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PROFILE:Indian with research and teaching experience Type of Undergrad:BA Econ from top 5 undergrad college in India Undergrad GPA: 7.5/10 Type of Grad: Masters in Econ from Tier 2 Private University (Research + Teaching uni) Grad GPA:3.4/4 GRE:167 Quant, 168 Verbal, 5 AW Further education: MPhil Econ from a top 3 econ dept in India to be completed in April 2021 Math Courses in Masters & MPhil(grade): Mathematical Economics (C+), Econometrics 1 & 2 (C+ & B+), Econometrics at Mphil included IV, GLS, NLS, Quantile,DID (B) Econ Courses Undergrad(grade):Micro 1 & 2 (A+ & B+),Macro 1 & 2 (C+ & B), International Economics(A+), Public Economics (B) Econ Courses Masters & MPhil (grade):Micro 1 & 2 (B & B),Macro 1 & 2 (B+ & C+), Growth Theory(C+), Development Models(B+), Public Economics(B+), Trade theory (B), Macro (MPhil)(B), Financial Economics (MPhil)(B). Other Courses: Urban Development(A), Rural Development(B), Letters of Recommendation:(1) Very strong from a professor from masters I took a course with and also assisted in research with.( 2) Strong from my MPhil guide (3) Strong from an assoc. prof I took two courses with during MPhil (4) Strong from a prof whose course I took and did a term paper for. Research Experience: 1 yr field research experience at a think tank in India. Co-authored two book chapters (not on macro which I want to do a PhD in) Teaching Experience: 2 yr teaching experience at undergraduate (taught Econometrics 1, Growth Theory and Statistics & Probability) Other (Notes, concerns etc.):GRE Quant score, less math courses.

Profile: Undergrad in Econ from top state school in India. Master's in Econ from tier 2 private research uni in India. Was a Teaching Assistant for 2 Graduate-level macro courses and 1 Bachelor's Micro course. Currently, working as an RA with a prof from a UK university. Undergrad GPA - 6.1/10 (Second Class) Master's GPA - 9.52/10 (Batch topper) GRE - Q167, V156 Coursework (Master's): Two-course sequences in Micro (grades A- and B), Macro (both A's) and Econometrics (both A's), Mathematical Methods (A grade), Computational Econ (A grade). Electives in Labor Econ, Time Series, Trade, Development, Political Econ, International Finance (All A's except Trade in which I have a B) Research Interest: Macro and Applied Economics Research Experience: I have done several term papers and other research projects. Currently working as an RA. Previous experience as a research intern in a B-school and Think tank in India for a couple of months. Concerns: 1. No math courses from the math department. Only taken mathematical methods courses in undergrad (B grade) and masters (topped the class) which covered topics like multivariate calculus, linear algebra, optimization. To compensate, I'm taking online courses in Multivariate calc, probability, stats, linear algebra, differential equations, although I don't know how much they would help me. 2. Very low undergrad GPA (probably equal to a low B or a C in the US). Not sure how much my performance in the master's program and research experience would be able to compensate for that. I am looking for suggestions regarding ways to improve my profile and what kind of colleges should I target for PhD in the US. I am not looking at top 20/30. Would something in the top 50 be achievable with my profile? I am also considering doing another master's from Europe before applying for a Phd in the US however there are significant time and monetary investments required for that. Any advise regarding this would also be appreciated. If possible, the kind of master's programs I should be looking at would be helpful. All suggestions are welcome! :)

Thanks Urch for the forum.

I am planning to apply for PhD Economics in select US and UK universities. Here is a brief description of my profile: 1. BA Economics - Second in class; College isn't well known. 2. MA Economics - Top 10 of the class; Won an award for exceptional performance in International Economics; College is well known in India, probably 3rd or 4th in ranking. 3. MPhil Economics - Currently a second year student with a good CGPA; Top University in India. 4. Summer Intern at Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Published a working paper while working there. 5. GRE score: Quant - 163, Verbal - 162. I am planning to apply in: 1. Oxford 2. Cambridge 3. University College London 4. Brown University 5. NYU 6. John Hopkins 7. Michigan 8. UCLA Am I aiming too high? What are the universities where I can apply and stand a good chance of getting accepted.

Hey guys I would really appreciate if you could help me assess my profile here. I am an Indian student, it has been hard for me to get the real picture as to how PhD programs abroad see Indian students as the grading system here is totally different. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Mechanical Engineering, Panjab University (One of the top ranked universities in India) Undergrad GPA: 58% (quite a bad performance, although it was quite hard to score) Type of Grad: MSc in General Economics Economics, Madras School of Economics (Top 5 econ dept). Grad GPA: 8.75 (expected) GRE: 170Q / 160-165V (Taking the test in a few days very confident of scores based on the practice tests) Math Courses: Engineering Mathematics which includes Calculus I,II,III , Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Mathematical Proofs, Probability, Real Analysis (scores are around 55%), in Grad Mathematical Methods which included Linear Algebra, Differential Calculus, Optimization and Dynamic Models(A+) Statistics Courses: Intro Statistics (B+) includes estimation, hypothesis, sampling, etc Econ Courses (Grad-level): Microeconomics I,II (A,A) Macroeconomics (A+,B+) Econometrics (D**,A), Development Economics (A+), Public Economics (B) Industrial Economics(A) International Finance (A) probably be taking Institutional Economics and Financial Economics Other Courses: Engineering Courses, Programming languages Letters of Recommendation: Great personal recommendation from mentor (PhD IGIDR, well known finance prof). Two good recos from professors whom I have known one was a post doc at UC Berkeley. All are well known in India. Research Experience: 2 months internship at a public policy institute helping consolidate and analyse data. Building policy briefs and structure. Teaching experience: None Research Interests: International Finance, Financial Institutions, Macroeconomics Inter-disciplinary research amalgamated with other social science subjects SOP: Will try to explain anomaly in my grades, why I want to do a Phd and research ideas Other: Basic knowledge of statistical softwares such as EViews,Stata, R, GAUSS. Can do programming too. Have an engineering paper published if that counts. Master's dissertation on Macroeconomic forecasting (intense time series econometrics) hopefully will be published as a working paper. I've also worked for a while as an engineer and an entrepreneur (I know that is of no use but it explains the gap between my studies) Applying to: Need help on this, been contemplating too much as my grades don't support me much I am open to universities other than the ones in US. Concerns: Overall grades dont leave a very good picture, although Grad scores do give me some relief. Got a D in econometrics which I've tried to compensate with applied ecotrix and my dissertation, but I don't know how far will this drag me down. I am in my second year right now, whether I should apply this year or get some research experience with a professor and then apply. I am very well motivated to do a PhD and I hope to bring that out in my SOP. Any advice or suggestions(especially in regards to which range of schools to apply) ? Thank you