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I am an Indian student who is about to start his undergraduate degree in Economics (B.A. Hons.) from one of the top universities in India. While my academic experience of economics is still inadequate, my interest in the social sciences and mathematics is quite deep, based on my reading outside the curriculum and experience with some college textbooks. Additionally, I feel my talents have always been academic. Even though I have yet to decide for sure, I am most probably going to do research in Economics. At the very least, I plan to do a master's in the subject. My question is a general one: given that I am going to do a three-year undergraduate degree (with no double major option, so direct admission to a PhD is anyway impossible), how should I proceed to eventually end up in a T20 PhD? More specifically, (1) which master's degree will prepare me the best for a T20? (2) which master's degree is reasonably priced and/or funded? (a maximum, say, of 50,000 USD) (3) are UK M.Phil/MSc courses worth the high fees given that paying 50,000 USD in a single year, while possible, will be tough for my family (4) if possible, should I get 2-3 years work experience after my B.A. to fund further studies (will it hurt future applications?) and (5) what are the particular things I should try to add to my CV from now onwards? Obviously, my academic track record is yet to be proven. But I was a 99 percentile SAT student and my high school marks are among the best in my school (top 5 in a batch of 1000). So for the sake of this discussion, I am assuming that I shall perform at a similar level in my GRE and undergraduate courses. Thank you!

I am just curious which schools usually considers as T20 or T30 for marketing CB. In my personal opinion, the "top" schools are: Stanford UPenn Chicago Northwestern Columbia Yale Duke U Michigan NYU USC And the schools in T20 would be Indiana U U Toronto UBC U Maryland U Minnesota U Pittsburgh UIUC Any thoughts?