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Incoming PhD applicant here. I would like to ask how would an average undergrad thesis grade affect PhD application? Some additional info/question: I did a masters and scored the highest marks for my master thesis. I believe that the grader gave me an average grade out of spite, and eventually my paper was published in a top non-economics outlet (without my name, even though it is my idea/codes). Should I include this in the SOP?

I am an applicant from Hong Kong. I hope I can get some advice about my profile. Any suggestion is welcomed! Type of Undergrad: Top 3 department in Hong Kong. Year exchange at McGill. Undergrad GPA: Hong Kong: 3.8/4 (I am not sure about the ranking, but I have never found somebody in my department with a higher GPA. Perhaps top 5%) McGill: 3.94/4 Type of Grad: none GRE: 150V, 168Q, 4AW TOEFL: 110 Econ Courses: HK: Econ stat (A-), Intermediate Micro (A), Intermediate Macro (A-), undergard econometrics (A-), Public Finance (A), grad econometrics (currently taking) McGill: Advanced Micro-honuors (A with average B+), Advanced Macro-honuors (A with average B), Game Theory-honours (A with average B+), Monetary Econ-honours (A average unknown), IO (A with average B), Money and Banking (A with average B). Math Courses: HK: Stochastic Calculus and Probability Theory (currently taking), Stochastic Processes (currently taking) McGill: Calculus 3 (A with average B-), LA1 (A with average B+), ODE (A with average B-), Probability (A- with average C) UIUC Netmath: Real Analysis (A) Research Experience: · RA for my grad econometrics teacher for 4 months. Mostly literature review and programming work. · Currently writing my final year paper in macro with a full professor. Teaching experience: None Research Interest: Macro, Finance. I think my interest should be theoretical. Letter: · My grad econometrics teacher and my RA boss. (Top 5 PhD grad. Assistant professor but with nice publication) · My final year paper advisor (Full Professor) · A full professor at McGill. I only took a course taught by him and got an A. · Undergrad programme coordinator (Top 10 PhD grad. Senior Lecturer but should have decent track record for master’s). I performed well in a course taught by him and he should remember me as an ambitious student in the programme. The first 2 letters should be strong. The last 2 as you can easily see is weaker. Schools going to apply: My final target is to get into a top Econ or Finance department, but I know Asian students’ optimal strategy is to get a master’s first. I will still give a try to top schools, but the expected outcome is master’s. Master’s: Chicago MAPSS (my top choice!) Oxford MPhil LSE EME LSE Finance and Economics U of T MA UBC MA PhD: Princeton Chicago MIT Stanford Questions: What are my chances of getting into the master’s? Any chance on PhD? What schools should I also apply, given my profile and interest? Any comment welcomed!! I have learnt a lot from this forum. Thank you very much for all your inputs!!

Hi guys, I am planning to apply to PhD in Economics programs this fall. But the thing is, I am only an average student from a top US master's, which severely limits my chances of admission to top 30. So, I am thinking about applying as if I had no master's education and just an undergraduate degree. This idea looks fine to me as I was one of the top students at my undegrad institution in Asia, and even got a PhD offer from Texas-Austin at the time (I declined it at the time because I was way too confident about myself). What do you think? If I had performed better in PhD courses - I took 4 of them and got B+ in all - what I have done at my master's could be considered very good. I wrote a quality capstone paper and have been an RA since June. But the GPA of 3.50 ruins everything. I am also considering full-time RA positions. But can those compensate for my average master's performance? And if yes, how much? Will top 30 be my ultimate limit? Thank you.

Are there any programs out there for people with average gre scores? I don't know why I'm not doing as well as I should. GMAT 2009: 590 GMAT 2017: 440 GRE 2018: 153Q 143V Anyone out there in a similar situation who got into some phd programs in econ/finance?

Hi guys, I have been reached out by a full professor in a Top 10/15 program. He is a professor I have mentioned in my SOP. He had a look at my writing sample ( a solo-authored paper just got accepted by AIB, with no supervision) and directly told me he would be very happy to work with me. He also introduced another professor to me since he will be retiring next year. An interesting thing is the one who has been introduced is the track chair of my AMA competitive paper. I am an applicant for their marketing program this year. But I assume that the senior professor not on the admission committee(because of his age)? Do you guys think I need to update this information to the program coordinator? Thanks for your help in advance! P.S. In another post, somebody asked me whether they know my GRE score. They all know. For Wharton, I understand Q169+V156 is below their average:(.... For this school, they have an average of V158, Q166. I thought 2 points lower than the average V won't result in a direct rejection.....?

Undergrad- Delhi University (Top Univ in India/Average college )Scored 53% (a below average score) Scored approx 50% in the maths courses (Maths for Economics -1 and 2,Linear Algebra and Calculus ) (It's a kinda a long story though luckily I was able to wriggle myself into a masters course by placeing well in the Entrance exam.) Currently pursuing my M.A. Economics from an average program in my country(India). It's currently my first semester and I would like to pursue research in Behavioral/Experimental Economics. The reason I say that it's an average program is that although the faculty is reasonably renowned (in my country at least) and has considerable publication ,the university itself has only been founded in 2008. I will have an option to write a dissertation in my second year.However any other quality research experience would be hard to find. What can I do to increase my chances of getting into a decent P.h.d. course upon my completion in 2019? Would aiming for Top 30 be too high ?

Hi guys.. Would you please help me with this question? I found the answer A but the explanation told me that it should be A and B. The average of four positive number is 12.6. If the average of the first two numbers is 10 and one of the other two numbers is X, which of the following must also be true? A. x B. x