One Applicant's Profile for Top Econ Programs

[EconPhDApplicantF2015]

Hello everyone,

 

I just heard about this website, and thought I would post some of my details.

 

I am currently enrolled as a Master's student in economics at one of the better Canadian schools, and have already been accepted into the PhD program for the fall, with more than full funding.  However, I also applied to some of the top American schools, since I think that I may have a shot at being accepted to some of them, and am already set to go with my current program.  Namely, I applied to Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.  My details are as follows:

 

 

 

Undergraduate pure and applied mathematics double major:  CGPA 3.87, 3.98 major GPA, with A+ grades in 13 of my final 16 courses, all of which were in math and stats.  No substantial undergraduate econ.

 

Econ MA:  Two 100 grades, as well as one 94 and one 98, in the first each of two PhD micro, macro, and metrics courses, as well as a mathematical economics course.  

 

GRE:  168Q, 161V, 5.0 analytical writing.  It seems to me that the quantitative GRE is somewhat uninformative, given that it mostly tests competence with high-school level math (as it should, since many people writing it haven't taken any more advanced mathematics courses), while the mathematics used in graduate-level economics, particularly economic theory, are much more skewed toward higher-level college courses.  At any rate, it seems to me that my 168 should not exclude my application from consideration by any of the schools I applied to, and it seems that some people get 170 who yet have relatively poor GPAs and competence in formal mathematics.  Any thoughts on this?

 

Little research experience, aside from a research project this term and another during the course of an internship a few years back.  I see this as being the essential weakness of my application.  This impression was informed mainly by the typical admit profile listed on Berkeley's website, wherein the only attribute I lacked was significant academic research.  

 

References:  Three of my professors from the fall term, all economists trained at top- to mid-range schools (say, all top 40); I'm unsure of their international reputation.

 

CV and SOI:  Not weak, but probably not relatively superior, either.

 

 

 

I think that's everything; if not, please let me know.  Any thoughts on my chances of acceptance, or any details of other applicants to similar programs would be appreciated.  

 

Thanks for reading,

 

EconPhDApplicantF2015

[Finecon]

How did you do? What math courses did you enroll in? I’m 99.99% in iq and am thinking of spending $10k on math courses.