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I made a similar post a little while ago, but now I have included additional information and made some areas more clear. I would like to note that I took 5 concurrent courses most of senior year. Please let me know where you think I should be looking to apply, as my profile is so noisy that I really need all the insight I can get. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Top 20, flagship public research university. Economics Major, French Minor + lots of chem/physics/bio Undergrad GPA: 1st/2nd/3rd/4th+: 3.1/2.84/3.52/3.78 3.38 cumulative, 3.60 ECON GRE: 168 Q/164 V/4.5 W Math Courses: 1st-- Calc 1 (B-), Calc 2 (B), Calc 3 © 2nd-- Calc 4 (C-) 3rd-- None 4th+-- Linear Algebra (B+), Differential Equations (A-), Real Analysis (A, Ross), Real Analysis (A, Rudin), Topology (A, Munkres) Econ Courses: 1st-- None 2nd-- Stats for Economists (C-), Intro Economics (A-) 3rd-- Intro Economics 2 (A), Intermediate Micro (B+), Econometrics (A+), Econometrics Lab (A+) 4th-- Intermediate Macro (B-), Theories of Growth/Development (B+), Advanced Econometrics (A+), Behavioral Economics (A), Advanced Macro (A+), Advanced Macro Lab (A), Economic Forecasting in R (A-), Advanced Microeconomics (B+) Other Courses: Mechanics (C+), Thermodynamics and Waves (A), PChem1/2 (C+/B), OChem1/2 (C/B), Cells&Tissues (C-), Stem Cell Biology (A-), Cell&Molecular Bio (A), Genes&Evo&Ecology (A) Letters of Recommendation: 1) Letter from neuroscience research advisor. Head of the lab and associate professor, extremely positive letter. 2) business school professor who I know personally, we are working to publish COVID-19 survey data from a survey that we co-designed. Met him when I made presentation to his MBA class as special guest with my company. Will be extremely positive letter. 3) advanced econometrics professor who is near the top of the field and has encouraged me to chase my aim of becoming a professor. Prof was amazed by my speed of understanding and performance in class, unfortunately I never had the chance to do research with them. Research Experience: 14 months neuro research including statistical analysis, programming and literature review. Plan on using 8-9 page summary of findings with literature review as writing sample. This was originally meant for publication but due to circumstances, it never got there. Covid-19 Survey-- assessing population level outcomes and integrating accepted behavioral scales to investigate mediating factors. I designed half the survey, the prof I'm working with designed the other half and has been providing guidance. Definitely applied economics bent although professor is psychology. I am solo performing analysis on outcomes of my portion. Probably won't be submitted to journals by the time I apply, but who knows. Teaching Experience: None Research Interests: Econometrics and macroeconomics, especially relating to inequality and factors of education and technological development. Also curious about neuroeconomics/behavioral. SOP: briefly mention finding purpose and correlating it with my GPA. Different combos of Metrics/Macro/Behavioral depending on program strengths. Other: Python (3/5, have used professionally to automate demand planning and numerous coursera projects), R (2/5, several large statistical projects), Stata (for coursework). Graduated 2019, worked 9 months as a 'Product Development Analyst' before covid layoffs. Thank you for reading.

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I'm a year out of undergrad and am just starting to think about the process of applying for an econ PhD. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure on my chances so I'm hoping to post here to get some advice. A brief profile and questions are below... I graduated with a BA in econ from a small, no-name liberal arts school. 3.7 GPA overall. I haven't taken the GRE yet so no scores there. All A's in my econ classes (including econometrics) besides intermediate micro (B+) and one econ elective (B+ as well). Math courses include calc I & II and stats. A's in all three. I had very close relationships with my econ professors to have solid recommendation letters, however none of them are by any means famous in their field. I have two main questions/concerns. The first...will coming from a school with no reputation hurt? I suppose there's nothing I can do about this now, but just so I'm prepared. Second, I realize I'm lacking quite a bit in math courses. What should I do to supplement this? Should I be looking to get a masters first? If so, in what (I likely won't get into a stats program because of my lack of undergrad math). Should I just take grad level math courses that PhD programs recommend? I definitely want to note that I'm not aiming to get into the Harvards of PhD programs. I love research and data and I think a PhD in this field would set me up for a career I love. Any advice? Thank you so much!

