TheLifeofPablo

yea, the us and uk. how decent is the funding at UTA for master's students? do a lot kids graduate without a shit ton of debt? do they let you TA or do some paid research to subsidize the cost?

Stanford IPS, google it

I'm looking to see if there are any top terminal econ master's programs out there that offer a decent amount of funding. Literally 80% of the top terminal econ master's programs I've seen appear to be marketed towards Chinese nationals who are willing to pay full sticker price. The only school I've encountered that fits my preferences is Tufts (who say they have some funding available for master's students) and perhaps a couple others. Do you guys know of any other such programs?

A lot of schools give you a pity master's degree if you drop out of their PhD program. I don't think you would find a lot of folks who drop out of an Econ PhD program and then subsequently apply to a terminal econ master's. Why would they if they already got a pity master's for dropping out?

Well, in the United States, one can go directly into a PhD program after undergrad. You really don't have to do a master's if you know for fact you're doing a PhD, but you can if you want to. If you decide to do a master's first, I don't think you should be concerned about your competitiveness for US PhD programs with a degree from a university that is as widely respected in American academia as Oxford...especially considering the research intensive nature of Oxford MPhils. It shows that you'd be a great fit at any elite PhD program.

More than adequate. In fact, you'll be ahead of more than a few applicants. If you really want to knock some socks off, take a linear algebra course in addition to your current coursework (but only if you feel that you can handle it, don't mess up your GPA over something that's optional!)