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Joecon 2009:
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: BA in Econ at an East Asian Uni
Undergrad GPA: 3.6/4.3
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: 630/800/3.5
Math Courses: Math for Econ(Econ Dept), Stat for Econ(Econ Dept), Statistics(Stat Dept), Foundations of Economic Analysis(Econ Dept)
Econ Courses (PhD-level): None
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Pretty much every main course, from introductory micro and macro to game theory and econometrics
Letters of Recommendation: 2 from Econ Profs of my Dept(PhD UCLA and Northwestern respectively), 1 from my supervisor at work
Research Experience: Have been working for the central bank of my country for 2 1/2 yrs specializing in reserve management
Teaching Experience: None
Research Interests: (Positive)Political Economy, Labor, Public, Experimental, (possibly)Financial/Corporate History
Concerns: Lack of math courses, lack of teaching/research experience
Other: None
Applying to: Vanderbilt(PhD), Texas A&M(PhD), Rutgers(PhD), U of Florida(PhD), SUNY at Albany(PhD), Toulouse School of Economics(M2), U of Toronto(MA, doctoral stream), Queen's(MA), UBC(MA)
Admitted: Rutgers(w/o funding), Texas A&M(with funding), Toulouse School of Economics(not decided)
Pending: the rests
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Hi guys! I finally post my results so far. I decided to do a PhD in Econ last year, so I'm not that well prepared.
Among the admissions I've received, I am thinking about Texas A&M and TSE. Considering my interests, which institution do you guys think would be better to go? I initially thought TSE as my priority, but my friends doing their PhDs in the States say that Texas A&M is absolutely and definitely better. They say most European PhDs are not welcomed outside the continent and TSE is only good at IO and TAMU is not that bad.(but I heard that the Econ Dept at TAMU is sinking?)
My dream is doing research and teaching at a research school. I know the reality, so I said dream not goal. But anyway, which one would be better?
Thanks for your time. May god bless you all!

italos 2009:
In this thread please post only your results.For further comments please refer to other threads in the forum
Institution:
Program:
Decision:
Funding:
Notification date:
Notified through:
Comments:

Visible Hand 2009:
PROFILE:
Type of Applicant: International, big continental european country.
Type of Undergrad: Good public university but with a very bad school of Economics. Student of the university honor college (more selective than Ivy) which offers courses on its own, including in heterodox Economics.
Undergrad GPA: Overall: ~3.9/4.0; Economics: 4.0(+)/4.0; Math/Stat: 4.0(++)/4.0.
(+), (++) and ~ are due to different conversion methods that can be applied.
Type of Grad: Two-years Master in Economics (attending 2nd year), best public university of the country, 2nd department of Economics in the country, best in my fields. Enrolled in the first year of run of the program: it was brand new! Also student of the university honor college (less selective and prestigious than undergraduate's).
Grad GPA: 4.0-ε/4.0 or 4.0(+)/4.0 according to different conversion methods.
GRE: 790Q 530V 5.0AWA - TOEFL: 110
Math Courses: Several courses in Math and Stat covering all the basic Calculus/Analysis/Linear Algebra/ODE/Optimization/Measure stuff up to Simon-Blume (Vol. 2) and De La Fuente level, as well as Probability/Inference/Multivariate Stats up to Casella-Berger.
All full grades with mention.
Econ Courses: All the basic undergraduate Micro/Macro/Metrics stuff plus some applied/heterodox/history/quantitative courses. At Master Level, Micro I/Macro I/Metrics I (taking II for each in the fall) plus: Topics in Economic Theory, Economics of Innovation, Competition Policy.
All full grades, often with mention, apart from graduate Macro I (~A).
Other Courses: Undergraduate courses in Accounting, Management and Law; graduate Corporate Finance. I have lower grades on these on average.
Letters of Recommendation: 1 MIT, 1 Toulouse, 1 Louvain (from the Master program), 1 Sussex (from my undergraduate honor college). I know ex-post, they were good but not too informative (apart from the Toulouse one maybe); the Sussex one was maybe not very good in the "fill the form" part. They were not always all of them four on every place I applied to.
Research Experience: Started to work on Master Thesis in theoretical I.O.; some short dissertations and empirical projects in the past (none of them valuable).
Teaching Experience: In line of principle, not possible in my country before Master graduation. Starting this march, however, I have assisted my MIT Ph.D. recommender in the graduate course in Econometrics taught by him.
Research Interests: Industrial Organization, Behavioral Economics, Microeconometrics.
Statement of Purpose: A synthetic overview of my academic life and interests.
Other: I obtained full scholarships from both honor colleges I have been student of. Moreover, I have been awarded 2-years full funding (tuition+stipend) to attend a top PhD in Economics, by a board of economists from a prestigious private foundation in my country; most schools I applied to knew this. So basically I would have had ($$$$) in every school had admitted me, at least for the start.
RESULTS:
Attending: Berkeley
Acceptances, declined: Northwestern, Chicago, Stern, UWM, LSE, TSE
Waitlists, eventually rejected: MIT
Rejections: Princeton, Stanford, Yale, UCSD, NYU, CMU, HBS, Wharton (Mgmt), Caltech, EUI
General Comments: If you are an international applicant and the institutions you come from are not so well known, luck and connections really matter alot, even if you have good LoRs from famous economists and a brilliant CV. I know that MIT, for instance, preferred two other students with external funding from my country over me, and they both just came from the two institutions with more reputation in sending students to top Ph.D. programs (but one of them I know, she is really a genius, 780Q). External funding might help, but it depends on the school: for some it really does (MIT, Chicago) but for others it does not (Stanford, Yale). It's not easy to decline Northwestern offer! But, in the end, I am happy with Berkeley.
What would you have done differently? Definitely, attended another undergraduate institution, the best in my country, which is very well established in sending students to top Ph.D. programs. I would have not been funded as I was, at least for the first years, but ex-post I would have had definitely very good shots for Cambridge, MA. My parents had the money, I had been admitted, so I really regret it. I should have also tried to do more research with my recommenders in the first Master year: it hurted me, they did not know me enough well (they also more or less directly told it to me). Perhaps I should have worked more in the final undergraduate years to produce a good analytical working paper to be sent as a writing sample: it may help in some schools, I think; but there was not much I could do as my undergraduate institution was a mostly empirical/heterodox place (not fitting too bad with Berkeley!).

