PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: US-news top 30
Undergrad GPA: 3.92
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: 168 Quant
Math Courses: Calc II-III, ODE and PDE, Nonlinear dynamics and chaos (B), Matrices, Linear Algebra, Intro Prob theory (A-), Intro Math Stats (B+), Advanced Prob theory (B+), Math of Finance, Mathematical Interest Theory, Adv Calculus, Complex Variables (B+), Numerical Methods, Stochastic Process, Linear Programming (All A/A+ unless otherwise stated)
Econ Courses: Intro Micro/Macro (A/A), Intermediate Micro/Macro/Metrics, Matching and Market Design, Enviromental Economics, Strategy, Game theory, Migration Econ and Policy, Honors Seminar (A), PhD Micro I (B+), PhD Macro I, PhD Math-Econ, PhD Metrics I, PhD Adv Metrics II (All A+ unless otherwise stated)
Other Courses: a few statistics /finance undergrad courses (10+, all A)
Letters of Recommendation: 2 course letters, 2 research letters
Research Experience: no RA, a few math/stats independent or class research projects, all at elementary level
Teaching Experience: a few semesters graders, 2 semesters of TA
Research Interests: econometrics, with broad interests in applied micro and finance
SOP: standard, tailored each with one paragraph for each school
Other: non-first generation (probably third or fourth) international student ; I decided to apply for econ phd in late junior year (without any econ coursework other than intro micro/macro) and then stayed one more year at my institution for preparation.
RESULTS:
Acceptances: Cornell, Penn State, Michigan, Madison, UCSB
Waitlists: UCSD
Rejections: Yale, Northwestern, UCB, NYU, UCLA, Caltech, Duke, Brown, JHU
Pending: UNC (Just don't apply to this school)
Attending: Michigan
Comments: Unless you have super strong (e.g all A+) and hardcore math background such as topology/ measure theory / functional analysis / Grad Math and you prefer to work on theory, it seems that nowadays it's really hard to get into top 10 from a non top 10 undergrad without predoc at big places / Fed / NBER and etc. This site helps me a lot and I checked a few times during the application season, so I think it would be helpful to share my profile with future applicants.
What would you have done differently?
Would apply to more programs in top 10, perhaps at least try Stanford, Chicago, Columbia and Upenn; Would decide to apply for phd earlier, so would have opportunities to work as RA, do more econ-related researches, submit a better writing sample; Would try harder to not bomb my phd micro exam but this was also partially due to my crashed schedules and stress given the previous point; Would take more analysis courses since I indicated heavy theoretical interests in SOP and work harder on math-stats courses in earlier undergrad, some interviewers questioned my proof-based/abstract math capabilities to do Metrics.
