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Normally I would say that asking in person is the right way to go about it but now that I can't actually meet my professor in person, should I ask him by email for a recommendation letter? Or should I ask him to meet on zoom or something, I am hesitant to do this because it just seems like it would inconvenience him

There's a very nice new article out in The Journal of Economic Education titled "So you want to go to graduate school? Factors that influence admissions to economics PhD programs" You can find it (probably through your university library) at https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2020.1731385 Here is the abstract The authors survey admissions coordinators about the importance of application components in admissions decisions for economics PhD programs. The survey explores the importance of difficult-to-quantify aspects such as a targeted personal statement, strength of letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and related work experience. The most important aspects of an application are GPAs in math and economics, letters of recommendation, and GRE quantitative score. The strength of letters of recommendation carries more weight than the prominence of the letter writer. Top-25 programs place a higher value on undergraduate program rank (for students from both domestic and international universities) and strength of letters of recommendation.

I worked on a project with two professors for more than a year. One of the professors recommends that she write a joint letter of recommendation with the other professor. What could be a reason why the professor would suggest that? How do admissions committee usually view such letters?

Hello guys, Just a question out of the blue. Does anyone not waive the right to see the recommendation letters? meaning they check that they wish to see the letters after the admission cycle? Can the letter writers see that you have not waived it? and what do they think about it?

Hello, I am an international student and have an undergraduate degree in economics from India, a master's degree in economics from UK, and have been working in economics research as a Research associate at an independent think tank for last 3 years. My query is whether it is okay to have my 3 recommendations from professors from my masters only? 1. My undergrad professor will give an average recommendation most probably (it's been a lot of years now since I've graduated + she doesn't herself conduct any research. Only teaches) 2. While I have been working as a researcher, my professional recommendation, although great, would be from non-phds. Any advise is most appreciated. Thank you!

Hi everyone, I'm applying for PhD (Econ) for fall 2019 in universities in USA and Canada. Few Stats on my application, Undergrad in Economics (One of the top universities in India) Undergrad GPA: 3.3 Masters in Economics (Top 30 in UK) Masters GPA: 3.7/4 Post this I've worked with an independent research institution as a Research Associate for last 3 years in South Asia. Also recently received a research grant for $40k (in collaboration with 3 other people) GRE: 167 Q, 162 V In addition to the above, while I have strong and positive recommendation letters, I'm afraid they won't be as valuable. One is from my econometrics teacher in Undergrad (an AP but doesn't do any research), another is from my masters thesis advisor (a lecturer), and the third is from my last manager (who is currently doing her PhD from UK). None of them are known or have any connections in USA/Canada. My queries are 1. Whether I should target only 50-100 ranked unis (or worse?) ? (I don't want to get into academia, but I enjoy research and would like to work in industry with government, think tanks and such) 2. I understand recommendations from professors are really valuable. Should I drop my manager and instead get a professor from my masters program? (Their recommendation won't be as strong as my master's but I'm guessing would be worth more) Any advise would be most helpful. Thank you!

I have been out of school for 5 years. I am applying to programs this fall and have 2 of my 3 recommendation letters lined up from Professors from undergrad. They are recognized in their respective fields and will be providing good reviews (they have disclosed them to me). My question is, should I seek another professor for my 3rd recommendation? Or should this be a work reference? The work reference will provide a detailed recommendation of the quantitative work I've done in a Machine learning space, and applied statistics work (I work at a large software corporation). If I were to seek another professor recommendation, it would either be a math professor with whom I have taken only 2 classes recently in preparation for Ph.D applications. I could try to find a coworker in my space with a Ph.D, but that connection may be a bit more loose. Any/all opinions welcome. Much appreciated.

Hi! I'm hoping to get some recommendation about preparing for Econ PhD as a Non-Econ Undergraduate. I'm currently double majoring in Math and Business in Top School in South Korea (Top in Korea but not sure about its international reputation). In business, I mostly took finance courses and in economics, I took Principles of economics, Micro, Macro, Stat for Economics, International Finance. I've got 2 or 3 remaining semesters till the graduation. So my questions are: 1) For remaining semesters what economic courses do you recommend me to take? 2) Considering the circumstances of Universities in Korea, its hard to get strong recommendations as an undergraduate. So I'm actually thinking about first applying for masters in econ in USA schools. Would it help? Or are there better alternatives?

Hi everyone, while checking the status of my recommendation letters in the application portal of UCSB, I noticed that I apparently forgot to waive my right to see one of my LOR's, which has already been submitted. Unfortunately, there seems to be no possibility to delete a recommendation once it has been submitted, and the graduate office doesn't answer my requests. Obviously, I do not intend to read this LOR later and I usually always choose to waive this right, I don't know what went wrong this time. Did anyone have a similar problem before? How bad is it really to not waive this right, will it make this LOR completely worthless? Do admission committees really think that LOR writers actually pay attention to this, and change their recommendation accordingly? Any suggestions about what to do now, if UCSB does not answer? I thought about just deleting my whole application and starting a fresh one, but it seems an awful lot of trouble and also feels a bit like cheating, or could be perceived as such. I also might ask this particular recommender to notify UCSB that me not waiving this right did not have any influence on her recommendation at all. Obviously, she submitted the same letter as to every other place, where I DID wave my right to see it. Do you guys think such a mail would help? Would be great to get some experiences or feedback on this. Thanks a lot!

