<p>I was curious as I approach the end of my junior year my chances of getting into a prestige post undergrad school in the field of economics. I carry a 3.8 at San Diego state. I study econ emphasis international and my second major is ISCOR (international security and conflict resolution emphasis cooperation conflict and conflict resolution). I began working freshmen year for the police department and was promoted to supervisor at the end of the year. I am part of several honor societies and am apart of a financial and investing society. Also I am in ISCOR society. I studied abroad over summer in Italy at a program called CIMBA (constorium institutes of management and business analysis) I plan to complete a study abroad to the university of Oxford this up coming summer also. I will be graduating with 2 degrees in 3.5 years. I have taken 18 units semester expect freshmen year. </p>
<p>What are my chances with school of caliber similar to yale, Harvard, Princeton?</p>
<p>Nobody can predict your chances of getting into a graduate program. They depend on:</p>
<p>-Your research interests
-The strength of your letters of recommendation
-Who your recommenders are, especially if they know anyone in your target departments
-Which professors in your target departments are taking on new graduate students
-Your overall fit with the departments to which you apply
-The strength of your statement of purpose
-The other applicants with which you are competing in the year you apply
-The quality of your research experiences
-Your writing sample, for schools that require it</p>
<p>I will say that your GPA is good enough to compete for top schools. However, economics and business are two different fields, and a lot of your experience seems more business than economics. Also, a lot of the stuff you list seems irrelevant - you say you worked for the police department. Did you do economic analysis for them or was it just a work-study or part-time type job? A financial and investing society doesn’t necessarily matter unless that’s your research focus.</p>
<p>Do you have any economics research experience? Have you completed independent studies with a professor? Those are more important indicators, and if you don’t have any research experience then you are unlikely to be a competitive candidate at top economics programs.</p>
<p>Juillet’s post is all good. Beyond that, Econ programs tend to look down at Business as being “light.” A couple of data points: I know of someone in a Top Five Econ program: he got in from San Francisco State where he earned a Masters and was so spectacular that he was one of the student graduation speakers. I also know of someone at the same Top Five school whose undergraduate was in Theater…very unusual but had the quantitative chops to do it.</p>
<p>The three most important points for you will be: <em>who</em> your letters of rec are from (you want Econ PhD’s that the admissions folks have actually heard of), a GRE Quant of 800 (780-790 does happen but drastically lowers your odds), and how much proof-based Math you’ve had. Real Analysis is a minimum, would suggest Complex Analysis et al. as well.</p>