Hi all, I am a senior set to graduate in May. I am looking into attending a PHD program within the next few years, but wanted to get some work experience (and money) first. My job will pay for my any courses I take, so on top of this being a profile review, I am wondering if there are any additional courses I should/need to take to bolster my application. Type of Undergrad: Top 60ish University, Private Majors: Statistics and Economics Minor: Psychology Undergrad GPA: 3.84/4, 3.95/4 GPAs for both Stats and Econ Grad GPA: None GRE: 168Q, 163V, 4AW Math/Stat Courses: Calc 1-3 (A,A,A-), Linear Algebra (A), Real Analysis (B), Stat 2 (A), Regression Analysis (A), Mathematical Statistics I and II (A-,A), Data Mining-4000 level Stat Class (A), Analysis of Variance (A), Time Series Analysis (A Expected), SAS Statistical Coding Course (A Expected) Econ Courses: Intermediate Micro (A), Intermediate Mathematical Macro (A), Game Theory (A), Econometrics (A), Financial Economics (A-), Urban Economics (A), Economics of Public Finances Taxation, Expenditure (A, A), Economics of Crime (A-), Economics Thesis course (A) Letters of Recommendation: 3 Professors lined up as of now. All three professors know me well through leadership positions, taking multiple courses, or long hours of office hour discussion over graduate school. First is a respected prof from a top 5 PHD and UG The two following both went to top 30 PHD programs All three publish extensively in their fields. Research Experience: Did economic research with a department in my school (mostly for one prof) on public policy economics - works councils and unions. Worked about 20 hours/week for first semester, then 10/week for the second. One published paper (through the prof, obviously). This work led to my senior year thesis paper as well. Also, will have interned/worked at economic consulting firms for extensive periods of time. Unsure where to put this, but it bolsters my economic researching skills at least. Teaching Experience: Only tutored for statistics for a year, not sure if that counts, but it's here. Research interests: I/O, Public Policy

Hi Everyone, Need some help in exploring my options: Ideally, I would want to pursue PhD in Finance and have an academic role. However, for want of enough Finance/Math research experience, I believe getting into Top 20 Finance PhD programs would be tough. So, in such a situation, should I target Top 20-50 Finance PhD Programs? Or are there any Masters in Finance (M.Res. or M.Phil) programs which can help my cause in getting into a better Finance PhD program after? Or should I instead go for a Quantitative Masters of Finance Program and keep my options of working in the industry and going back to academia (if I still want to) What are my chances of getting in top programs given my profile: Indian, 23, Male Education: Mechanical Engineering from HKUST, Top 2 in Hong Kong. GPA: 4.1 out of 4.3 (1st in Class, Academic Medal, Dean’s List in all Semesters. Full Tuition Fee Scholarship for undergraduate) GMAT: 760 (Q50,V44) Recommendations: Fron Asst. Finance Professor who knows me well, from Final year engineering supervisor (still considering other options) Courses: Advance Mech. Engg courses (which I hope substitutes for Math requirements), Programming Courses (VBA, C++ etc. also proficient in Python) Broad fundamental courses in Accounting, Finance Work Experience: Working in Transaction Banking Graduate Program (2 years by Fall 2019) in Hong Kong. It will include 6 Months of work experience in London. Mostly sales, business analytics etc. related rotation. Research Experience: Undergraduate research experience. International Experience: (I don't think it matters much, but still putting it out there) High School- Singapore (2 years) Undergraduate- Hong Kong (4 years) Internship- United States (1 month) Full Time Work- Hong Kong (1 year) Full Time Work Rotation- London (6 months) Thanks a Lot