Hi everyone, I have the following situation regarding the choice of my LOR writers. I plan to apply to 10 programs, and I already secured two LORs for each from my undergrad and grad thesis supervisors, which should be pretty strong. However, for the 3rd recommendation, I contacted 4 Profs (call them A,B,C,D), and each of them agreed to write me a maximum of 3 'customized' recommendation letters. They are all very busy and basically they just don't want to spend the time for uploading 10 letters, filling out 10 forms, answering questions about me 10 times etc. Based on how much they know me, how 'well-known' they are themselves and how good I was in their classes, I can somehow guess how good each of their letters will be. I am pretty sure that ABC will write good letters, and they all have to tell rather much about me. With some uncertainty, I would say A>B>C. The letters from D will most likely be not as good. Even though he still has a few good things to say about me (in addition to how good my grades were), his letter may still come out just lukewarm in the end. My questions: 1) How would you match the letters of A,B and C with my programs? Does it make sense to take A for the highest ranked programs on my list, where admission may be pretty unlikely anyway? Then B for the next tier and so on? Or would it be better to save A for the reaches, where I expect to have a small, but decent chance? 2) What to do with D? Would a lukewarm third recommendation letter absolutely kill my application, even if it is just for the lowest-ranked safety, number 10 on my list (ranked 60ish)? So better don't apply there at all, if I can't get any additional letter from A,B or C? 3) Because I am not completely sure about the relative strength of ABCD, I actually thought about using the 2 remaining letters from D as an additional, 4th LOR in two of my 10 applications. They may also serve as a safety in case one of the other writers doesn't submit on time. Do you think a lukewarm, 4th LOR will do a lot of harm, if letters 1 to 3 are very strong or strong? Even though letter 4 will most likely reduce the average quality of my letters, it may still add one or two positive things about me that are not included in the other letters. In the worst case, the Adcoms will just assume that I only build strong relationships to 3 faculty members, not 4, is that really a bad signal? I know there is a lot of speculation and guessing involved here, I'm just interested what others would do in my situation. Cheers!

Hey guys, I am very concerned about my chances of getting admitted in one of these programs, and I would like an advice: PROFILE: Type of Undergrad:I am attending the last course of my Bachelor's degree in Economics in a top 10 spanish university. Undergrad GPA: I don't know exactly, I'm from Spain and my average is 7.7 out of 10 (I am the fifth of a class of 60 people), with honor mentions in Economic History and Advanced Macroeconomics. My macro & micro average is higher than my global average, and all of them have been increasing since I started. I think that a 7.7/10 average is close to a 3.4 GPA (or something like that, but I'm not sure at all). GRE:158Q, 159V, 4.0A Math Courses: [/b][/b][/b][/b][/b]all the mathematics subjects I could (no limitations here, even though my marks are not too high in this aspect). Letters of Recommendation: One from a top 600 world economist (don't know exactly how positive will it be) and two very positive, one from a top 9% economist (IDEAS ranking). Research Interests: Development Economics, Behavioral Economics, Macroeconomics, Economic Theory, technological change... SOP: I think that pretty good, focused in my personal abilities and trying to give a good impression. Concerns: Don't know my chances and I am worried about it Other: TOEFL 111 Applying to: -Barcelona GSE -CEMFI -Carlos III -Stockholm -Bocconi -VU Amsterdam I also know that my 158Q is going to hurt my possibilities but I was hoping to get a different point of view from you :) Do I have a real chance with them (specially CEMFI and Barcelona GSE)? What other schools would be a reasonable target? Thank you for your attention :D

