Johnnie_Walker

Hi econhopeful23, let me start by saying that I am by no means an expert of what it takes to get admitted into a Econ PhD program. That said, it seems to me your profile is not horrible at all, especially given your target grad schools. The general sense that I got from the comments often posted in these forums is that: 1) LORs matter A LOT, especially if who is recommending you has numerous connections and is known by someone in the faculty associated with the PhD program you are going to apply for; 2) The GRE is very often the first screening tool adcoms use and, if the scores are pretty low, it can be very well the only thing the adcom will look at in your entire application before throwing it away (it's sad to say, but that's the way it is...). There indeed exist some thresholds above which your application is worth assessing, most of the applicants say this is the 90° percentile in the Quant part. But who really knows...; 3) The more math courses you have taken before applying, the better it is. Always; 4) Funding is a quite delicate topic, since there are universities which grant scholarships to all admitted students, while there are others who allocate resources only to the best applicants. It's worth to check out each program's webpage for more precise information about this. 5) All in all, the competition for admission into Econ PhDs in the US is very fierce, but (I guess) less so the more you move down in the rankings. So don't get your hopes up! I applied to Vanderbilt too with a MS in Management Engineering with specialization in Business Econ (earned with full marks from a good, but pretty unknown in the Econ field, polytechnic university in Europe) and a MS in Econ earned from a quite known grad school in the US (top 20 in the Econ field). Let's see how it goes! All the best!

Hi everybody, I am from Europe and am going to start a graduate program in Economics this coming fall. My interests are Development, Micro (especially Income Inequalities) and Financial Development. So far I have received several admission offers, with Georgetown University and Barcelona GSE being objectively the best universities I have heard back from (even if I was also admitted into Bocconi PhD program, but already rejected it due to personal reasons). I have only few days to make a definitive decision (BGSE wants me to reply to them only by next Monday!), so now I desperately need your help in order to choose the best option between these two universities. Georgetown allows me to enter directly into their 5-year PhD program, whereas BGSE forces me to attend their 2-year Master first (which leads to 3 consequent years in which you exclusively do research and finally earn their doctorate degree in addition to the Master degree you already have got then). In some rankings Georgetown dominates BGSE, while the opposite is true in other rankings. For this reason, I would not rely too much on academic standing to prefer one to the other (or am I wrong?). Finally, both of such offers are unfunded. I know this means I am into a quite hard situation, but fortunately I think to be able to manage my first year of study thanks to my finances (I have been working for 1 year just to fund my future first year of Master/PhD). Once in one of these two universities, I will really commit myself to study hard so as to (hopefully) get some financial support from 2° year on. I have not a clue about how Washington and Barcelone are, since I have visited none of them so far. I know Georgetown could maybe be better in placing me more easily into international institutions (like World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks), which represent my dream destination. Nevertheless, some of last BGSE Master and PhD graduates are now working in such institutions, so perhaps this is not a real point of distinction. Any information/advice is really welcome! Thanks in advance.

Hi everybody, I am from Europe and am going to start a graduate program in Economics this coming fall. My interests are Development, Micro (especially Income Inequalities) and Financial Development. So far I have received several admission offers, with Georgetown University and Barcelona GSE being objectively the best universities I have heard back from (even if I was also admitted into Bocconi PhD program, but already rejected it due to personal reasons). I have only few days to make a definitive decision (BGSE wants me to reply only by next Monday!), so now I desperately need your help in order to choose the best option between these two universities. Georgetown allows me to enter directly into their PhD program, whereas BGSE forces me to attend their 2-year Master first(which very likely leads to 3 consequent years in which you exclusively do research and finally earn their doctorate degree). In some rankings Georgetown dominates BGSE, while the opposite is true in other rankings. For this reason, I would not rely too much on academic standing to prefer one to the other (or am I wrong?). Finally, both of such offers are unfunded. I know this means I am into a quite hard situation, but fortunately I think to be able to manage my first year of study thanks to my finances (I have been working for 1 year just to fund my future first year of Master/PhD). Once in one of these two universities, I will really commit myself to study hard so as to (hopefully) get some financial support from 2° year on. I have not a clue about how Washington and Barcelone are, since I have visited none of them so far. I know Georgetown could maybe be better in placing me more easily into international institutions (like World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks), which represent my dream destination. Nevertheless, some of last BGSE Master and PhD graduates are now working in such institutions, so perhaps this is not a real point of distinction. Any information/advice is really welcome! Thanks in advance.