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: BA in Economics, Top 7 universities in South Korea Undergrad GPA: 3.9/4.5 (for home university), 3.92/4.0 (for one year study abroad in UT Austin) Type of Grad: None Grad GPA: None GRE: 157V/170Q/4.0AW Math Courses: Calculus I,II (A took in UT), Linear Algebra (A- took in UT), Economic Stat(B+ took in home uni), many Econometrics related classes (A/A+ took in home uni), Econ Stat, Math Econ, Computational Economics(deals with Diff Eq) Econ Courses (grad-level): Econ Courses (undergrad-level):Micro Econ I&II, Macro Econ I&II, Financial Econ I&II, Development Econ, Urban Econ, Management Econ, International Finance, Law and Econ, Crime and Econ, Empirical Macro, Empirical Micro, Time Series Analysis with Big Data, Quantitative Econ, Computational Econ, Big Data Analysis (Upper division classes mostly A+/A, Final Year GPA 4.3/4.5) Letters of Recommendation: One from Home University professor who knows me very well(Chicago PhD and Active professor), One Tenured professor from UT Austin(Berkeley PhD and very active), One lecturer from UT Austin whom I worked as RA for a semester(UT PhD), One professor from Bio-lab whom I worked as RA for 4 years Research Experience: RA in Bio-lab(which is quite unrelated to Economics, but worked for 4 years doing various stuff), RA in UT Austin for one semester Teaching Experience: Teaching Math, English, Economics in Korea(5 years of experience, but not college level) Research Interests: Development Economics, Econometrics, Applied Econ SOP: Specific motivation and contents but not very strong i guess Concerns: As an international student, not having MA and applying directly to Econ PhD abroad is quite unfamiliar route in my home country. I have taken many major courses, but I think my math courses are not enough(I didn't took real analysis). Plus, my last 40 credits economics grades are all A,A+ except just for one, but I don't have really good grades during my sophomore year. Especially for Micro. Also, I worked as RA in Bio-lab, which is not much related to Economics. Do you think it will negatively influence my admission results? Other: I have applied to MAs for Urban Planning for specifications in 'economic development' Applying to: Economics PhD - Boston University, UT Austin, Michigan State University, University of Virginia, Rice University Economics MA - University of Toronto Urban Planning MA - UIUC, UC Berkeley, University of Toronto, Rutgers, Cornell Can anyone leave me any comment please? Would there be any chances for me to get admitted?

Hi everyone, I am posting to ask for recommendations on where/how many schools to apply to this fall, and to get an honest review of my profile. I am also trying to decide on two things: 1. If I should retake the GRE given my scores below, and given that I have very limited time to study between now and application season. Is it worth the time, money and potential risk of scoring lower? 2. I have spent the last year taking one class a quarter at night while working in order to bolster my math background. I know my math background is still not as robust as other people I see on here. How badly will not having taken topology or differential equations or additional analysis courses hurt me? If I do not get in this year, would it be worthwhile to take another year to take additional courses? Profile: GRE: 167 Q, 163 V, 5 AW Undergraduate education: UCLA Undergraduate Degree: Double Major in Economics and Political Science Undergraduate GPA: 3.96 Math Classes: Calculus I (5 on AP Test), II (A) and III (A), Linear Algebra (A), Real Analysis (taking currently online through UMUC), Statistics 10 Economics Courses: Applied Econometrics (A-), Topics in Micro: Mathematical Economics (A), Statistics for Economists (A), Intro Macro and Micro (both A), Intermediate Macro (A), Intermediate Micro (A-), International Trade Theory (B), Economic Models of Public Choice (A+), Theories of Economic Growth (A+), Economic Variable Topics Research Seminar (A), Economic Forecasting (Advanced Econometrics with Time Series) (A-) Other Courses: A bunch of game theory political science courses (As in all of them). Research Experience: Currently working on a project with a distinguished labor economist, wrote capstone paper for Political Science Research Seminar that analyzed World Bank data to characterize the labor market in China, worked one summer as a research fellow for a public policy think tank with published pieces in Fortune and publications posted on the think tank's website. Teaching Experience: Was a paid grader of the final exam for Theories of Economic Growth Class at the request of the professor. Letters of Recommendation: One letter from the economics professor I am working on a research project (also had him for the econ research seminar), one letter from the professor I graded the final for, and one letter from a political science professor who I know very well. Potentially an auxiliary letter from my a economist (PhD) at the consulting firm I work for. Work experience: 1.5 years at a forensic economic consulting firm dealing with discrimination and wage and hour issues. Experienced with big data and STATA, UNIX and advanced statistical techniques. I am not sure how academics view this, as I have heard mixed things.

