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Hi all, I'm new to this forum, so I just thought I would introduce myself and ask for some advice while I'm at it. Home:Southeastern Pennsylvania Current Institution: McGill University, 2nd year Program: Joint Honours in Economics and English Literature (more on that below) Favorite Economist: Paul Krugman (I know it's cliché, but his tweets are savage) Post-Graduation Plan: Pursue a PhD in economics with a specialization in development economics So, now that that's out of the way, one of the main reasons I created an account here is because I really need some advice, whether that comes in the form of some unpleasant truth or some words of comfort (of course I'd prefer the latter, but please do be honest). For starters, it is true that the English component of my degree is mostly a personal passion thing; that being said, it also serves a practical purpose. The bare Honours Econ degree here does not guarantee that you will be able to get research experience; however, with the Joint Honours with English, I will likely get to write a research paper that will be interdisciplinary, and right now it looks like it might be as much as 30% hard econ research, which I figure can't hurt on an application. My advisors have assured me that as long as I continue to do well in my econ and math courses–with the exception of two semesters of French, all my electives outside of Econ and English will be math–the fact that my English degree has little to no bearing on econ won't hurt me on grad school apps. That being said, I am an extremely anxious person, and while I love my English courses and, for both the personal and practical reasons, likely won't give up the English component, I am still a bit worried about my overall appeal to grad schools. I am currently in my second of three years at McGill (I am graduating a year early thanks to a lot of AP credits) so I will be starting to get my apps together over the summer. I am including hear a personal profile/brief CV, as well as a tentative, though fairly solid, list of grad schools I plan on applying to. I'm just putting this out there to see what sorts of advice you guys might have, in the hopes that things aren't as bad as I think but with the understanding that I may get back advice I don't like. So here it goes: NB: the highest grade you can get at McGill is an A, no A+s here CGPA: 3.93 GRE: 167Q, 167V, 6AW Econ courses completed by graduation w/ grades if available: Honours Micro (2 semesters, A), Economic Development (A), Honours Macro (2 semesters), Honours Econometrics (2 semesters), Honours Advanced Theory (2 semesters), 2 electives (one of which will hopefully be an independent research project and the other a masters level course) Math courses completed by graduation w/ grades if availble: Calc 1 (AP Credit), Calc 2 (A-), Calc 3 (A), Advanced Calculus, Intro to Stats 1 (AP Credit), Intro to Stats 2 (A), Linear Algebra and Geometry (A), Ordinary Differential Equations, Real Analysis Other Info: small but paid internship this past summer (figure this won't count for much), Skype tutor kids in Kenya for an NGO my development prof runs (the only reason this might count is because my intended stream is development), helped to found an egalitarian Jewish group on campus, writer for the Business Review, made Dean's Honours List my first year Again, any advice is appreciated. Thanks! PS: This is a very strange and probably stupid question, but it also does worry me that I am a Jewish male applying for a PhD Program in economics. Since Jews are already VERY well represented in this field, could that be a point against me?