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Hi everyone, I took real analysis this past semester and unfortunately got an A-. I heard that nowadays for your application to be considered competitive, getting an A in real analysis is almost a 'must'. I am aiming for T30 programs, and I wonder how much of a negative impact this A- in real analysis will have on my application. A bit more information on my math background (I'm an undergrad double majoring in Econ and Math at the U of Michigan): Calc I-III (As) Linear algebra (A-) Intro to Probability (A) ODE (A) Abstract Algebra (A-) GRE quant (170) Also, I wonder what I could do to offset the negative impact of this A- in real analysis. I am a rising senior and will be applying this fall, so I only have this spring/summer semester and the upcoming fall semester. I have thought about: Retake real analysis in the spring and get an A+ (but after second thought I feel like the marginal utility of this strategy is pretty low, considering that taking courses in the spring is expensive and time-consuming, and might affect other work I have over the summer, namely thesis and RA work) Take a more advanced analysis class and get a good grade. However, the second course in analysis is not offered in the upcoming spring/summer/fall. Would taking it online be an option? If so, where can I take it? Take grad-level micro theory. However, I couldn't get permission to enroll from the instructor due to the fact that I haven't taken game theory ( the policy to enroll in grad-level econ course here is a bit stricter) What other things can I do to demonstrate that I am mathematically prepared for grad-level coursework? Any comment/help/advice will be greatly appreciated! Many thanks in advance :)

Hi everyone! I am applying this year intake for PhD Economics. In my SOP I have cited a couple of paper as my inspiration/motivation; shall I make a reference list at the end of my SOP? or I skip it since it increases number of pages ? Thank you !

Hello, I am a second-year PhD student in Strategy & Entrepreneurship at LBS and want to share details of my admissions and first-year experiences with potential applicants in the following post: https://twitter.com/NinaTengLi/status/1313737825079226369?s=20 I discuss why I chose to apply to LBS, the admissions interview process, course requirements, culture and work-life balance. Hope that it can help interested applicants make more informed choices when applying. All the best with your applications!

Hi, This year I will be applying to econ and accounting PhD programs. I already have a nice idea about the economics profile required, but I have no idea if that profile is also useful for accounting. For what I have read on the internet, there are some important differences such as the need of working experience. I have a lot of coursework on math and I'm sincerely interested in accounting topics, however, I am from a little country and there are no people with accounting PhDs so I pretend to explain this in my Statement of Purpose and ask for letters of recomendation to 2 actuarial science professors and 1 economics professor. I would be grateful if some of you could help me evaluate my profile for a PhD application in accounting and advise me if there is something I can improve. Also, I would like to know if it makes sense to applyto top 20 programs with my profile or if I better back off from those. Thanks in advance. Basic info University: the most important university in my country but probably unknown in the US. Degrees: Bachelor in Actuarial Science (grade 9.7/10) and Bachelor in Economics (grade 9.5/10). Working experience: Two years in risk management in a bank and currently one year in an economics research institution. Research experience: Coauthored 1 paper in actuarial science published in a low-tier journal and currently working as research assistant on paper on economics. Teaching Experience: Mathematical Theory of Interest (1 semester), Fundamentals of Risk and Insurance (1 semester) [All at the same university where I studied]. Usual requirements TOEFL: 107/120 (Reading - 27/30, Listening - 30/30, Writing - 25/30, Speaking - 25/30) GRE: Quant 169, Verbal 159 Letters of Recommendation: Thinking about two profs from math and one from econ since my accounting professors only hold a master from my own university, and have no research experience at all. Research Interests: Actuarial Science methods for accounting and risk measurement. Decision models and data analysis applied to accounting matters such as financial statements. Courses Accounting: Accounting Principles (10/10), Intermediate Accounting I (10/10), Intermediate Accounting II (9.5/10), Analysis of Financial Statements (10/10). Actuarial Science: Fundamental of Risk and Insurance (10/10), Actuarial Math I, II, III (10/10 each), Mathematical Theory of Interest (10/10), Investment Instruments Analysis (9.5/10), Risk Theory (10/10). Mathematics: 3 on Calculus (10/10 in all of them), Linear Algebra I (9.5/10), Linear Algebra II (10/10), Real Analysis I (10/10), Real Analysis II (10/10), Group Theory (9/10), Complex Analysis (9.5/10), Topology (10/10), Probability (10/10), Stochastic Processes (10/10), Ordinary Differential Equations (9.5/10), Partial Differential Equations (9/10), Functional Analysis (10/10). Statistics: Mathematical Statistics I and II (10/10 each), Linear Models (10/10), Loss Distributions (9.5/10), Data Analysis (9.5/10), Credibility Theory (9.5/10). Economics: Microeconomics I (9/10), Microeconomics II (10/10), Macroeconomics I (8.5), Macroeconomics II (9.5), Game Theory (9.5/10), Financial Economics (10/10), Growth and Development (8.5/10), International Economics (10/10), Econometrics (9.5/10), Microeconometrics (9.5/10), Macroeconometrics (10/10).

