<p>I'm currently a sophomore, just finished freshman year, at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and want to know what it takes to get into a PhD program at a top school (Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Brown, UPenn, UChicago, UCLA, etc.)for Economics. For my econ major, so far I've taken
Econ 101 (A-)
Calc I (B-)
Econ 102 (A-)
I'm planning to take next year for my major
Econ 251 (Intermediate Macro)
Econ 320 (Development Economics)
Stats
Calc II
Econ 250 (Intermediate Micro)
Econ 272 (Econometrics)
I'm also planning on taking (for math)
Real Analysis
Multivariable Calc
Linear Algebra
So far my GPA is a 3.43, with a 3.0 first semester freshman year and a 3.85 second semester freshman year.
This summer I have an internship in Congress with a Congresswoman who I worked for in high school, and for next semester, I have a research assistant position with an econ professor who I was close with.
Am I on the right track? What more can I do, and what GPA, GRE scores and extra curriculars do I need to get in?
Thanks</p>
<p>There’s no real “chancing” for graduate admissions. Honestly, we can’t even really accurately do it for undergrad, but there are also so many intangible factors that go into PhD admissions at competitive schools - who you are competing with, your research interests, the quality of your experience, etc. So you can’t “chance” anyone back.</p>
<p>-You’ll need to try to get your GPA up. It’s not that you absolutely can’t get in with a 3.43, but a higher one is more competitive. 3.6+ is most competitive, but even a 3.5 would be better.</p>
<p>-High GRE scores. Aim for at least 90th percentile or higher on the quantitative section (so about 163). I would also say that you’ll probably want to be in the 70th percentile or higher for verbal (about a 156).</p>
<p>-PhD programs want research experience. You’re starting next semester, which is good. Keep it up throughout your sophomore and junior years. Also, at least one of your next two summers should be spent working on an economics research experience somewhere. (The other you can do research or you can do another economics internship). Doing an NSF REU or an SROP at another university always looks good - you can potentially get experience at one of the schools you’d like to attend, and at the very least you’ll get a good recommendation letter outside of your home department and potentially a good writing sample.</p>
<p>But the most important factor for an economics program is FIT. You need someone who is going to supervise your work as a doctoral student; for that, you need someone whose research is aligned with your interests. If you’re interested in the effects of microfinance on small businesses owned by African women and there’s no one doing anything with microfinance and/or African economics at, say, UCLA - then it doesn’t matter how phenomenal of a student you are, they’re not going to want to admit you because you won’t have the support you need. And quite frankly - you don’t want to be at a program where there’s no one doing what you want. At best you’ll be forced to work on something that’s less appealing to you, and at worst, you’ll want to leave after a year or two.</p>
<p>So over the next 2.5 years, spend some time reading some economics scientific articles and peruse the webpages of the top programs in your field. See what the prominent professors are doing there, and keep tabs on what their new work is (sometimes the website will describe the work they did 15 years ago, not their current work. The journal articles help you see what they are currently doing). That way you can get a handle on who is publishing in the field you want to publish in, who knows the people you need to network with to get a job, and who is doing the kind of research you want to do.</p>
<p>If you don’t yet know in which area of economics you want to specialize, that’s your first task - figure out where your interests lie.</p>