Latino_in_Economics

This couldn't be further from the truth. The best predoc programs vastly dominate the best masters you can think of. Predocs usually won't save a bad profile, but they can be the final push for a solid profile to break into a good program.

Two years ago, they tried to be very transparent, putting all accepted and waitlisted students in a single Slack group and treating them equally on the visit day. But it was during COVID though, so we had a virtual visit day. I haven't heard of anything yet. Since they have a very late deadline, maybe they will contact many students in waves?

I am sure people's willingness to share their thoughts on applications hasn't changed, so I wonder where people went. EJMR is a whole different beast, gradcafe forum is even quieter, and reddit doesn't seem to have a similar community (r/academiceconomics is close, but I feel it's too broad).

It's quite unfortunate that it has been dying slowly—I remember looking for information here back in freshman year to start making plans for applications, and now that I am at the end of a predoc the forum is a quite quiet. Hopefully things heat up soon. I was wondering the same thing. I even tried to use https://archive.org/web/, but they don't have the one from last year LOL

Any updates from this starting week? A friend from my office got Kellogg Finance interview.

We are all anxiously waiting for it... hang on tight!

First of all, 170V is amazing, congrats! For quant, it depends on your aspirations. I don’t think that many places will filter out all candidates outside the 90+ percentile (these days, 169Q+!). However, if I had to guess, a non-zero amount of schools in the top 10 will. I guess it’s all a matter of opportunity cost. Studying for the GRE takes a lot of effort, and you should determine if your time is better spent in other parts of the application instead of grinding for 2 or 3 extra points in the GRE.

Hey! In the last few years, the "Sweat Thread" had already been created by this time, so I am launching it now. Wishing good luck to everyone!

PROFILE International Student from Latin America Type of Undergrad: US News Top 15. Lower for Econ (around 30) Undergrad GPA: 3.95 GRE: 167Q/169V/5.5AW - The GRE is noisy. I took five practice tests and got 169-170Q in all of them, and never above 163V. Math Courses: Calc I,II,III (As); Linear Algebra (A-); Intro to Math Reasoning (A); Real Analysis (A); Intro to Op. Research (A); Probability (A); Math Stats (A); Numerical Analysis (A); Intro to Math Research (A); Topology (A); Problem Solving in Math (A); Intro to Stoch. Processes (A); Math Meth. in Fin. Econ (A). Econ Courses: Undergrad: Principles of Micro/Macro, Intermediate Micro/Macro, Stats for Econ, Econometrics, Monetary Theory, Game Theory, Advanced Macroeconomics. All As Graduate: Microeconomic Theory I (A-), Econometrics I (A) Other Courses: Intro to Programming/C++ (A). Letters of Recommendation: Three full-time professors. I did research with two of them for over two years on a huge project. The other one I just took a class with. Research Experience: RA as an undergrad for two years for two professors. Senior Thesis (Mentioned in the SoP, but it was not ready in time for the application) Teaching Experience: Math Grader + Tutor for the last two years Research Interests: Macro-Finance: Forecasting and Indexing SOP: Pretty standard, I assume. RESULTS Acceptances: None Waitlists: Stanford, UPenn, Northwestern Rejections: Harvard, MIT, Stanford Business, UChicago, Chicago Booth, Berkeley, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, NYU, NYU Stern, Wharton, UCLA Attending: Off to a Predoc at a top department. Although I am not happy with my results, I thought it was important to post them here for future applicants. Comments: I know from the Stanford waitlist group that over 90% of people in a top Ph.D. have either a Masters or 2-year predoc. So, it is pretty reasonable that I could not get in this time. I also suspect that I was automatically put into the pile of applicants from my home country, and they are all two or three years older than me with a lot more research experience. If you are an international student at a US undergrad, know that your path will be more challenging than for Americans (I know one guy from my school that got into the top 2 with a weaker overall profile). If you doubt if doing a predoc is worth it, you are not alone. It is two years of your life in an underpaid job (do not forget: you are giving up 200k you could have earned in the industry for 2/3 recommendation letters). All of that in preparation for yet another underpaid position for 5-6 more years. So, if you cannot get into a Ph.D. directly from an undergrad, stop for a bit and think if your love for economics and research is enough to put you in a stressful position until you are in/close to your 30s (for me it was). Also, you cannot believe how crazily competitive it is to get into a predoc these days. The best ones (OI, SIERP, Chicago...) now have many applicants with predoc experience or masters. Most prestigious predocs also have their application deadline in December, so apply to them before knowing the results from your Ph.D. applications. My two cents: it is sad to see where the Econ Ph.D. system is heading to. A few decades ago, you could have become a doctor at around 26. Now, it is becoming more and more common to see people finishing it when they are close to 32-35. What would you have done differently? My profile has some flaws (not perfect GRE, my writing sample was a 15-page class paper and not my Senior Thesis, A- in Grad Micro, etc.). Nonetheless, I think I did as most as I could have done in the last three years, and when I compare my profile to the ones from previous years, I was expecting better results. I came really close in some of the waitlists, but it was not enough. The path to getting a Ph.D. is rough (primarily for international students), so dive into it with caution.