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So I was admitted to both of these programs. I like both because, coming from an International Affairs background, they both seem pretty good for making the switch to econ. The SAIS program is entirely a professional program, while the IHEID program is a lot more academic in nature. The IHEID program also seems better (it's two years long yet cheaper than the one year MIEF, the cohorts are significantly smaller, both professional and academic placements are really good). My one concern is that nobody in my small Central American country knows what IHEID is, while a lot of people know Johns Hopkins. If I were to stay in Europe that wouldn't be an issue as IHEID is well known over there, but if I fail to do that I don't think my degree would help me too much back home. I think I'd like to do a PhD but at this point I'm not familiar enough with economics as a field to be certain about that (and also my 3.55 undergrad GPA might hold me back even though my GRE scores are pretty great). What do you think? Any help is appreciated!

Hi, I recently graduated from my undergrad and will start working as a pre-doctoral RA for two years at a Top 10 school. I graduated from a Top 20-25 school with Economics major, but my GPA is low (3.3-3.4) with not so good grades in math (will post a refined profile evaluation later). A lot of unexpected events happened to me during undergrad, which partially explains my grades but also I was very low in terms of my self esteem and motivation, which didn't help academically. It is mostly on me that I failed to overcome a lot of personal obstacles completely, and I am trying to do my best in the next two years to improve myself, both personally and academically. I was talking with my research advisor, under whom I have learned to do research and eventually completed my senior honors thesis. He is somewhat well-known in the field, and told me that he sees my paper as potentially publishable at a second-tier journal upon several changes and many revisions. I have been wondering if I should embark on this, as I know that this will take a lot of work and there is also no guarantee that I will get it published. Here is my question: I know it'll be hard, but If I do get it published, will this help me get into a Top 15, even Top 10 Phd program? I know my current profile isn't enough to get me into these schools, and was wondering if this will be a big factor that will help me get into these schools. Thanks in advance for your help.

Throughout the past few years, I've used this forum a lot for advice on what I needed to do to get into a top accounting PhD program. As the application season is coming to a close, I thought I would share some of my insights going through this process. A lot of the information on this forum is very useful and informative, but a lot of the content (as far as I saw) may not reflect what the process is like today, as the forum was more active before. If you want detailed statistics from my profile, you can probably find them on one of my older posts. I am from a school in Canada (for the sake of anonymity, I won't say which one, but it's one that is considered one of the better schools in Canada). I was accepted into 2 schools that are typically considered to be in the T-10, 3 additional ones that fall within T-20 and 2 safety schools. Overall, I felt that I did quite well this application season, all things considered. Here are some takeaways that I had from the application process, and things that I might have changed: I ended up getting reference letters from people who knew me really well, and who I had worked with. If I had known earlier just how important references were, I would have tried to get to know senior faculty at my school better. I knew that references were important, but I didn't know that these would be so important. Some of the interviews that I landed were largely because some references knew people in the faculty at those schools. I would have worked at an accounting firm for a few years before I applied. I know that a lot of schools tell you this doesn't matter, but throughout my experience this cycle and talking with other applicants, it seems that there does seem to be some preference for prior work experience. It may not matter as much as other things like research experience, grades, references, etc., but I was asked very often about why I chose not to work before going into a PhD program. I would not have worried as much about math courses or rigorous econ training. A lot of programs don't have this as a requirement. To an extent, it seemed like they cared more that I was passionate about the field than they did about the specifics of my training. I was really worried that my quant preparation would be too weak, and I spent a lot of time trying to correct this issue. I think some of that time may have been better spent gaining work experience or getting to know faculty a bit better. My biggest piece of advice for people who are in undergrad/master's programs that are looking to do an accounting phd is to go out and meet faculty. Not only because they can write you references, but also because they're usually the best sources of information for the application process. I can't understate how important and useful faculty members have been in helping me with the whole process. If you have any more specific questions, I'm happy to answer them through inbox!

