MA Economics - PhD stepping stone

[sh33n]

Hello all. I am planning to pursue a terminal Masters's in economics in the fall of 2021. My undergrad was in finance with a 3.5 GPA and I achieved A marks in intro micro/macro. B in Calc I and B+ statistics. I currently work full time, and I am planning on taking Calc II during a winter term session online to set my self up for Calc III and Linear algebra in the spring to prepare me for grad school and help bolster my application. Thus far on my recent GRE practice exams, I scored a 166 Quant and 159 Verbal and plan to take it in a month.

It was difficult to find rankings for terminal MA programs, but below is the seemingly best resource I could find. https://www.collegechoice.net/rankings/best-masters-degree-programs-in-economics/

Based on the limited information provided would someone be able to shed some light on my chances at a top program? My goal is to do well in the Masters and use it as a potential stepping stone for a PhD in economics.

Additionally, any advice/suggestions would be tremendous. I am particularly interested in macro-econ and macro-finance / monetary economics. (role of money markets and repo's, banks & shadow banks, euro-dollars, financialization and globalization, international monetary system, etc.)

[AreebaSuhail]

do people go straight for PhD in economics after bachelors?

[2711383]

 

18 minutes ago, AreebaSuhail said:

do people go straight for PhD in economics after bachelors?

In the US, yes. In Europe, no. 

20 hours ago, sh33n said:

It was difficult to find rankings for terminal MA programs, but below is the seemingly best resource I could find. https://www.collegechoice.net/rankings/best-masters-degree-programs-in-economics/

OP that's a bad list, starting with the fact that UCSD doesn't even have a terminal MA program in economics. The standard US MA programs that have good placements into PhDs are Duke, UT, Wisconsin, and Chicago MAPSS (econ track). Tufts and BU are good but not as good as the ones I mentioned before. Columbia is decent but from what I understand you mostly take classes with adjuncts which will not be good for your LoRs. 

Take a look at programs in Europe as well. Doing a masters before your PhD is much more common over there.

Also this isn't a good forum for econ advice. I'd suggest asking for help in Urch, which is much more active.

EJMR is filled with racists and trolls but if you can tell between what's trolling and what's genuine advice it can be an ok resource as well (just confirm that what they've told you is true because sometimes it's hard to tell when they're just messing with you).