elhuevon

MPA/ID from the Kennedy School? Might be less politician oriented. Dani Rodrik is the chair: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/programs/mpaid/ You'd probably be looking at an IMF/WB-type job coming out, although I'd imagine there are opportunities to stay in Cambridge at NBER (jr. researcher) and not completely close out private sector possibilities either...

Any particular reasoning for why you're not aiming higher? I've seen a lot of perspectives on these forums that can't check off as many things as you (4.0 math/econ GPA from a respected school, 800 quant, at least one strong rec by a noted economist), that are applying mostly to schools above those you listed as "far reach" (not that any of them are bad choices). Top 10 Canadian Universities are definitely respected in the American system. No, they're not H/Y/P, but I'd bet admissions has no qualms rejecting some extra Rice or Georgetown students for someone from UT, McGill or UBC if they've got good stats. The verbal score might be an issue at certain places as Veroniquaz said, but if you and your recommenders make a compelling case I think you would at least have a shot at a few top 25 schools.

Interesting that you can make a lot more than that working as a contractor on a government project. When I worked at a non-profit USAID contractor I believe the cap was about $145,000 (plus hazard pay) and it has gone up maybe 10% since then.

This actually sounds very much like the debate about American public high schools. People complain about pedagogy, class size, teachers, etc, but the fact of the matter is that most kids who fail do so because of problems they faced in primary education. If Junior can't read at a 4th grade level, he's not gonna do well in freshmen Bio, History or English! I would guess that a good majority of the students that struggle and drop out after the first year of their doctorate program did not have a very strong background coming in (the people who pass quals. and then never finish a dissertation is a completely different group). This is the reason schools are requiring more and more math as a background and hopefully this information eventually filters down to the undergrad level!

Basically your profile looks about as good as it gets. So while you might not get in to your #1 tippy-top choice, it seems like a fair bet that you're headed to a top 5 school. Admissions is random though, so do please prepare yourself for the shock (horror) that you might have to go to a top 10 school like Yale...

All the ratings, forecasting, banks, and independent macro shops also need Macro/Monetary folk. Stephen Roach (chief economist at Morgan Stanley) has been consistently wrong on the dollar since 2001, but probably rakes in a mid-seven figure salary. Others have started their own macro-forecasting shops (see http://www.rgemonitor.com) and make money by selling their views to the news media and then to corporate analysts willing to pay $10,000 for a bit of insight that the other guy might not have. Federal Reserve, US Treasury department, BEA are probably the best bets on federal government employment. THe international orgs you already mentioned, and then even state governments need to have an economist or three on staff...

One of the most data-intensive (more serious) blogs is Brad Setser: http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/setser The owner of the site, Nouriel Roubini (NYU Stern econ. professor) posts somewhat longer thoughts on the macroeconomy, less frequently: http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini

Wouldn't it be far more accurate to say there is ONE person who went to U Wyoming and ended up at Chicago??? I don't have time to go through their whole faculty, but I know that even at my non-PhD granting university, the vast majority of econ professors had degress from top 25 if not top 10 schools. PhDs for the first few entries on Chicago faculty page (professors, NOT lecturers): Minnesota Chicago (Becker) MIT Hopkins (Fogel) Stanford Stanford GSB Harvard Minnesota Princeton (Heckman) Stanford MIT ... and then we get to List

Dartmouth does not have an econ phd program. They do have some good faculty, which is why they show up in the econphd program. No clue on whether Tuck offers a business PhD, but my guess is no. Dartmouth is traditionally a college (smallest Ivy), but with a few notable appendages (Med School, business school, etc.)

Here: http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/06/love-econ-bad-at-math.html I don´t think he realizes how competitive admissions is for LSE masters programs. Then again, maybe it is a lot easier with a Harvard undergrad degree (even if you did take no math). Other than that, he recommends getting a law degree instead:crazy:

Your raw stats definitely seem in line with top 5, but lack of a big name employer or university probably makes it a tough go at Harvard or Stanford. Has your company been growing quickly? Are you responsible for creating new revenue streams? If your recommenders can attest to that, then it will give your application a boost. The next three (Wharton + 2 of Kellog/MIT/Columbia/Chicago) I'd say you have a reasonable shot if you can sell your experiences as a cohesive package for each school...

Except UMASS

While notacolor's general point is correct, it only implies a probability distribution: Most people who underachieved at the undergraduate level will not suddenly become superstars at the graduate level. There are exceptions, and without careful study or more knowledge of Jalfred we really can't say what his chances are to overcome the odds. I will provide two anecdotal examples from my own advisors: 1. Was a math major at an elite Massachusetts liberal arts college, but did not graduate top of his class. He went back and did a masters in a different field, got admitted to Harvard and has had a successful if not spectacular career for the last 20 years (~500 in the Tom Coupe productivity rankinings). 2. Was a bit of a partier in undergrad at UVA. Worked in the private sector for a number of years. Did a (gasp) MBA/MPP program. Got accepted into MIT econ and is now very productive and on tenure track at a top 10 school. They say Einstein was a D student...

GMU has James Buchanan as prof. emeritus and Vernon Smith on faculty. If you want to do a law/economics or public choice type of program than it could be a good choice. Other than that, they are very unique for emphasizing the Austrian (Hayek, Mises) school of thought and that nearly every faculty member has a blog (see http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution ). I doubt you could get an academic post at a PhD-granting university after studying at GMU, but probably would be in decent shape for gov't or think-tank jobs.

Thanks for the comments! I looked at the WWS, but it didn't seem like their program was as solid as a B-School for fundamentals and since I plan on going back pretty early in my career, that will be important for me. For stand-alone MPP programs, I'm probably just looking at the MPA/ID route at KSG (lot stronger math/technical skills required). Do you know anyone who has completed that program or just how it's viewed in general?