Kevin Howard

Hi guys, so I am masters student at Social Science Division at UChicago (AKA the MAPSS) with a concentration of interdisciplinary studies. (One year research-oriented program, and a good prep for PhD). I am passionate about studying economic policies, developmental studies, game theory with a special concentration in Asian Economy (Greatly due to my undergrad background in Economics, and East Asian Studies), so likely I would like to pursue a PhD degree in either public policy or economics in the future. However, my background, well, does not quite follow a somewhat typical Economics PhD student. Don't get me wrong, I did have a very solid academic background in the sense that I went to a top 25 school for undergrad (somewhere in California), and completed a B.A in Econ and a minor in East Asian Studies with a GPA over 3.85. My GRE is at least Decent as I had a 160 V 170 Q and 4.0AWA (which I am thinking about retaking during the summer). The thing is, as an Econ student, I basically have zero research experience, and minimal math background. I was leaning towards a career track thus spent most of the summer doing internship. Since I graduated last December, I was hired at a large insurance company as a trainee so I can payoff my grad school bills. I was trying to graduate 3.5 years with a minor that is unrelated to Econ so I basically had to force myself to choose a B.A which gives me more electives rather than a B.S that requires more units in math. Plus the EALC Minor was particularly time consuming as it requires up to 16 courses (about the same requirement as a major). Which unfortunately means, I did not have the chance to take Linear Algebra, Real Analysis, and Matrix Multivariate. I don't regret choosing EALC as a minor since I really enjoyed learning Japanese and exploring Japanese/Chinese culture and philosophy, but let's try to be practical here, the review committee of a top ECON PhD ain't gonna give a shit about these... All they care about are 1). Whether you have a solid MATH background. 2). Whether you have a solid research experience (Publications too!). 3). Whether your LOR is from a Nobel Laureate. During my one year at UChicago, I guess I can improve on 2), and maybe even 3) if I brown-nose my way through. But as for getting a solid foundation of math. I mean we only get 1 year here and we need to work on our Masters Thesis, plus the quarter system means that I need to take a sequel of classes in data analysis, and two other requirement classes. Which sadly means I can only fit in 1-2 math courses (and this is me being extremely optimistic). Plus my advisor said the there are extremely strict rules for non-econ admitted students (I was admitted interdisciplinary) to take math and econ related courses at UC department of ECON or MATH. Which means, by the time I walked off from this program, I still lack the essential background of knowledge for me to even be considered a strong candidate since I lack so much of the foundation knowledge of math. I used to think that with my credentials and hard work, I am able to easily apply to a top school and study the subject I am so craved of studying. But now, I am really depressed about it and I realized that perhaps I can never achieve that dream. (Due to my financial background, applying for a second masters in Math is not an viable option for me. I can either go back to my job, which pays pretty decently, or research for a year and apply for a PhD, which likely means I wasted a year and gets 10+ rejects).