Hi. I am planning to apply for the business school doctoral programs, specifically for the (management) information systems major. I have to finish my applications until this December and I would appreciate any type of advice or commentary regarding my admission possibilities. Basic Info Type of Undergrad: Business Administration major (Top 5 university in my country) Undergrad GPA: 3.64/4.0 Type of Grad: Business School, Management Information Systems major (Top university in my country) Grad GPA: 3.58/4.0 (I still have my last semester left, but this is my latest GPA) Research Experience: Research in Progress Paper submitted to an international conference (First Author) Teaching Experience: Only worked several times as a teaching assistant, but none as a lecturer Work Experience: None (I don't have any work experience, and started my bachelor program directly after my graduation. I am not sure if this works as an advantage or a disadvantage.) Requirements Test Scores GMAT: Verbal 34 / Quant 50 / Total 700 / AWA 4.5 / IR 7 Test Scores TOEFL: Total 116 (All subjects are 29) Research Interest: Data Mining and Big data analysis. My research interests are mainly in the intersection between social and technical aspects of information technology, especially extracting managerial insights from big, unstructured data. Courses Information Systems (Major): IS Seminar (4/4), IS Methodology (3.72/4), Electronic Commerce (3.72/4), IS Development (3.72/4), IS Research(3.44/4) Statistics: Quant (3.72/4), Statistics (Planning to take in next semester) Programming: Social Data Mining (4/4), Social Computing (3.44/4) Applying to Dream schools: University of Arizona, University of Texas-Austin, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Georgia, Indiana University at Bloomington (These are the schools that I am interested in. I would like to hear realistic comments about whether to search for more schools.) +) I am worried about my overall profile, but my time is limited and I am not sure where to focus on more. (Should I take GMAT again and raise my scores or should I focus on my research and start on a research paper?) Again, any type of advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance :)

Most of the PhD applications are done and now we are just waiting it out. Call it musings of an empty mind, but I was wondering if being an international applicant reduces my chances of getting an admit. Recently I'd come across some US-MBA aspirants who were discussing how the % of international students is falling year on year, after Trump's stringent immigration policies and how universities are refraining from handing our admits to international students. Students applying for MBA and PhD have an entirely different outlook and I understand how some international students would be hesitant in opting for an MBA in the US if they have difficulties in finding work there after their education (to pay off the loans). But are these policies likely to affect the decisions made by the admissions committee, especially when it comes to a PhD program that is funded by the Univ itself? Also, is a PhD applicant likely to be overlooked for funding/tution fee waiver if they are an international applicant? I did my bit of research and couldn't come across anything conclusive regarding whether or not this affects the decision by admissions committee, but maybe someone here can shed some light on this....?

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Bsc. in Economics from a top university in my home country Undergrad GPA: 3.3 GRE: 163 (Q) ,161 (V), 4 (AWA). I plan on retaking the GRE as I think that i could get a 165-167 (Q). COURSES: Math Courses: Math I-III (A, B, B) this included calculus, differential equations, static and dynamic optimization, etc. Econ Courses: Intro to Econometrics (A), Cross Sectional Econometrics (A), Time Series Econometrics (A), Microeconomics I-III (B,B,A) this includes consumer and producer theory, general equilibrium and game theory, Macroeconomics I-III (B,A,A). Letters of Recommendation: 1). Economics profesor I RAed for in my home country. 2). Well-known economics professor I am currently working with as an RA . 3). Maybe my thesis chair or the economics department chair. Research Experience: I worked as an RA last year (2017) doing work related to labor economics using large datasets in Stata. Right now I am working remotely with a well-known professor doing research also related to labor economics. Teaching Experience: I have been a TA for microeconomics II (Market failures, general equilibrium) and Intro to Econometrics . Research Interests: Labor economics, political economy. I would like to go to a PhD in a top 50 US school or a MRes/PhD track in top european universities (BonnGSE, BarcelonaGSE, CEMFI, Mannheim, Zürich,etc.) Questions/Concerns: 1. What are my chances of being admitted to any of the aforementioned programs? 2. How bad would it be if I failed to improve my GRE(Q) score?

Just want to check what you guys think about the application of data mining/machine learning/deep learning and other AI techniques in economics field. I heard that some researchers have been doing this, but haven't looked at their work yet. Also wonder if any PhD programs pay specific attention to this track? Thanks!