[TABLE=width: 1071] [TR] [TD=class: rightBottom] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: right]Hi, I am preparing for my TOEFL exam, particularly focusing on writing part 2 right now. I you can please give me feed back on my response, I will appreciate it a lot. Thank. Prompt: Television advertising directed towards young children (age two to five) should be allowed Response: In today’s world where television industry has flourished by leaps and bound, television has become an important part of our lives, even children take keep interest in TV. This is the reason advertisement via television is essential in every marketing campaign. However when it comes to children of age two to five, if you ask people whether television advertising directed toward children of this age group should be allowed or not some might say there is no need for it or even that it is not in interest of children. My opinion is contrary to this, I think that TV commercials for children should be allowed as they can useful in several ways. First, TV commercials can be informative and children can learn a lot from them. Kids these days spend a lot of time on TV and are influenced by characters and shows telecasted on TV. An ethic TV commercial that emphasizes on good habits along with promoting their product in fun way, may be by singing a catchy jingle, can help kids to pick up that good habit in a fun way. For example, a simple TV commercial of Anti-bacterial soap puts a lot of stress on washing hands before every meal. I remember my niece was got into the habit of washing hands before every meal through one of such advertisement. So in this way TV Ads can be good for kids. Secondly, now more than ever we see a lot of TV channels popping up that are specific to for kids of certain age group. Kids learn a lot from the shows on these channels, for example, their communication skill can improve, and they can learn art and craft activities. In order for these channels to sustain, they need sponsors and most of the sponsorships come from brands who want to advertise their products. I think that to keep things interesting and in benefit of children these channels should only show commercials specific for targeted age group of children. For instance, imagine how odd it will be to show an ad of adult products on kid’s channel, parents will probably unsubscribe that channel resulting in loss for channel. But if the kid’s TV are paired with Ads for kids as well it will be in interest of both parties, Kids and Kid TV channels. Finally, some people might argue that certain TV commercials can have negative impact on kids, for example make them materialistic and pester their parents to buy new stuff all the time or pick a bad habit, therefore such commercials should be banned. However I think that banning or disallowing these Ads all together is not the solution because chances of kid getting wrong influence from some kid’s show are equal as from kids TV commercial. All good TV channels have content control team that analyses the material to be on-aired they must also regulate the content of TV commercials shown for kids. This might seem like extra work, but in long run it will pay out, as more parents will opt for channels with kid friendly advertisement. In conclusion, I can safely say that after content control, TV advertisement that is directed towards young children should be allowed as they can be informative and fun and also in helpful in sustaining kid’s TV channels. [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: rightBottom] +1 Kudos [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Hi everybody. I'm from South East Asia. Thanks for accepting me. This is a really nice forum. I can learn a lot from you guys. I'm looking forward to connecting with new friends! Have a great day!

Does anyone have any information on likelihood or proportion of American Economic departments hiring international students as research assistants. I'm to enter a MSc program in UK this autumn and I'm definitely interested in doing a PhD thereafter but am interested to apply for some of RA jobs (plenty posted on NBERs websit) to gain experience as well as added value to application. However given that I'm an International student, do you know how many students generally apply, how many get accepted or will they sponsor a visa? Also, as most of these jobs look like data type work along with editing and managing projects and papers; while I'm extremely proficient in Stata, a lot of them emphasize on some kind of mathematical/finance/macro modelling done in Python or R, for which I'm inexperienced in. Hence I would appreciate some information on chances of being employed as If more than likely, I would expend a lot of time during the MSc to also train and code in Python/R.

Warwick is in the UK and GTown offers a locational advantage that is hard to beat. Any advice on choosing between the two programs will help a lot.

I think when schools ask for PS or SOP alone, it can almost be about the same thing. However, when a school ask for both PS and SOP, how are they different? I wonder what should I write in each of them. Thanks a lot fellas!

Hello, I was wondering if the admissions care about when math courses were taken - obviously, the calculus sequence are conceived widely to be taken first before most of other courses since they are pre-requisites for a lot of them, but do the admissions committee look for the order/sequence through which other courses were taken? (like linear algebra, real analysis, and so on). Thanks!

I'm entering my final year of undergraduate studies - looking to go to a good school for a Master's program (like LSE's MSc in Econ or MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics). I have a lot of econ and a lot of math, but the 'pure, proof-based math' I have really is only a few courses in probability theory and the standard Rudin RA. I received an A- in the latter which sounds bad by American standards, although in my country there is lower grade inflation (that A- represents the top 10-15% of my class - about a third of the class failed). In my final year, I have a choice between either Real Analysis II or some more applied statistics/econometrics classes that I find really interesting. I'd prefer to take the latter, but I'd like to ask - given my background and graduate admissions aspirations, would it be necessary/helpful for me to take RA II? I'm just concerned I don't have enough pure hard math but I don't know if it's really as necessary given that I both already have a decent mark in my transcript for RA I and I am not applying for a PhD program. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

I'm entering my final year of undergraduate studies - looking to go to a good school for a Master's program (like LSE's MSc in Econ or MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics). I have a lot of econ and a lot of math, but the 'pure, proof-based math' I have really is only a few courses in probability theory and the standard Rudin RA. I received an A- in the latter which sounds bad by American standards, although in my country there is lower grade inflation (that A- represents the top 10-15% of my class - about a third of the class failed). In my final year, I have a choice between either Real Analysis II or some more applied statistics/econometrics classes that I find really interesting. I'd prefer to take the latter, but I'd like to ask - given my background and graduate admissions aspirations, would it be necessary/helpful for me to take RA II? I'm just concerned I don't have enough pure hard math but I don't know if it's really as necessary given that I both already have a decent mark in my transcript for RA I and I am not applying for a PhD program. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Hi everyone, I got in Auburn U w/ assistantship about 15k. I wonder is this amount enough to live in Auburn? Thank you all a lot.

