The chart will appear within this DIV. This text will be replaced by the chart.

gbt321 2008:
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Top 10 Liberal Arts
Undergrad GPA: 3.9 overall, 3.9 Econ major
Type of Grad: n/a.
Grad GPA: n/a.
GRE: 770/610/5.5 (taken as an undergrad, never bothered retaking it).
Math Courses: Calc I-III, Linear Alg, Complex Analysis, Real Analysis, Math Econ, Stats
Econ Courses: All undergrad required for the major, including econometrics
Letters of Recommendation: 1 undergrad advisor, 2 economists from my consulting firm. All are PhD economists, none extremely well known, but all know my abilities very well and they write convincingly.
Research Experience: undergrad research assistant, 3 years with an economic consulting firm doing applied micro
Teaching Experience: undergrad TA
Research Interests: environmental economics
SOP: stressed research experience, quantitative abilities, and research interests
Other: experience in SAS and Stata programming.
RESULTS:
Acceptances: MSU Ag Econ ($RA), Wisconsin AAE ($RA), Maryland AREC ($RA), Oregon State ARE ($RA), Penn State AERS ($RA), NC State Ag Econ
Waitlists: waitlisted for funding at NC State
Rejections: None
What would you have done differently? Retake GRE. I would have applied to Berkeley or a traditional econ program to get my letter writers off my back about going the ag econ route .

octavio 2008:
Type of Undergrad: Large US state university, econ program ranked very low
Undergrad GPA: 4.0
Type of Grad: Currently enrolled in econ masters at a US public university
Grad GPA: 4.0 through first semester
GRE: 800Q, 690V, 6.0 AW
Math Courses: Undergrad: Calc 1-4, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Real Analysis; Grad: Topology, Optimization (IP)
Econ Courses: Undergrad: All the standard intro/intermediate, econometrics, electives; Grad: Micro, Macro, Econometrics
Letters of Recommendation: All three were from economists and should be very positive. Nobody famous, that I know of... but I get the impression that they were very specific.
Research Experience: Summer RA for econometrics professor, currently an RA for a couple of professors working in applied micro
Teaching Experience: None, except some grading
Research Interests: Development, trade, applied micro
SOP: It was very conservative, about a page long, talking about what I had done as a research assistant, what my general research interests were, and my desire to work in academia after graduation. For the AREC programs, I added a short paragraph about my experiences studying abroad in a developing country and my eagerness to do field work (without sounding naive).
RESULTS:
Acceptances: Berkeley ARE ($, will be attending), UCSD ($), Maryland ($), Michigan (no $), Wisconsin AAE ($), Michigan State ($), UC Davis ($)
Waitlists: Brown
Rejections: Stanford, Yale
What would you have done differently? Things worked out well given that my pedigree was so poor. I got into Berkeley ARE, which is a perfect match for my interests, so I can't think of much to do differently. Probably shouldn't have applied to Stanford and chosen a different reach instead, not that I would have gotten in.

2008applicant 2008:
Undergrad: Top three liberal arts college in US
GPA: 3.75/4.0 Econ (Econ major)
Math:Calc I-III, Linear Algebra
GRE: 790Q/710V/5.5AW
Teaching experience: TA in college for Intermediate Macro and Econometrics
Research experience: Senior thesis, since turned into co-authored paper w/ advisors, submitted for publication. RA job since college (3 years) supervising big field experiment in Latin America. Started (no results yet) small independent field/lab experiment here.
letter of recommendation: 2 from my current bosses and the other from my thesis advisor.
Interests: development, demography, experimental
What I learned: I did very well except at the very top schools and it was obviously my weak math background that hurt me there, but it was my choice not to take those classes. It was a really hard choice between Michigan and Berkeley ARE.
Accepted: Michigan ($), Wisconsin (AAE) ($), Davis (ARE) ($), Berkeley (ARE) ($), Brown ($), UCSD ($), UCLA ($), Duke ($), Penn (Demography) ($)
Rejected: Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, NYU
Other: NSF Honorable Mention

Streetmage 2008:
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Top 10 Liberal Arts
Undergrad GPA: 3.9 overall, 3.9 Econ major
Type of Grad: n/a.
Grad GPA: n/a.
GRE: 770/610/5.5 (taken as an undergrad, never bothered retaking it).
Math Courses: Calc I-III, Linear Alg, Complex Analysis, Real Analysis, Math Econ, Stats
Econ Courses: All undergrad required for the major, including econometrics
Letters of Recommendation: 1 undergrad advisor, 2 economists from my consulting firm. All are PhD economists, none extremely well known, but all know my abilities very well and they write convincingly.
Research Experience: undergrad research assistant, 3 years with an economic consulting firm doing applied micro
Teaching Experience: undergrad TA
Research Interests: environmental economics
SOP: stressed research experience, quantitative abilities, and research interests
Other: experience in SAS and Stata programming.
RESULTS:
Acceptances: MSU Ag Econ ($RA), Wisconsin AAE ($RA), Maryland AREC ($RA), Oregon State ARE ($RA), Penn State AERS ($RA), NC State Ag Econ
Waitlists: waitlisted for funding at NC State
Rejections: None
What would you have done differently? Retake GRE. I would have applied to Berkeley or a traditional econ program to get my letter writers off my back about going the ag econ route .