plottedfour3250 Posted September 24, 2022 Share Posted September 24, 2022 (edited) Hoping to pursue a masters as a move towards admission to the best PhD program I can get into, preferable T50 at the lowest. Undergrad: Unranked Public US School, but sits as an R2. Currently taking math classes at a T10 institution. Major: Economics GPA: 3.9 Econ Courses: Micro/Int Micro: (A/B+) Macro/Int Macro (A/A) Econometric I&II (A/A-) and then about 15 credit hours in 400 level electives all As Math Courses: Calc I (A) Calc II (B) Linear Algebra (B) Calc III (A) Business Stats I&II (A-/A) Recommendations: Strong recommendation from my dept. chair and another professor whom I did many electives with. Exp: Unfortunately, I really never planned in undergrad to do Economics long-term. After some time pursuing policy work after graduation, I realized my heart wasn't in it and I really missed more analytical work. So I have no true research experience outside of my undergraduate thesis (which was completed during the pandemic). I was struggling to find RA positions when I decided to make the switch, as I didn't have strong math/coding backgrounds at the time, so I ended up becoming a data analyst and re-enrolling in school in the meantime. Programs I am hoping to apply to: Top/reach: Oxford, Duke, UT at Austin, UBC, LSE, UToronto, NYU, PSE Others on my list: Boston U, U of Wisconsin, U of Oregon, Ludwig Maximillian, Barcelona, Mannheim, Sciences Po I'm happy to take any advice for what other courses I could take come spring to boost my opportunities/any advice for other programs I should look into. (Hope this belongs here. Saw a post recommending to post masters profile evals in the PhD forum.) ***Beyond no RA experience, my other concern is my Calc II and Linear Algebra grades. I started attending school after a few years off and my job takes up a lot of time. It was pretty hard for me to keep up with memorizing Calc while working and my summer Linear Algebra course final tanked my A to a B. I found the material to be easy and more-so really struggled with time management at the end of it all. This felt especially true because of how easily I aced Calc III. Not sure if retaking is worth it, I am planning to continue taking higher courses in my master's that I think would help offset this. Edited September 24, 2022 by plottedfour3250 Left out note for program described in the post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
startz Posted September 24, 2022 Share Posted September 24, 2022 Given you now have data analyst experience, you should seriously consider doing a pre-doc rather than a master's. This will also let you take a couple of more math courses at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plottedfour3250 Posted September 24, 2022 Author Share Posted September 24, 2022 Yeah at first pre-doc is what I was hoping to do, but as I've been going through the process it seems extremely competitive, with some friends who went to elite master's and have a lot of experience using pre-docs to wait out the chaos that has been the last two application cycles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissEconomist Posted September 26, 2022 Share Posted September 26, 2022 I think the big question regarding the Predoc vs Master decision is whether you rather want to do your PhD in the US or in Europe. But given that your bachelor is from a no-name university I think it would be anyway a good idea to do a master at a good university. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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