lightyears 2009:
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Laurea in Economia e commercio
Undergrad GPA: 26,5/30
Type of Grad: Laurea specialistica in scienze dell'economia (2-years)
Grad GPA: 29,5/30
GRE: 800/550/3,5
Math Courses: Math analysis 1/2, Math for economists (optimization, ODE), financial math (up to some stochastic calculus), Stochastic Processes, Probability theory, Statistics
Econ Courses: usual stuff, a lot. No int. micro. A lot of int. macro, monetary, banking etc.
Other Courses: History of economic thought, Modern history etc.
Letters of Recommendation: 2 Math PhD profs, 1 Econ prof, pretty standard and positive I think.
Research Experience: no
Teaching Experience: no
Research Interests: Macro, monetary, international
SOP: Boring but standard I think
Other: Nothing special.
RESULTS:
Acceptances: CEMFI (attending), UPF, Tinbergen I, ULB.
Waitlists: none
Rejections: EUI
Pending: Toulouse
What would you have done differently? Nothing. Since when I realized I wanted to do a PhD (middle of my first year of Msc!), I was already in the wrong university (unknown), with no time, and with an Erasmus period starting in few months. Given that, I did all I could. I didn't apply in the UK for economic reasons, and I wanted to stay in quite a warm place. At the end of the process, I'm very satisfied.

ecuaecon 2009:
Type of Undergrad: international student with a a degree from a local university
Type of Grad: MS econ from a mid-size private american university
Undergrad GPA: 3.6/4
Graduate GPA: econ 3.6, econ + math 3.4
GRE: 770Q, 470V, 4.0 AW
Math Courses: Calculus I, II, III. Statistisc I, II. Linear Algebra. Math for econ (undergrad and grad). Advanced Calculus (Analysis). Not so great grades
Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro (A-) and econometrics (A)
Letters of Recommendation: 3 econ profs (graduated at UT, Brown, Cornell), I think these will be good recommendations.
Research Experience: RA for a professor, RA local central bank, master's thesis
Teaching Experience: instructor (econometrics)
Research Interests: Institituions, Econ history, behavioral econ
Concerns: I don't have a 800-gre, not so great grades for math courses
Applying to: Caltech, Michigan, Maryland, WUSTL, Barcelona School of Econ, Warwick, Oxford, European University Institute, Queen's, British Columbia, Toronto.

Econ_ 2009:
Institution: Stockholm School of Economics
Program: PhD Economics
Decision: Accepted
Funding: ~15k eur
Notification date: 2/25
Institution: Tilburg University
Program: MPhil 2nd year
Decision: Accepted
Funding: not yet decided
Notification date: 2/25 email