Ok guys, I was in your position 7 years ago. This year one of my students is applying to PhD programs and I am super excited for him, so I am visiting this forum again to see how the market is moving and to offer you my two cents. I applied in a complicated period (2007-2009 crisis) and I was rejected by every top 20 that I applied to. I had a couple of top 30s and accepted the one with funding. If I were in that situation today, I would think it twice. Let me tell you that the job market is becoming more brutal every year, and if you are in a top 30 and you are not a star, you will struggle a lot. For instance, this year there is a top university with almost 40 job market candidates. At the end, pedigree matters a lot. I had a really innovative job market paper, but I was not the star in my cohort. The number of interviews and flyouts I had was just a third of any below average candidate in a top 15. I got a job in a top 50 program, but I was very very lucky (it involves many people rejecting that offer, I was like their fifth alternative). And this is, because my program is focused on the median placement; it pushes almost everyone at the same rate on the market, perhaps the star a little bit more. We don't have a wonderful placement but we are all at least placed. Most of the programs at top 30s are more concerned about the top placement and you will see many candidates struggling a lot to find a job. You will see this strategic behavior also in a couple of top 20s. As basic as it sounds and as alarmist as it can be, if you are thinking about which program to choose, choose the one that is ranked the highest. Then you will maximize the chance of getting the job you want. I don't want to discourage any of you, at the end I have a pretty decent job, but this is how the job market process is going to be. I will probably check this forum a couple of times more, so if you have any question for me, feel free. No PM, let's try to make public all the info.

Hello everyone! I 'am planning to take TOEFL test sometime in the future, but till then I need to practice my speaking. I would tell that my present level of speech and fluency is probably OK, but there is still a lot work to do, to improve my overall fluency and the test score for speaking section. Please contact me via private message. I 'am available most the days from 6 pm (GMT+2).

How much do you think program-specific admission matters in regards to whose "turn" it is on the faculty to get grad students? If this is the case, then is trying to target specific researchers somewhat of a crapshoot? Demands kind of a lot of an applicant to be ready for a particular application/matriculation cycle, or have to wait around an extra year or two to get with the "right" advisors.

First time here. Thanks for you time to review my materials. Male, Asian, 33, 10+ experience in Accounting field. Test Scores (GMAT/GRE): GMAT 740( Verbal 89%, Math 97%) Undegrad GPA: 89/100, summa cum laude Graduate GPA: 1st Master Degree, 3.53/4.00; Second Master, Ongoing, Top20 US MBA in Finance, GPA 3.97/4.00 Research Experience: worked as RA for two Finance Professors on 3 projects, including data cleaning, data classification, data merger preparation based on CRSP and Compustat. One independent work-in-progress under guidance of an Accounting Professor. Teaching Experience: No real teaching experience. worked to proctor several exams. Work Experience: 10+ years work experience in accounting field, including five years as the associate director. Concentration Applying to: Accounting, Financial Archival. Current interest in Earnings management, Corporate governance, valuation anomaly. Number of programs planned to apply to: Dream Schools: UNC Columbia University Stanford NYU U of Toronto U of Washington Boston College PSU MSU IUB A&M ASU U of Colorado Boulder U of Maryland London Business School UBC Other Questions: What made you want to pursue a PhD? Personally, I am a curious and creative man by nature. my past experience showed this a lot. One of my interest is earnings management. My observations about a lot of earnings management in my environment triggered me to find out why they existed and get solutions to reduce earnings management. However, after reading several papers, I figure out that there are still a lot of controversy about how to solve this problem in academic. My research experience for a professor in Finance inspired me to research Earnings Management from a new way. Another interest is to use financial information for valuation. My ten year value investing experience shows that market is not always efficient and mispricing often exist. I have a work-in-progress researching value anomaly in this area. Questions or concerns you have about your profile? I have three weaknesses here. I am worried about them a lot. First, my TOEFL is only 102. Speaking 22, Writing and Listening 25, Reading 30. I am not sure to what extent this Speaking score will affect my application, especially for those top programs. Second, I did not have a math degree, even though I got A for all my math courses in undergraduate, including Calculus I, Calculus II, Probability and statistics, Linear Algebra. Third, my undergraduate school is just a very common school. Any additional specific questions you may have: I want to ask advice for which programs I should apply. I even do not know which are "Safety" schools. It seems no program is safe to me.. Thanks for your time and your help.

It's out of normal hiring cycle so doing a bit more effort to promote this job and hope you will take a look. Perfect for gearing up to apply for a PhD in econ related fields. A lot of other RAs, post docs, visitors around also doing research which makes for a good environment. Projects related to work on school choice and mechanism design in practice. See Heterogeneous Beliefs and School Choice Mechanisms https://workforcenow.adp.com/jobs/apply/posting.html?client=nbecon&jobId=27426&lang=en_US&source=CC3