Type of Undergrad: BA from the nation's leading department in east Asian country Undergrad GPA: 3.73/4.3 with 1 semester abroad in UCB GRE: 170 Q, 163 V, 3.5 AWA(first time, not sure if I should take it again, because of the low AWA score, and not confident if I would get a score above 4 even if I prepare more) Math Courses: Calculus 1 (A) Calculus 2 (A) (covered all the way to the multivariable calculus including Green’s and Stokes theorems), Intro Linear Algebra (A+). Linear Algebra 1 (B+), Linear Algebra 2 (A-), Modern Algebra (A), Abstract Algebra 1 (A+), Real Analysis(planning to take in fall semester, hoping for A) Econ Courses: Intro Micro (A+), Intro Macro (B+) , Stats for Econ(A-), Math for Econ(A-), Intermediate Micro (A), Intermediate Macro (B-), Public Finance (B-) Industrial organization (A+), Econometrics (A), Intl' Econ (A), Game Theory (A), will take Econ history this fall. Econ Graduate Courses: Micro (A-), IO (A-), took two graduate courses while studying abroad in UCB(Econ theory B (A-, covering General Equ. Theory and Info. Econ). Advanced Game Theory(A-, covering topics in Dynamic Programming), will take Advanced micro this fall. Other Courses: Nothing worth mentioning. Letters of Recommendation: Two letters from professors in UCB, from whom I took grad courses, epecting two letters from home institution. Expecting good words but not an excellent one. Research Experience: Not much yet. Will do a research with prof. in Game theory Teaching Experience: N/A Research Interests: Micro theory, Game theory, Industrial Organization. Little into Behavioral Econ SOP: Haven't written yet, but will be able to show some strong interest on game theory. Other: Overall, I know I'm not really prepared for the econ Phd. yet. I used to be a geography major and have changed it after attending college for three years. So the grades for the first two years of college have not been good, and I haven't taken many math courses(didn't even take the Diff. Equ. yet.) But I just wanted to see how much I can get from this year. If I don't get any admission this year, I will probably study two more years for MA in my school, hopefully getting good grad school GPA and better Letters of Recommendation. However, during my semester abroad in Berkeley, I competed with other Econ Phd. students and performed pretty well(ranked 5th out of 60 students in midterm), which I am sure will be mentioned in my letters of recommendation. My brother is studying in Caltech and my cousin is in Stanford, both pursuing Phd in engineering, so I will probably apply for the schools in California a lot(Stanford, Caltech, UCB, UCLA, UCSD), and since my passion's in Micro theory, I will also apply to NYU (please don't laugh, I know they are a long shot). It would be really nice if you people could recommend other nice schools I stand a chance of getting in. Thank you for reading and hope to get some helpful comments from you. Wish the best for all of you who's reading:)

Hi guys, I am planning to apply for business schools in fall of 2012. However, I am planning my application in advance. I studied business administration for five semesters in Germany and received a Bachelor of Science degree. During this time I spent a semester abroad at Korea University in Seoul, South Korea. After graduation I did an internship at the investment bank Societe Generale in Frankfurt, Germany. I worked in the marketing department of Global Equities and Derivatives Solutions. I had to understand how several financial derivatives, floaters, etc. work and to create brochures, do statistical backtesting and to support the sales team. I interned for 5 months. First I planned to do a master's degree, but instead I started to work as management consultant for one of the big four audit and consulting companies. I joined a management trainee program, where you are treated like every other consultant, but you receive 8 weeks of training before you actually start working and you will be assigned to two audit assignments as well as to two different consulting departments within the company, before you ultimately decide for which department you like to work for. I am working in the Finance Advisory department (and will stay there). One of my superiors will be the first recommender, when I apply to business schools. But I don't know who the second recommender should be. I received an excellent employment reference, while working at Societe Generale as an intern. Should I ask my former boss to recommend me? I haven't talked to him for about 1.5 years, but we are friends on Xing and LinkedIn. Or should I ask the audit manager, I have worked for in Luxembourg? The question is mainly: Should I ask my former boss, who is an investment banker (marketing of derivatives), though I was 'just' an intern? Or should I ask the manager I was working for recently as a full time employee - doing auditing. It was an interfirm agreement, because I am working for the German subsidiary of the company, which sent me to the Luxembourg office, because they needed assistance auditing a bank. Which recommendation would strengthen my MBA application more? I don't know if admission officers would value the investment banking experience more than the auditing experience. (My first recommender will present my management consulting skills). Do you have useful advice? By the way, I am planning to kind of shift my field of work through the MBA. Instead of finance and consulting I am aiming to work in the fields of operations management and marketing in the high tech or media industry. Thanks in advance. Kind regards Miles

I could not make up my mind to go on PHD study at the time I graduated from my master program although I felt I should. Now, after working for 3 years as an accountant at a manufacturing company, I realize that it is time for me to go for a PHD degree in Accounting. Taxation is the area I am interested in. Could any of you review my profile and give me some suggestions on which schools I should apply for? Thanks a lot! Bachelor in accounting from a college outside US, GPA 3.4 Courses taken: Accounting related courses, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Finance, SPSS, Calculus, Algebra, Probability, Statistics, etc. Master in Economics from a US university, GPA 3.5 Courses taken: Advanced Microeconomics One & Two, Advanced Macroeconomics One & Two, Real Analysis One and Two, Econometrics, and Advanced Statistics. No research experiences. No publications. What I do at work: Cost Management & Accounts Receivables GMAT: Total 750, V 40, Q 51, W 4.5 Recommendation Letter: I do not think I can get strong recommendation letters since I haven't been in touch with my professors for more than two years, and I did not impress any of my professors in my master's study. :) Based on the info above, I guess I do not have a good shot at top universities like HBS, MIT, Wharton, as the competition is getting severe among applicants in this couple of years. How about NYU, USC, or Pen State? Any other schools good at Taxation? Any of your advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am visiting with my favourite faculty this week. How do I make my request for recommendations less awkward. Also, am I mad to ask my favorite professor for a LOR because I got a B in his class? He understands that I'm more capable than the grade suggests. To be honest I'm going to ask him regardless of what the advice is... just wondering what you thought out there.