Hello guys! I have posted an evaluation thread in the Econ phd forum, and somebody kindly recommends to have a try in finance. So any comments on my profile for a finance phd application? Thanks! Undergrad: BS in Applied Math in a Top 10 Chinese university. GPA 3.5, but some bad grades for Calculus (around 70) Masters: MS in Financial Math in a Top 10 (or Top 15?) U.S. university. GPA 3.9. GRE: 166 Q/ 162 V/ 3.5 A Math courses: my major was math... Recommendation: 1. econ professor (I have been his RA for almost a year, and publish two working paper on his institute website) 2. applied math professor whose research field is quant finance (I did two research projects with her, paper write-up but not published) 3. applied math professor whose research field is machine learning (we did a deep learning project together) Research: 1. Two working papers (one macro/currency, one commodity market) with the Econ professor mentioned above. 2. One research project paper (commodity market) with the second professor mentioned above. 3. A stock prediction project using deep learning with the third professor mentioned above. Teaching: TA in two derivatives and investment related courses in the business school of our university. Concerns: 1. No formal publications 2. My undergrad GPA is not top level. Applying: I have not picked my schools yet. Any advice? I really wanna go to a top tier or somewhat "good" university. How big is the possibility here... Thank you very much!

Hi everyone, I am interested in applying for PhD in Marketing - Quant track (Modelling and Strategy mixed). I read that contacting professors to work with prior to application helps improve the chance to be admitted to a good program and increase the chance to work with the professors the student wants to work with. Could you share your experience or advice on how to contact faculty and start working with them? For students interested in Quant like me, should I find data and propose research to faculty or just describe some topics that I am interested in? How much details should I be prepared to discuss my research interests with faculty so that they can agree to work with me? Thanks

Hello Everybody, To tell you a little bit about myself, I worked a part-time job during the final semester of my engineering as a Content Researcher with a media company I was responsible for collecting information and gathering requirements through in-person interviews, on-ground surveys, and online search for composing content for the company’s publications. It was during this time when I realized where my interests lay and so, I decided to undertake a research course in media communications to explore my options further. After earning my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I went on to pursue an MBA in Communications Management with a specialization in Media Management. Some of the courses that I enjoyed in the program were the ones related to Marketing, Research Methodologies, Statistics, and Consumer Behavior. During my internship, I worked on two research projects, one that involved determine meta-data values with the help of information collected from secondary offline and online sources based on their requirements, which was used to improve their TV content discovery and search across multiple device formats and the other project involved in-depth analysis of the Southeast Asian television market. With the organization's market presence already in Indonesia, they were looking to expand their business across other Southeast Asian countries. I enjoyed this project in particular as it involved extensive research work. I worked on several other research projects during my time at Symbiosis University, my favorite being the development of a white paper for one of the most renowned media networks. The objective of the project was to analyze technology adoption and, identify and understand digital content consumption patterns of users across multiple device formats. We used the secondary online databases and industry reports to put together all our observations. After graduation, I took a small leap from the Media to Information Technology industry and joined a marketing research firm. During my short stint as a Market Research Analyst here, I worked on forecasting demand, identifying new technologies and new investment opportunities in the Information Technology sector. Realizing that my strengths lay mainly in the Media industry, I joined a digital marketing agency. I have been working here as an Analyst in the Marketing Analytics department for almost 1.6 (will be 3 by next year) years now. As an analyst, I work on evaluating marketing channel performance, consumer-product interaction on the brand website, consumer’s purchase behavior, formulating key performance metrics to check for brand/product interactivity and website performance concerning site engagement by using different analytical tools (Google, Adobe, etc.). I have always enjoyed working on retail industry-specific projects, and this is one of the primary reasons why I want to undertake research in this field. I haven't had the chance to work in an academic set-up after graduation. Also, I needed some time to figure out my research interests and I am still working on figuring out a specific area of interest in the online retail space. I think my academic performance has been OKAY so far. I have narrowed down my research interests into three broad areas in online retail - Identifying gaps in user buying journeys to improve and create better product delivery experiences online at each touch-point (focused on micro-moments), effect of each marketing experiment on user buying behavior and comprehending the actual purchase intent of the consumers. Undergraduate: 60% B.Tech in Computer Science, JNTU, Kakinada) Post-Graduation: 3.12/4.00 (MBA - Communications Management, Symbiosis International University) Work Experience: 2 years and more I plan to take GRE and TOEFL this August (2017). I am considering applying to some of these schools - University of Chicago (Booth), Maryland (Robert H.Smith) NYU Stern, University of Georgia, Univ. of South California, and similar other schools. I have read some their research papers and it is very much aligned with my interests. Could you please suggest if there is anything else that I should be doing to strengthen my application and schools that I should be looking at? I would prefer a brutally honest response on my profile. Would really appreciate it. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/images/icons/icon7.png Thanks, Roma P.S. Apologies for the long post.