Hello, I really appreciate any thoughts on my profile. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: Economics with honors, Math, and poli sci Majors from Top 15 economics program Undergrad GPA: 3.97 overall, 4.0 in econ and poli sci, 3.9 in math Type of Grad: NA Grad GPA:NA GRE: GRE: Q170 / V166 / AWA 5 Math Courses: calc 1-3, probability theory, linear algebra, Analysis 1, intro to Stochastic Processes, all A's , diff EQ's, and Theory of Single Variable Calc (AB's), Abstract algebra (IP). Econ Courses (grad-level): , Phd micro theory (IP) Econ Courses (undergrad-level): into micro and macro, honors intermediate micro and macro, stats for econ, econometrics, behavioral econ, public finance, senior thesis class Other Courses: Three poli sci classes I wrote data based analytical papers for. Letters of Recommendation: One from a Poli sci professor who knows me well and I wrote a quantitative paper for. One from my Honors thesis prof. He is a senior lecturer not a professor, but has a PhD from a top program and has taught at top programs. One from CEO of the research company I work for who also runs a research center at my University, PhD in public Policy from top Program. Research Experience: Data driven papers in 3 poli sci courses. Senior thesis for econ. Worked full time last summer and about 25 hours a week during this semester at an education research company, working with large data sets in R. Will work as a full time research analyst after graduating in December. Teaching Experience: Tutored for the athletic department. Worked a lot there last year and a few hours week this year. Tutored a variety of classes, intro intermediate micro/macro and advanced electives. Met with students individually and in groups on a weakly basis so I feel its comparable to TA. Research Interests: Public Policy, labour, political economy SOP: talked about papers and work experience. Emphasized my interest in public policy. Spent way too much time looking at it so hoping its pretty good. Other: This is my fifth year of undergrad; I am only in two classes right now. Applying to: Mostly top 15 with a few 20-40 range, and Harvard Kennedy school for Public Policy PhD Concerns: working a lot and spent a lot of time on apps and GRE. I couldn’t put as much time into PhD Micro theory as I would have liked, at least that’s the excuse I am currently using haha. Will likely get a B, maybe an AB. I’d be personally happy with that, but I have heard this does not look good to graduate schools, and am worried I will have overreached with most of my apps if this is the case. Very grateful for any input!!

