I’m going to be applying to Economics programs, but I’m wondering where I should set my sights. I’ll spare you the narrative and give you the details
(2009) Bachelor’s in English - 2.3 GPA from decent 4-year university
(In Progress) Associate’s in Mathematics - 4.0 GPA from Community College including:
Principles of Micro and Macro Econ, Business Statistics
Calculus 1
Honors: Calc 2, Multivariable, Differential Eq, Linear Algebra
From top-25 school: Real Analysis
Graduated with honor’s
Overal GPA: 2.6
The obvious hole other than a crummy Bachelor’s is a lack of intermediate econ classes.
I won’t bother with top-7 schools, but after that, how much lower is realistic? There’s a top-25 school nearby I’d love to apply to.
Hmm, no specific knowledge to share, but you may need to complete a bachelors in econ with great grades. Your CC work looks good, but you’d yet to prove to grad schools that you can get through upper division undergrad econ courses. I’m guessing you had solid GRE/GMAT scores?
Caveat: Economics is not my field, so I’m answering primarily with second-hand knowledge and my experience as a doctoral student myself.
But you are not a competitive candidate for a top 25 program. Your semi-recent undergrad GPA is very low and outside the field. Your in-progress associate’s degree GPA is higher, but you’ve only taken 2 economics classes. Mathematics is very important to economics, of course, and you have all of the math classes they would want - but you don’t have enough economics background. I know that we always emphasize the math needed for econ around here, but it’s important to remember that you also need the econ. Not only do you need intermediate economics classes, you need some upper-level economics classes as well (on the 400-level) to show that you can handle complex economics coursework.
Also, do you have any experience doing economics research? I do know that some econ PhD hopefuls assist professors with research; others may do independent study projects or write senior theses. You need to get some research experience, first to show that you know what you are getting yourself into, second to provide a writing sample for the PhD programs that will ask for one, and third to get a recommendation letter from someone who has advised you in research.
Honestly, I think that the best way for you to transition would be to take your background into an MA program in economics. This will allow you to take some graduate-level economics classes and prove yourself, as well as get research experience, more recommendations from professors, and perhaps write a thesis. Then you can launch yourself from there into a top PhD program in the field.
Barring that, you can take some intermediate and graduate-level economics classes at a nearby four-year university and volunteer to assist in research with a professor, slowly, while you work.
