Profile Eval & Where Should I Aim?

[tutonic]

With regards to the ranking, you can just use the USNEWS ranking of schools. That's the ranking that's most commonly referred to.

 

With regards to which range of schools to apply, you should consult the past Profiles & Results threads from the last 5 years or so, and try to find comparable profiles (both in terms of grades, but more importantly, someone from a similarly ranked school). While some schools may overlook the lack of proper math classes if you have graduate classes, that is not the case for your profile. Furthermore, you are also lacking in research experience.

 

Like what Bayes mentioned above, the best way to find out what range of schools you ought to apply to is to:

1) find out where past applicants from your school have gotten into.

2) either provide a list of schools to your letter writers, and ask their feedback on it, or straight-up just ask them what range of schools do they think you're competitive for.

 

If you really wish to strive for a higher ranked school (Top 30 or maybe even higher), then a full-time RA position is the only way forward.

 

Below are 3 profiles of past applicants from the 2016 Profiles & Results thread that come from similarly ranked schools. There is an abundance of information available in the threads that you should tap on. You can also learn from some of the mistakes others have made during past application season.

 

PROFILE:

Type of Undergrad: Top 200 USNWR, very small PhD program, BA Economics, minors: Math and Health Systems Administration

Undergrad GPA: 3.86

Type of Grad: None

Grad GPA:

GRE: 163Q, 157V, 4.0AW

Math Courses: Calc I-III(B+,A-,A) Multidimensional Mathematics A+, Diff Eq in progress, Linear Algebra in progress, Intro to Proofs in progress

Econ Courses: UG: Intro Micro/Macro, Intermediate Micro/Macro, Undergraduate Math Econ, Econ/Business Stats, Health Econ, Money and Banking, Econometrics, Senior Seminar. Grad: Math Econ (All A or A+)

Other Courses: a few Computer Science and Engineering software courses.

Letters of Recommendation: I would imagine they would have to be fantastic for my profile to get accepted where I did, all were instructors I had from top 40 or better schools.

Research Experience: None, outside of pretty extensive Health Econ paper

Teaching Experience: Math tutor at a local high school (employed by district).

Research Interests: Macro/Public

SOP: Seemed pretty basic, explained how I came around to wanting a PhD late in the game, what drew me to get my PhD, career goals ect.

Concerns: I would have to say my lack of math was my primary concern, my GRE wasn't great but I knew it wouldn't hold me back too much and I really didn't think it would have been worth it to try to get a couple more math questions right. Lack of research experience was also something that worried me.

 

RESULTS:

Acceptances: Missouri, Kentucky, North Carolina

Waitlists: Georgia? (Initially waitlisted, asked if interested and said I wasn't, not sure where to place it)

Rejections: Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan State, WUSTL

Pending: Purdue

Attending: Kentucky

Comments: Alright it might sound crazy to pick Kentucky over North Carolina, but I really loved my visit there. Their faculty seemed great and I really liked the structure and size of the program.

 

What would you have done differently? If I could go back and figure out this is what I wanted to do when I first went to college that would have been great, but with the way things progressed I really can't complain about the outcome. Maybe I could have tried harder to get a RA position and maybe have taken another math class or two, but I am extremely happy with my season.

 

PROFILE:

Type of Undergrad: BA in math, flagship state university ranked 80's in US News, no econ grad program.

Undergrad GPA: 3.63

Type of Grad: MA in Econ at a flagship state university in a different state with a masters but no doctoral program

Grad GPA: 4.0

GRE: 170V /168Q /5 AW

Math Courses (undergrad level): Calc I/II/III (A-/B/B) Linear Algebra (B+) Fundamentals of Math (intro to proofs) (A) Ordinary Differential Equations (B+) Combinatorial Theory (A) Abstract Algebra I (A-) Applied Probability (A) Elementary Number Theory (A-) Mathematical Biology and Ecology (A) Graph Theory (A) Real Analysis I (A) Probability and Statistics I (A)

Math Courses (masters level): Mathematical Statistics (A)

Econ Courses (undergrad level): Intermediate micro (A)

Econ Course (masters level): Micro I/II (A/A) Econometrics I/II (A/A) Macro (A)

Letters of Recommendation: One from the prof I RA for, one from a micro prof and one from an econometrics prof. I think they were strong but probably not phenomenal.