Hello, I appreciate any feedback from anyone who has thoughts on my profile. I am having a hard time gauging what range of schools I am competitive at. PROFILE Type of Undergrad: Top 30 US News in Econ Undergrad GPA: 3.85 Econ / 3.66 Math / 3.53 overall GRE: 163(Q), 161(W), AWA(4) Retaking for a hopefully higher Quant score Math Courses: Calc 1(A), Calc 2(A), Calc 3(B), Intro to Proof ©, Differential Equations(A), Linear Algebra(B+), Intro Stats (A), Advanced Calculus (A-), Topology (A), Probability (A-), Real Analysis (Fall), Stochastic Processes (Fall) Econ Courses: Principles Micro(A+)/Macro(A+), Intermediate Micro(A)/Macro(A+), Advanced Micro(A-)/Macro(A), Mathematical Economics (A), Econometrics (A), Industrial Organization (A-), International Economics (B+). Research Experience: Undergrad Research fellow for my final year. Working with harvard grad prof. Got good results, has been very successful project so far. Use Python, R, Stata.. LOR: One from prof I do research with, harvard grad, prof at my uni and researcher at uc berkley (strong). One from math econ prof, did well, he taught a difficult course, he claims grad level (should be strong). One from econometrics prof, did well, fairly difficult course, tutor for his class (should be good). SOP: I think I've written a pretty good one, still touching it up. I don't address my overall lower GPA, don't know if I should. Lower grades in my first 2 years of uni. Seems pointless to address a C in sociology when word count is valuable. Concerns: Low GRE scores. I am retaking and hoping for at least 165+ Q. Spotty math grades. Overall low GPA. Applying to: I am applying to a lot of schools (20). Yale, Columbia, NYU, UCSD, UCLA, UT Austin, Brown, John Hopkins, Duke, Boston Col, Maryland, UCDavis, UNC Chapel Hill, UC Irvine, UCSB, Vanderbilt, Carnige Mellon, UCol Boulder, U Washington. Should I be looking to maybe shift down the range of schools I am applying to? I am hoping to be competitive in the ~ 15-30 range. Will also be applying to Fed RA programs. Thank you for the opinions.

Hello everyone, Could someone please let me know what my chances of getting into a mid tier, even a lower tier, phd econ program is? I am really worried about my GRE scores and my research experience since I don't have anything that I am especially proud of. Though I am also curious as to whether my performance in previous math classes can show that my lower quant score doesn't mean that math will be a hindrance to my success. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: BS finance at a non-ranked state school ) Undergrad GPA: 3.8 Type of Grad: terminal ma unranked grad department Grad GPA: expected 3.8+ GRE: Q162 V159 AWA 3.5 I have taken this twice now with no improvement on my quant and my second AWA scores are not available yet. Math Courses: Calc 1 (A-), Calc 2 (A), Calc 3 (A), intro and advanced linear algebra (A), math stats I (A), combinatorics (A), currently taking math stats II and real analysis but I won't finish before I apply, will take diff eq in the semester after applying to other schools. Econ Courses (grad-level): micro (A-), macro: in progress, labor (A), monetary (A), urban economics (A), Time series (B+), Applied econometrics (A-), Forecasting (A), Applied Topics with R (A) Econ Courses (undergrad-level): intro econometrics (A), intermediate macro and micro (A), international economics (A), mathematical economics (A). Letters of Recommendation: All three will be from phd professors who are actively researching and are from top 30 schools. They're well known in the area and I've done well in all their classes. Research Experience: Proficient in R, comfortable with eviews, and I am in my second year as a grad research assistant at a transportation research center that's part of the business school as opposed to the econ dept. The only academic type paper I've done is linked below, though I've worked on numerous other projects. I've also presented an undergraduate research paper at the Missouri Valley Economic Association. The Substitution of Ground Transportation for Service to Smaller Communities Now Receiving Essential Air Service Subsidies. Teaching Experience: none Research Interests: econometrics, natural resource and environmental economics SOP: n/a Concerns: poor GRE and little research experience. Other: I've received a scholarship from the econ dept for academic excellence. Applying to: Mostly mid to lower tier programs though there are two that are outside the U.S. that I'm not sure of their ranking. Currently I have hopes for University of Washington - Seattle, UC - Santa Barbara, Australia National University, Queen's University in canada, and University of Maryland - college park is my "reach" school.