Hi all, so I am a sophomore and am thinking of applying for Econ phd after I graduate (2019). Here is my profile: Undergraduate school: Top 10 school in US (think Columbia, Upenn, Uchi) Undergraduate program: BS in applied math, minor in econ and operations research GPA: 3.8 GRE: haven't taken Math courses: Multivariable calculus, Linalg, ODE, PDE, Complex variable function, Real Analysis, Discrete time model, Numerical Method, Simulation, Stochastic process, Probability and stats Econ courses: Intermediate micro/macro, econometrics (will take advanced econ classes in the future) RA: working under an environmental economics project, will be working on an applied math project as well TA: TA for two semesters Other internships in the financial industry (data analysis and trading support) Research interest: financial economics, macroeconomics, applied econometrics Here are my concerns: What schools should I apply for? How to improve my profile in order to be competitive in the admission process? What if I apply for phd after I work for several years in the industry? Is it feasible? Any pearls of knowledge will be appreciated.

Test Scores: GMAT - 720 (Q49, V42, AWA6, IR7) Undegrad GPA: 3.35 (University of Michigan Engineering) Graduate GPA: No graduate degree Research Experience: Independent Research Project with famous Ross faculty (wrote a non published white paper, took about 1 year) Research Assistant to Operations professor (> 1 year) - only student on project, handle all background research, lit reviews, data analysis, development of presentations Research Assistant to Strategy professor - one of three assistants on large project, handle some data analysis, content editing, presentation editing etc (~7 months) Independent Research Project with Physics professor - wrote a non published white paper, took about 6 months) Teaching Experience: None Work Experience: 2 internships in related fields, founder of a failed startup Concentration Applying to: Strategy & Entrepreneurship Number of programs planned to apply to: 20 Dream Schools: Top 10 programs in the U.S. Questions or concerns you have about your profile? Low GPA and lack of teaching experience

New to this forum, a little bit nervous. (lol) I am an undergraduate student in a state university (out of top 100), I like macroeconomics, monetary policy and time series, I want to go to IMF and help countries recover from crisis in the future. I am double major on Econ/Math and take some grad. courses. Any suggestion on how to choose school and professors? Thanks~ PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: out of top 100 Undergrad GPA: 3.71 Econ: 3.89 Math: 3.80 Type of Grad: - Grad GPA: - GRE: haven't done Math Courses (UG): calculus 1-3 (A), linear algebra (A-), ODE (A), probability (A), probabilistic modeling A-, Real analysis 1 (A-) Numerical analysis (B); intro stats (taking), regression analysis (fall), math proof (A) Math courses (G): applied linear algebra (taking), statistical consulting lab (taking) applied analysis (hope in fall), Advanced stats (hope in fall) intro Bayesian stats( next spring) Econ Courses (grad-level): Econometrics 1,2 (next year) microeconomics(next fall) macroeconomics (next spring) Econ Courses (undergrad-level): principle micro (A-), principle macro (A), inter micro (A), inter macro (A), international finance (A), Econometrics (A), Econ forecasting (A-), econ stats (A-), Money & banking (taking), international trade (taking), SAS (A), math econ (A-) Other Courses:- Letters of Recommendation: probably can get it from most of professors I known in our school Research Experience: apply ARIMA with swithcing model to detect stock marker bubble (not done yet) Teaching Experience: 2 years tutoring Econ + Math Research Interests: macroeconomics, monetary policy, crisis, time series Since I didn't study hard in freshman and sophomore year, I think my GPA will keep rising in the fifth year of my college eventhough I will take all grad course. Are there anything I can do in summer that can help me with application? I really want to go to UCSD (sigh)

Hi there, I am K. M. Saqiful Alam. I have just joined this forum for a single purpose - I would like some of your expert advice on getting admitted in PhD program in a good business school. I have given my GMAT, with a score of 700 (89th percentile) and now, I plan to apply for the session starting next year. I plan on targeting good universities in USA. Hoping to get some good directions from you all Saqif

Hi All, I am applying for a doctoral program in education at Arizona State University. Last week, I received an email inviting me for a campus visit. The university is paying for me to fly to Phoenix and stay in a hotel for 3 nights. The visit will include a welcome dinner, several presentations, and a one-hour period for me to talk to potential advisors. I know that I have not officially been accepted yet, but I just want to know if anyone else has gone through a similar experience? Should I expect to be accepted or will there be many candidates at the campus visit? This is where I want to be, but I don't want to get my hopes up yet if it's not finalized. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!