your writing a bit. Use long and short sentences instead of the same form of sentence so that it does not sound repetitive. Overall, I think you need more practice in structuring your essay to make your points clear and your essay stronger. This is a good start - you'll definitely get there with practice! Your grammar is good and you used transition words which made the essay easy to read and understand. I suggest going through more prompts and just taking 5 minutes to list down 3 weaknesses. Once you get better at identifying those assumptions/flaws, you'll find that actually writing the essay is super easy. Hope this was helpful! Best of luck.

Thank you so much for your response! An issue here is that at my university, a B+ is the immediate next grade after an A, i.e. there is no A- or anything in between. I'll be sure to have my professors highlight this in my letters as an explanation, as otherwise my grades in all other courses are strong and I completed in the top 10% of my cohort. Bocconi is definitely one of my targets, but I am unsure about BGSE. While it is an excellent school from what I've read on the forum, the normal track Masters is only 1 year, which is not enough time for me to make up for my Bachelor's or get LORs from my grad school professors, and the Advanced (PhD) track Master's which leads to MRes is apparently exceedingly, excruatingly hard? Finally, as I work full-time, it is not possible for me to take university courses at this stage. I am also planning to apply this year which does not leave me with a lot of time. However, I have completed several online courses to add to my math skill and have also been reading textbooks as suggested by other threads in this forum. I am aware that this is no replacement for university courses on a transcript, but the purpose is to demonstrate to adcoms that I am willing to put in the work, and hopefully also improve my own abilities.

Hello! I am a Business graduate from a South Asian country looking to switch to Econ. I ultimately want to work for international organizations (especially IMF), so I'm looking for a Master's program that will allow me to get a PhD - not necessarily top 10/20, but definitely macro-focused and ideally a shorter duration. Profile: Undergrad: Bachelor's in Business Administration (BBA), with a major in Finance and minor in Economics. Top 5 University in South Asian country but not significant ranking/well-known internationally Undergrad GPA: 3.79/4.00 GRE: 170Q, 166V, 6.0AWA Math Courses: Mathematics for Decisions - A Business Statistics - A Quantitative Analysis - A Econ Courses: Microeconomics - B+ Macroeconomics - B+ Econometrics - A Public Finance - B+ Other Courses: Most of my other courses are focused on finance, accounting, management, and marketing Research Experience: Negligible in terms of economics, was part-time RA for a professor for Human Resource Management. Work Experience: Joined PwC as an analyst last month. Work here involves primary research and market analysis as well as econometric modeling. A Levels: Economics (94%), Mathematics (98%), + 2 other subjects, also A* The Masters programs I've considered so far include: IHEID International Economics Bocconi Economic and Social Sciences CERGE-EI Economic Research University of Cambridge Advanced Diploma BGSE Economics From my understanding and research on the forum so far, these programs tend to accept non-econ backgrounds. How likely would I be to get in? Do you guys have any other recommendations for similar programs? I would especially love to hear from people who have similar backgrounds or non-econ backgrounds who got admitted into such programs. Thank you!!

Hello, everyone! I am a business grad hoping to get into Economics. I've always been passionate about the subject and research but I was unable to pursue it because of financial problems. I'm hoping to find my way back to it now. Profile: Undergrad: Bachelor's in Business Administration (BBA), with a major in Finance and minor in Economics. Top 5 University in South Asian country but not significant ranking/well-known internationally Undergrad GPA: 3.79/4.00 GRE: 170Q, 166V, 6.0AWA Math Courses: Mathematics for Decisions - A Business Statistics - A Quantitative Analysis - A Econ Courses: Microeconomics - B+ Macroeconomics - B+ Econometrics - A Public Finance - B+ Other Courses: Most of my other courses are focused on finance, accounting, management, and marketing Research Experience: Negligible in terms of economics, was part-time RA for a professor for Human Resource Management. Work Experience: Joined PwC as an analyst last month. Work here involves primary research and market analysis as well as econometric modeling. A Levels: Economics (94%), Mathematics (98%), + 2 other subjects, also A* Yeah, definitely not the strongest of applications. I think my GPA and GRE scores offer some strength, but my coursework is not Econ-focused and I do not have research or teaching experience. Also, I can wrangle good LORs but they won't be from well-known economists :( Ideally, I want to get into an Econ Masters that supports students who have a non-Econ or non-quant background, such as the LSE 2-year or a Tilburg with a pre-Masters, or the Cambridge Advanced Diploma. Ultimately, I want to be able to do a PhD in a top 50 uni, so it's essential to get into at least a top 50/100 Master's where I can get research experience and a strong recommendation. Money, unfortunately, is still an issue which is why I am considering mainland Europe or Asia. I am willing to put in the work, even in a challenging program. I'm aiming to apply later this year, i.e. for the 2022 intake. Would appreciate any university suggestions and all recommendations!! It's taken some courage to post this so please be nice!!