Want to get PhD in Business Economics/Strategy at top program. What do i need to do?

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm a sophomore at Washington University and I currently have a 3.44 gpa. I'm a major in economics and will probably double in finance. I have only taken math up to calc 2, but am good at math and am relatively confident I can succeed at harder classes. </p>

<p>My dream is to get into the Financial Economics program at MIT, but also would be ecstatic to get into Harvard, Penn, Stanford, Cornell, Michigan, Columbia, or NYU. </p>

<p>I'm not sure exactly what I want to focus on, so my target school might change, but most likely I want to focus on applied microeconomic/game theory and/or business strategy. </p>

<p>I am pretty confident that I can get at least a 700 on the GMAT, given my past testing history, and am pretty confident I can get my gpa up to at least above a 3.5. </p>

<p>The admissions statistics to these programs are, well, discouraging. Any advice on what I can do to get accepted?</p>

2

<p>You have to do research. GPA doesn't really matter, nor does GMAT/GRE, as long as they aren't terrible. What really matters is that you demonstrate research potential. Having an actual publication would be excellent (although extremely difficult). It might suffice to just have some working papers that display strong knowledge of research methodologies. As an undergrad, that generally means working closely with faculty on one of their projects.</p>