Research Experience: 2 years as an RA in my master’s program and master’s thesis, both completely unrelated to my stated research interests.

Teaching experience: Taught high school math for a few years

Research Interests: Public Economics, Health, Labor, Education … still figuring things out

SOP: Decent I suppose. I'd like to believe I write well but lack of definite research interests made it difficult.

Concerns: Because my husband and I were applying to PhD programs at the same time, my biggest concern was that we wouldn't receive any matching offers. I also had no idea where I'd be competitive since my masters program rarely sends anyone to pure econ PhDs. I have a bunch of math, but got B's in easy classes like Calc and Linear Algebra, and I wasn't sure how ad coms would value math classes that have nothing to do with econ (e.g. Abstract Algebra, Graph Theory).

 

RESULTS:

Acceptances: Ohio State, Michigan State, UIUC, Purdue, NC State, University of Oregon, Syracuse, Iowa State, UI Chicago, Georgia State, UConn, UMN Applied Econ

Waitlists: None

Rejections: Rice

Pending: None

Attending: Syracuse

Comments: I realize it seems somewhat crazy to go with Syracuse over schools like MSU and OSU (particularly because MSU offered me a very generous fellowship), but I'm content with the decision. Things happened in my personal life this year that made staying close to my family (who are in New England) much more of a consideration. I also really liked the department at Syracuse when I visited, it seemed tight-knit and supportive, which is just what I'm looking for. It was tough to turn down MSU, as I had a great visit there and realize that I'm passing up a great opportunity.

 

Type of Undergrad: B.S. Business Administration, Major in Economics from medium-sized Catholic school with no PhD program. Math classes have since been taken at a large state school, with an unranked PhD program. Both schools' undergrad ranked below top 100 US News.

Undergrad GPA: 3.94 (Summa Cum Laude); Econ: 3.88; Math & Statistics: 3.66 (all A’s except C in Calc II); including all classes I’ve taken since my undergrad: 3.91

Type of Grad: NA

Grad GPA: NA

GRE: Q-170, V-162, AW- 5.5

Math Courses: Business Statistics I & II (A, A), Honors Calc I (A), Calc II ©, Calc III (A), Intro to Differential Equations (A+), Intro to Linear Algebra (A), Intro to Probability (A), Intro to Real Analysis I @ grad level (A)

Econ Courses (grad-level): NA

Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Micro (A), Macro (A), Money and Banking (A), Game Theory (A), Econometrics (A), Intermediate Micro (B+), Intermediate Macro (A-), Independent Study/Thesis (A), Economic Development (A-), Honors Econ Seminar (A), History of Economic Thought (A)

Other Courses: Honors Program and Business Core Curriculum

Letters of Recommendation: My thesis advisor (Econ PhD), game theory professor (Math PhD), and real analysis professor (Math PhD).

Research Experience: Co-authored thesis with professor using 2000 and 2010 census and a variety of crime data, presented at a conference. Familiar with Stata and R.

Teaching Experience: 2 years teaching with Teach For America.

Research Interests: development, applied micro (labor, public finance, urban)

SOP: Nothing noteworthy.

Concerns: Not a lot of math and statistics, little research experience, undergrad institutions, intermediate micro grade.

Other: Familiar with basic coding

Results-

Acceptances: OSU (University Fellowship), UNC (TA/RA), Pitt (tuition waiver + high on priority waitlist for fellowship), NC State (on the list for potential funding), George Washington (Initially waitlisted for funding, but got TA/RA before I declined), and George Mason (had already been accepted to OSU and I declined before any funding had been offered).

Rejections: Duke, BU, and Maryland seem like they rejected me right away; Carnegie Mellon/Tepper, Georgetown, and BC were pretty late to let me know I was rejected (I think I made it to the last internal round).

Attending: OSU.

Comments: I got very lucky that some alumni from my undergrad did really well on the job market last year and that my thesis advisor has been publishing non-stop in the time since I graduated. I did not expect to break into the top 40 but got 3, mostly based on factors outside of my control (although I'm sure the GRE Q and graduate real analysis helped).

What would you have done differently?: Applied to NSF (had too much going on and missed the deadline), taken some more rigorous computer/statistics courses to be competitive for RA work, and tried to take an advance micro class to make up for the B+ in intermediate micro.