Hi, I'm new here and am looking to apply to econ PhD programs this coming Fall 2016. My question pertains to the fact that I'm not coming from the typical econ/math double major or major-minor background (profile below). Typically, I've heard advice that two out of the three letters should be coming from your undergrad/grad degree, and usually I've heard something like this: 1. One letter from professor in econ or math, detailing your performance as a student 2. One letter from a thesis advisor or something you were an RA for 3. One letter from a more senior member from where you work (if out of college, like I am) However, because I don't have an econ/math background, I have no relevant research work from that time in my life. My graduate degree is in Applied Economics, but again, not much research there. Most of my research work is coming from my current job, as a Fed RA. Would it be odd or bad if I had two letters from the Fed? One letter I have lined up already: He was my professor in my grad program, now I work with him, and I am currently working on coauthoring a paper (maybe more than one) with him that should hopefully be submitted by the time I apply. I'm thinking of having one from him detailing my research capabilities and another from a more senior staff member who could use their notoriety or senior stature to discuss my work ethic. Is this too out-of-the-box to do? I don't want to appear too different from the standard applicant, which I'm afraid I already very much do. Any advice you could offer on recommendation letters or, from looking at my profile, where I should shoot for ranking-wise would be greatly appreciated. Profile: Undergrad Major: BA International Studies (private, research university, unranked econ PhD program) Undergrad GPA: 3.8 Relevant Honors: Dean's List multiple semesters, graduated Magna cum Laude, does graduating very early count as an honor? Undergrad Math Courses: Calculus I (A), Linear Algebra (B+), Real Analysis (B+) Undergrad Econ Courses: Intermediate Macro/Micro (A,A) Grad: MS in Applied Economics (private, research university, top 25 econ PhD program) Grad GPA: doesn't report, but around 3.5 Grad Math Courses: Math for Economists (A), Statistics (B) Grad Econ Courses: Macro/Micro (A, B+), Econometrics (B), International/Open-Econ Macro (A+), Regional Economics (B) bad format/professor, Macroeconometrics (A), Microeconometrics (B) professor was new, Development Micro (A), Topics in Macro (focused on banking/fin. crises models) (A) Other Courses: International Econ Policy (A), Econ. of Transnational Crime (B+) GRE: verbal and writing are fine, not where I need to be for quant, shooting for 165+ Letters of Recommendation: 1 awesome one from a former professor in my grad program who I now work with and am currently coauthoring a labor paper with, otherwise I have not figured this out (hence my discussion above) Research Experience: Fed RA, thanked in papers, worked on many projects, and am working on coauthoring a paper now Teaching Experience: volunteered to teach financial literacy, not much otherwise Research Interests: Development, Labor, Banking/Financial crises models, Macro issues SOP: Need to address my shift into econ from my undergrad degree, detail outside things I've done to increase my knowledge such as sitting in on PhD Macro class (was unable to actually register), taking free courses through MIT's Open Courseware and trying to learn more about labor search models on my own Other Stuff: Stata, Matlab, SAS, Fame (is this even relevant?), I'd say I have a pretty good understanding of theoretical models which I think is a plus Thanks!

Hi everyone! Hoping for a little feedback on my profile. Undergrad: B.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Georgia (overall GPA 3.4; Major GPA 3.72) Grad: M.S. in Marketing with a certificate in Brand and Customer Management from GSU (Grad in Dec 2014 - Current GPA 3.89) Recommendations: I have at least 4-5 professors who are active in research and well known in academia GMAT: Got a 620 last year but hoping for a anywhere between a 680-700 this year Research Experience: Merit Scholarship - Grad Research Assistant position for a full year (all of 2014) during my masters - more of a sales concentration Citizenship: U.S. (saw another poster mention this so I am too) I am hoping to get a PhD in Marketing (CB) and have a couple research topics (interpersonal relationships, household size, and direct marketing related) in mind that I intend to put in my statement of purpose (which I am having a couple friends and professors review for me). My fear is I will not get as good of a GMAT score as I am hoping. Your evaluations will be GREATLY appreciated. My top picks are UT Austin, George Washington, UCLA, BU, and USC (California). Any feedback on my profile and program recommendations will be greatly appreciated!