Profile evaluation (Comparative/Methodology)

[giraff]

Schools Applying To: Top choice is UCSD (superb fit, have Skype-talked with 3 professors about my intended application, at least one seemed thrilled). UCLA, UPenn, NYU, Chapel Hill, Chicago. Accepting suggestions!
Undergraduate institution: international student, underdeveloped place, attended the most "prestigious" school in the country.
Undergraduate GPA: no clue. Undergrad grades for Economics in my country are heavily skewed towards zero. Hoping to explain it in SoP and make up for it with grad ones.
Undergraduate Major: Economics
Graduate institution: same as undergrad
Graduate GPA: 3.79
Graduate course: International Relations, research
Teaching experience: teaching assistant, Statistics 2
Research experience: researcher associated to the institution, Master thesis, undergraduate research funded and presented at local university conference (independent research), co-autored paper (still working paper) as first author. Master thesis and paper are related to my main macro-interest in Ph.D
Conferences & Publications: no publications. Presented poster in a a Canadian institution conference held here and accepted poster to be presented overseas in a conference jointly held by an American known university. Presented working paper in a regional conference and accepted working paper in a major American conference. All of those in my macro-area of interest. Other minor conferences attendances.
GRE Scores: 161/161/4.0. Will retake in a couple of days, but not confident will keep my Verbal 161, so might use this in the end.
Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 4, finished Masters this year
Years of Work Experience: 3 full-time, plus time as undergraduate researcher.
Describe Relevant Work Experience: currently coordinate the legislative analysis in the government relations department in the local branch of a huge multinational. Often report Legislative analysis to the global office. Have to report legislative and political trends, committees activity, and write up my personal interpretation of political affairs for directors, industry associations and the board.  Employ statistical analysis to identify Legislative clusters of representatives aligned with companies interests. Planned and implemented the advocacy group in a small NGO in my location related to my Master thesis main topic. Other experience includes measuring economic impact of critical bills and public policy.
Quant Experience: TA of Statistics, applied advanced quant methodology in my master thesis (Writing Sample will be a trimmed version of it), graduate-level summer school in causal inference and computational tools. Plus all the quant that comes with Economics undergrad (calculus, linear algebra, econometrics, time series, spatial econometrics, and so on).
Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): Comparative-Legislative-focus on Latin America, explaining relevant research experience in this area. plus work experience that is totally relatable. Will mention quant background and experience with models. Have interests clear, choosing departments according to them.
Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): My master's thesis advisor (not recognized overseas, but he is the person who most closely know my research). Professor who orgnizes the Methodology PoliSci group I attend, has close ties with Top 10 departments in the US. Professor who I briefly worked with and is largely recognized in Comparative overseas. All three from my country.
Languages: Spanish, English

Sorry if it got too long. Dunno, super insecure with GRE and such, especially because UCSD has an average of 166V/164Q.

Edited October 30, 2019 by giraff
typo

[casbahboy]

Hi! I can't tell you how you'll do in the application process because I am in it too. Honestly, I have no idea how it works other than the many contradictory things people say on the website. But I share your feelings of uncertainty, just wishing you new what to do to make up for the problem in your application. Best of luck, I hope that knowing we are in it together helps.