<p>Thinking about applying to some phd programs in the fall for Econ (rising senior). Here are my credentials:</p>
<ul>
<li>Top 30 Private University</li>
<li>Double Major in Math & Econ, Minor in Phil</li>
<li>GPA: 3.74 (3.81 Major GPA)</li>
<li>GRE: 770q, 500v, 4.5awa</li>
<li>Research/teaching includes:
-one summer spent as an RA helping a prof write a statistical study
-TA for an upper level Math course</li>
<li>Experience (not that it really matters for grad school):
-summer internship at a prop trading firm
-two separate internships at a large I-Bank</li>
<li>Letters of rec should be solid--from distinguished profs in the Econ department as well as one potentially from the President of my University</li>
</ul>
<p>Not sure what else. If anything, I really would like help narrowing down (or adding to) a list of schools that I'm interested in:
Columbia
NYU
LSE
Penn
Brown
Duke
Cambridge
MIT
Berkeley
Stanford</p>
<p>Any others? Obviously, a huge weakness of mine is my GRE score--I blew the SAT in HS as well, guess I'm just a poor ST taker. Should I add a safety school or two? Any insight is appreciated.</p>
<p>definitely apply to safety schools</p>
<p>i dont know/think the lor from the president will be an advantage unless he/she is/was a professor you did research with at some point</p>
<p>if youre looking at those programs, i would retake the gre and start doing more econ-related research rather than banking internships</p>
<p>Chicago is worth a look. But you should definitely add some safeties…</p>
<p>you should add some safeties but i think more importantly, you should not apply to all those schools you listed above. School application is a grueling task and you should really focus and study the school’s economics program that you want to really apply for.</p>
<p>Great advice everyone. Does anybody know of any specific safety schools I should be looking at?</p>
<p>In addition, how much are my GRE scores really going to be weighted in the app process? I can re-take, but not really sure if I could do much better–again, I’m horrible at stanardized tests!</p>
<p>What type of Econ are you looking to study? Also, what are your math grades been? I agree in that a recc from the president may not be helpful. Reccs from professors that know you well are important, and those from highly published professors will probably more impressive that the president of the college (they want to see how econ PhD’s think about you).</p>
<p>Looking to study something along the lines of economic/urban policy development, particularly in the EU and Eastern-European regions. </p>
<p>Math grades are very strong, w/ A’s in upper level classes (Analysis, Complex, Diff eq, etc…). Only one B so far, and that was in Abstract Alg (tough course, and tough prof).</p>
<p>I somewhat agree w/ you on the president rec not being worth much. As you said, he/she really doesn’t know my work as well as a prof that I’ve studied w/. That said, I just thought it might show ambition in that I’ve been able develop a solid relationship w/ the pres of my uni over the years.</p>
<p>A true economist. Never sure about anything, even if the data says the stars are in alignment.</p>