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Hi, I am applying for economics and finance phd programs. I have been working with a prestigious professor in finance (Ivy) for the past year. We are close to drafting a working paper (probably expect it in Dec.) in which he and I will be co-authors. I intend to submit the paper as a supplementary document after it is finished. He is quite convinced that the paper is significant and believes it will be on a top general interest economics journal. The problem is the paper concerns timing. Even if it becomes accepted and published in a good journal, it won't be done in time to have a major impact on my admissions. I have concentrated much of my effort for the past year in this research and am wondering if I made the right choice solely focusing on this project. For clarifications, I took the usual math courses and did a masters in statistics. Also he is writing a rec letter for me and sent out his recommendation letter and assessments while I was present. Any feedback or opinion would be appreciated.

Hi! I'm hoping to get some recommendation about preparing for Econ PhD as a Non-Econ Undergraduate. I'm currently double majoring in Math and Business in Top School in South Korea (Top in Korea but not sure about its international reputation). In business, I mostly took finance courses and in economics, I took Principles of economics, Micro, Macro, Stat for Economics, International Finance. I've got 2 or 3 remaining semesters till the graduation. So my questions are: 1) For remaining semesters what economic courses do you recommend me to take? 2) Considering the circumstances of Universities in Korea, its hard to get strong recommendations as an undergraduate. So I'm actually thinking about first applying for masters in econ in USA schools. Would it help? Or are there better alternatives?

Hello everyone, I am Brazilian and have had a low undergrad GPA (2,8 or 2,9) in economics, with grades swinging from excellent and very poor all the way throughout it (major depression episodes) (math scores were bad). But I managed to get better and got into a top 7 econ master's in Brazil (selection here is made by a tough test in macro, micro, math and statistics/econometrics). Did very well in undergrad macro (88 (A-) and 100 (A+) and in this test macro (98th percentile). Did a relatively good job in my masters, with GPA at 3,5. i feel confortable with the math required for grad school now (not much proofs, but can do fine through linear algebra, calculus and differential equations). I'm working on my dissertation in english and will have at least 1 good recommendation letter. I'm planning to take real analysis and retake some calculus and linear algebra to get better grades. It is also possible for me to do other math classes, like advanced calculus, ODE and metric spaces, It's just that it will take some time to finish it all. Do I have any chance to get into a 75-100 department in US? I'm thinking about SUNY-Buffalo, UNC-Chapel Hill, SUNY-Albany, U of Houston, UC Riverside, etc. May try UIUC but without much hope =) thanks in advance for any help

Hi all, I am a long time lurker out here and have been posting a lot lately since I am thinking of applying to grad schools this fall. I want to apply to Masters programs in the UK because I feel that my lack of Real Analysis, Math Stats and other proof-based classes will make it unlikely for me to get into good Ph.Ds. I am hoping that good performance in a good masters program will allow me to strengthen my profile for Ph.D applications in the future. I am considering applying to Oxford's Mphil Economics, Cambridge's Mphil Economics and LSE's Msc Economics. Can you please tell me what you think my chances are at these programs? Also, do you think I can receive funding from these institutions? If so, by how much? Lastly, are there any other programs that I should consider given my profile? Type of Undergrad: Top 30 US Liberal Arts college Major: Mathematical Economics GPA: Cumulative 3.81, Econ 3.94, Math 3.8 GMAT: 740 (I plan on taking the GRE this summer. I feel that I will be able to get a good score with preparation) Math Classes: Calculus I II III (A-, A, B+), Linear Algebra (A-), Number Theory (B), Ordinary Differential Equations (A), Partial Differential Equations (A), Probability Theory (A), Probability and Statistical Modeling (A), Stochastic Processes (A), Numerical Analysis (A). Econ Classes: Intermediate Micro (B+), Intermediate Macro (A), Econometrics (A), Advanced Econometrics (A), Mathematical Economics (A), Labor Economics (A), International Finance (A), International Trade (A), Environmental Economics (A) Research Experience: Wrote a thesis that won the award for most outstanding senior thesis. Advisor was impressed and we are trying to publish the work. I have also worked as a research assistant for three other professors, with one professor publishing the paper I helped him with. The work with these professors mainly involved writing Stata code, importing and cleaning datasets using excel and SAS, and creating pretty graphs and tables for the final paper. Recommendations:Should get excellent recommendations from all of the professors I researched with, especially my thesis advisor. My thesis advisor, who also taught me two advanced mathematical economics classes, will be able to talk to my aptitude for econometrics and mathematical economics since I aced all of his classes. He also saw me self-teach myself time series econometrics for the thesis. The other recommendation will come from the professor who had published the paper I had RA'd for. He also taught me two econometrics classes, both of which I aced. Teaching Experience: Worked as teaching assistant and grader for multiple economics classes. Also worked as a tutor at the college's mathematics tutoring center for three years. SOP:​ Not sure yet. Will think of one if I feel that I have a decent shot at getting in.

My undergrad is in history, so as far as admissions committees go, I have no undergrad. I have, however, an MPP from UT Austin with a graduate minor in stats. (Not too impressive, I know.) So my forte is my research experience using SAS and Stata. Allow me to explain in more detail: At UT Austin, I picked up Stata and SAS programming as part of my MPP. I really liked econ, especially econometrics. I RA'd for an economist my last year at UT. After graduation, I took a programmer job with Mathematica Policy Research and have now been working for for them as a senior Stata/SAS programmer for the last 1.5 years. I am the author of 6 Stata commands (ado files) and have written dozens of do files for data management and data analysis (fitting all kinds of models from OLS and FE to PSM and regression discontinuity). Bottom line, I am very comfortable with SAS and Stata and have over two years of relevant economic research experience. I know that to make the application stronger I have to put more math in my transcripts. So, I took several math courses from a local community college. Here is a breakdown of my courses: Math GPA 3.5 (from the courses I have taken) Calc I, Calc II, Multivariable, Linear Algebra, (Real Analysis this summer), (Differential Eqs this fall--possibly) Stats GPA 3.9 Stat Methods I, Stat Methods II, Discrete Multivariate Models, Program Evaluation, Advanced Research Methods Econ GPA 3.75 Economics 101, Microeconomics, International Trade and Finance, Applied Econometrics I, Applied Econometrics What schools would be realistic for me to be admitted? (top 15? top 25? top 35?) What's the value added of my research experience given my background? What could I do this year (besides taking Real Analysis) to make my application stronger? Thanks