<p>Though I am only a freshman, I have been toying with the notion of going to graduate school. Currently I am an Economics major at East Carolina University going for a B.S. in applied econ. I love econ (so far) always have; I think it is the best degree to help prepare me for trading stocks/currencies/futures or what have you.</p>
<p>My question is about getting into grad school if I decide that is the path for me. It seems that top graduate schools (which is what I am of course aiming for) offer mostly PHD programs and only look for students with quantitative econ degrees. </p>
<p>So if I wanted to shoot for say Harvard (extreme I know), would I need to have a quantitative degree in econ? It doesn't even seem like they have an applied econ masters degree. At least not the I can find. </p>
<p>Harvard doesn’t even offer a terminal masters.</p>
<p>And from my experiences (I applied to a good amount of Econ PhD programs and got into a couple ‘top schools’), many admits were math majors or doubled in math and econ.</p>
<p>I was just using that as an example, perhaps a better one would have been NYU who offers an applied econ masters degree. However I was asking because it seems most schools avoid the applied side of econ.</p>
<p>Admission to the better schools for econ PhD’s is very competitive. Very few of the best schools offer masters in econ. </p>
<p>Generally a very strong background in math is necessary (three or four semesters of calculus, one or two of lin alg, one or two of mathmatical stat, real analysis, diff equ’s, etc.). Most admitted students have 800 on the quantitive portion of the GRE and most of the better schools throw away applications with anything less than 760 or 780. </p>
<p>As well, coming from East Carolina U would also considerably diminish one’s chances at the top schools. Since so many applicants have perfect GRE’s and 4.0’s (or very close), the admissions committees look at the strength of the undergrad institution and at the letters of recommendation (which ideally should be from prominent people in the field or at least from people whose names the recognize).</p>
<p>More directly addressing your particular question (“Would I need to have a quantitative degree in econ?”), the answer is no. You don’t need any kind of degree in econ period to get into most of the best econ PhD programs. While certainly you will need some econ classes, what you most need is a demonstrated strong quantitative ability (most often demonstrated by a strong background in math or advanced econ classes).</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins, Duke, Boston U and some others offer terminal masters in Econ.</p>
<p>It’s also been said, to me by a Finance Ph.D, that Finance IS applied Microeconomics.</p>
<p>Here’s my tale, I’d like to do pretty much what you’re taking about, and I’ve been told that I need to make it a double in Math to get a good shot anywhere. So that’s what I’m going to do.</p>
<p>Oyama and VD have given good advice. Fwiw, my D doubled in Math/Gov and got in to at Top 10 program coming out of a Top 20 LAC. “Real analysis” seems to be the almost arbitrary gate these days. My D’s profile was odd in that she also had Complex Analysis but did not have DiffEQ. (And now I think she wishes that she had had the DiffEQ. And that she had taken an Econometrics elective instead of the Stats course in the Math department. Hindsight.)</p>
<p>after talking it over with my professors and with the much appreciated input of you people, I have decided to take the next step by moving into the quantitative economics path. if anyone cares here are the classes with the math concentration listed on the second page: </p>