Slutsky_Walrus

What's your math background like? I can't speak for any of the other programs, but if your math background ends with Calc I&II, you're gonna have a bad time at UBC...

Repec isn't a definite rankings list, but sometimes it can be useful. http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.germany.html

I'm originally from Toronto, but just finished up at Waterloo.

Well how early did you get accepted? If you were a first round offer or relatively early, then I dont see why you wouldn't get in again next year. But if you got one of the last seats available, then obviously it could go either way.

Nah I decided to just get a room and share a place with someone. What pet are you bringing with you? A dog?

On the econ side, this is the general trend I've seen/heard: GRE: Quant is the usually the one that matters, at least160 (80th percentile) GPA: Generally anything below 3.5 will get you auto-rejected at top schools (like a GRE Q below 160) Publications: If you have any that's great, but most undergrads coming out do not have them. So definitely helps you if you do, but won't hurt you if you don't. Undergrad thesis: Exactly 1 person in the world cares about you undergrad thesis - you. Research interests: There aren't any that are better than another, but you should be aware of each school's general strengths when applying Now the math courses list is slightly more tricky. The golden rule is more math the better. But you should at the minimum have all A's in calculus courses (single and multivariate), real analysis, algebra courses (linear and abstract). and I'm probably missing some. Now, you may be missing one or more of the core math courses and you might get in anyway, but that means you're already a step behind everyone else. And playing catch up at a top school, or at any school, is not a good idea.

I emailed a few months places last night and they were all filled. I'm also starting to get a wee bit nervous myself!

Well I figured I'd run into another MA Econ student around here! Where are you coming from?

As it's been said in countless previous threads, email the department and tell them. Don't make up a sob story, just tell them you believe UBC will be a better school for your professional development. I honestly don't know if there will be consequences, but personally I feel that grad directors probably won't even remember your name in an year or two unless you particularly stand out for whatever reason. But on the other hand, academia is a pretty small community... so who knows. If you do end up choosing UBC, see you there in September!

I can only speak from the little bits of info I've seen on cases like this. With that said, I have not heard of a single applicant accepting a LSE/UCL/Warwick/Oxford offer over a funded one from a decent school - UBC/Toronto in Canada, and I've seen cases of people choosing BGSE, Toulouse, U3CM, etc. Obviously those schools don't have quite the brand name as LSE or Oxford, but as long as you go to a decent enough school for your undergrad/MA, it's really not as big of a factor when applying I think. With that all said though, as a Canadian applicant I chose an unfunded UBC offer over funded offers I had. Not necessarily to better my chances at a PhD, but for other reasons.

mizan, are you an international student?

I had an email worded almost exactly the same - higher than usual number of first round offers were accepted, we do not know if further offers will be sent out, etc. I ended up getting into that program. I had another program tell me that they can't offer me funding, and if I'd still like to be considered. I said yes, got in, and that's where I'm headed in the fall. In other words, until they say "sorry try again", it's still very much possible.

For a second I was wondering if I was on EJMR

Got my final official rejection today, although I knew that was the case a while back. So no more loose ends!

I don't know about the engineering side, but everything I've heard about UBC for my discipline says all the big name faculty are busy doing their own research and won't bother much with students unless they're PhD students. Ie. undergrads and masters students don't see them much. The little I've read about UBC-O today (I didn't even know there was a campus out there, I'm going to UBC Vancouver this fall) seems to indicate a small program with a lot of faculty-student interaction regardless of student level. If OP can go to UBC-O and kick ass, ie. graduate top of his class, along with getting to know faculty well, then it might be the better option even without considering the 80k.