Rohanps

As I interview at my workplace, I occasionally receive them and they always come off as needy and "try-hard". I'd suggest avoiding sending them entirely.

That's very interesting about the funding point - I think most of the universities I listed are private, and the websites of the state ones do indicate they provide funding to some people. Guess I'll just have to take my chances Ended up re-taking the GRE today, with the results V: 165 and Q: 168. Am reasonably happy with those (and am expecting an AW score of at least 4.5) so even if they're borderline for the likes of Harvard, I think they should be ok for other places. Now I just need to ensure my LoRs are as strong as they should be and that my SoP is well put together. Plenty of time left for that though!

Thanks for the reply! My main area of interest is actually empirical IO - I've an idea for a modified technique relating to demand estimation that I want to explore. However, as far as I'm aware, US unis don't require a specific research proposal prior to being admitted - is that correct? (I know UK ones do require a detailed proposal.) I'll probably have another go at the GRE to see if I can boost my quantitative score at all, but I'm not too concerned about that as long as my current score won't preclude me from getting funding.

By way of background, I have been away from academia for about 7 years now, but before that I obtained a First at undergrad an Distinction at Masters level in Economics from Warwick university. Although my work since leaving university has been economics-based it's more consultancy than research, so probably isn't that relevant. What is relevant, however, is that I have a fair amount of research experience: I was a Summer Research Intern at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, did one undergrad dissertation and one graduate dissertation; and have recently put together one working paper written in my spare time (although just rejected by Economics Letters, I'll submit it elsewhere soon), and one research paper in progress atm. My LoR are likely to be quite good, albeit rather UK-centric: one from my Masters dissertation supervisor (relatively well known applied econometrician), one from the econometrician the firm I work for has on retainer (he's head of economics at a UK university) and hopefully one from my undergrad dissertation supervisor. Having just taken the GRE, with scores of 165 Q and 167 V (AW TBC), I was wondering whether that would preclude me from making it past the first hurdle for admittance to (and/or funding for) my desired universities. In particular, I'm applying to Northwestern (my first choice, really), Chicago, Harvard, NYU, Duke, Minnesota, Michigan Ann Arbor, Wisconsin Madison, Ohio State, Johns Hopkins, and UoI Urbana). Obviously that list encompasses quite a wide range, but I'd appreciate any advice/comments as to whether some might be a bit (or a lot) of a reach.

An update on this: 31/10: ETS Power Prep Test 2 - 169Q - 167 V 7/11: Manhattan test 3 - 161 Q / N/A V (just took the quant sections) Today: GRE Proper - 165 Q / 167 V (order of test was VQVQV) I am really disappointed at my quantitative score in the real GRE. The first quant section was at the same level of the Power Prep test, but the second Quant section was much harder (some questions as hard as those in the Manhattan quant practice). However, I'm not sure if I should re-take the test as the quant 90th percentile is exactly where the cut-off for most of the programs to which I want to apply. Any advice/thoughts are welcome :)

Two different baseless accusations in two paragraphs. That's really quite impressive!

Yep, those are the tests to which I was referring

My progress thus far (along with rough dates) has been: 26/9: ETS Paper 1 - 161Q / 164 V 3/10: ETS Power Prep Test 1 - 170 Q / 161 V 10/10: Manhattan Diagnostic - 167-170Q 17/10: ETS Paper 2 - 163 Q / 165 V 24/10: Manhattan Test 1 - 163Q / 160 V 29/10: Manhattan test 2 - 163 Q / N/A V (just took the quant sections) As everything seems to be hovering around the low 160s, the 170Q Powerprep result still seems a bit of an oddity. However, I'm clinging onto that with some hope that I can get the 165+ that I need as I have the actual GRE scheduled for a couple of weeks from now. Will update with additional practice tests and actual results in due course.