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chestnut.cc 2009:
PROFILE:
Type of Undergraduate: BA Economics from a Top 10 college in my country (south east Asia) with math and stat minors
Undergraduate GPA: Currently (Final Year) 84%. We don't use the GPA system so I'm unsure of how much that translates to. It's similar to a UK percentage system though
Type of Graduate: NA
Graduate GPA: NA
GRE: 760V, 800Q, 5.5 AWA
TOEFL: 119
Math Courses: Three Year long Industrial Mathematics courses. Audited Real Analysis, Linear Algebra of the more rigorous sort.
Statistics Courses: Three Year long Applied Statistics courses.
Economics Courses: Economics Specials I II III IV. Basically intermediate micro, macro, international trade, history of economic thought, monetary, development economics.
Letters of Recommendation: Head of Department, Senior Lecturer, no one known, will serve my purposes.
Research Experience: NA
Teaching Experience: NA
Research Interests: Political Economy, Game Theory, Mechanism Design, Micro theory.
SOP: Short, Simple, just tried to signal course content, courses audited, interests.
Applied to: LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Toulouse, UPF BGSE, Tilburg, Erasmus Mundus
Acceptances: LSE EME(2 yr), Toulouse M1, UPF, Tilburg (MPhil), Erasmus Mundus MMEF1, Cambridge PG Dip (Econ)
Rejections: Oxford, UCL, Erasmus Mundus QEM
Attending: LSE

Peruano929 2009:
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: B.A. Economics, Summa Cum Laude; B.S. Quantitative Sciences (interdisciplinary math/stats), Magna Cum Laude
GRE: 780Q, 720V, 5.0AWA
Math/Stat Courses: Complex Analysis, Calculus III, Differential Equations, Probability, Statistical Theory, Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra, Numerical Analysis, Matrix and Numerical Analysis (ISE dept.), Regression Analysis, Stochastic Processes II, Design of Experiments.
Econ Courses (PhD-level): Game Theory, Econometrics
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Intro Micro, Intro Macro, Intermediate Micro, Intermediate Macro, Labor economics, Public Economics, International Trade, Empirical Research Methods Seminar.
Other Courses: Physics I, Physics II, C++, Advanced Computing Fundamentals, Discrete Structures. My first two years I took many advanced Political Science and History courses, too.
Letters of Recommendation: All my referees are kind, knowledgeable and respected. 4 Ph.D.'s from Florida (two Ph.d Econ from Wisconsin, one Ph.D. Econ from Chicago, one Ph.D. Sociology. I also have access to Math Ph.D. referees from Florida and Georgia Tech.
Research Experience: McNair Scholar's Research in Regulatory Economics (presented at Maryland); research assistant to the manager of public works planning in Libertad, Peru; database assistant for public records instituion in Peru.
Teaching Experience: Offered to teach C++ and some math tutoring. Other than that, I was a Martial Arts assistant instructor for 6 years.
Research Interests: Development Economics, Poverty Research in Labor or Public Economics, Macroeconomics
SOP: I think it's exemplary. Advisors tell me that my experiences line up very well with wanting to study development economics.
Concerns: No 800 on the GRE quantitative. Won't get into Cambridge (girlfriend is going there).
Other: I would actually prefere a two-year program instead of one because it would give me more time to get aquainted with the faculty. But after that, my intetion is to apply to top Ph.D.'s. Berkeley is my dream school, they are doing all the research I'm interested in, and all other schools are secondary (sorry Harvard, MIT, et cetera).
Applying to: Duke AM, Yale IDE, Florida (Ph.D), Florida MS Statistics, UBC (MA), Queen's (MA), McGill (MA), LSE (MSE MSc), Cambridge (M.Phil), Oxford (M.Phil.), CEMFI (Master's), QEM (2-year).

jerseyGuy 2012:
Type of Undergrad: B.S. Computer Science / Math (two separate but concurrently taken degrees)
Undergrad GPA: 3.88/4.0/3.98 (community college / computer science bachelor record / math bachelor record)
GRE: 800Q 690V 6.0AW
Math Courses: Partial Diff Eq, Probability & Stat, Lin Alg, Numerical Techniques, Times Series, Adv Calc, Complex Variables, Stochastic Processes, Math Senior Project, lower level courses
Letters of Recommendation: 2 math professors, 1 computer science professor (when three are needed), all with some degree of research
Teaching Experience: Math tutor
Research Interests: No clue, just wrote some random bull when needed.
SOP: Depends on program. For PhD I gave two pages and for LSE since they required two pages. For others, more like 1-1.3 pages.
Concerns: Getting funding ... app screwups (Oxford MPhil late application) ... getting funding ... QEM stuff (Changing careers -- where should I apply??) ... getting funding
Applying to: Oxford MPhil, LSE 2-year MSc, Duke PhD, UCSD PhD, Rutgers PhD,Bocconi Econ & Soc Sci Master, BGSE Master, CEMFI Master, Tilburg MRes,Toulouse M1, UWO Masters
In: QEM Erasmus (waiting to hear on funding)
Additional profile information here (Changing careers -- where should I apply??).

treasuries 2007:
PROFILE
Type of Undergrad: No. 1 university in my country in southeast asia
Undergrad GPA:
B.S. Economics: 3.44 (major 3.62)
B.S. Statistics: 2.98 (major 3.45)
B.S. Electronics Eng'g:
Type of Grad: No. 1 university in my country in southeast asia
Grad GPA:
M.S. Statistics: 3.40
GRE: Q 800, V 580, AW 4.0
IELTS: 7.5 overall
MATH Courses:
Undergraduate:
Calculus I-III, Linear Algebra, Finite Differences, Theory of Interest, Mathematics of Life Contigencies
ECON Courses:
Undergraduate:
Intermediate Micro & Macro, Mathematical, Quantitative, Monetary, Public, Labor, International, Development Economics
STAT Courses:
Undergraduate:
Probability Theory I/II, Matrix Theory, Parametric/Nonparametric Inference, Bayesian Inference, Regression Analysis, Sampling Designs, Experimental Designs, Categorical Data Analysis, Time Series I, Multivariate Analysis
Graduate:
Real Analysis, Probability Theory, Parametric Inference, Applied Multivariate Analysis, Linear Models, Sampling Designs, Time Series II, Multivariate Analysis, Econometric Methods, Stochastic Processes, Stochastic Calculus, Survival Analysis (Martingale Approach), Wavelets
Letters of Recommendation:
All my referees came from Statistics but they are unknown and do not publish in international journals. These are all strong recommendations because I've worked with them in at least one research paper. One referee was my graduate thesis adviser.
Research Experience:
Proposed a new econometric model in my graduate thesis. Several applied statistics papers with co-graduate students and also with graduate faculty members. Research associate at a World Bank funded research project headed by a senior faculty. Done market research consulting with Fujitsu and Motorola. My undergrad thesis in economics won a college and a national award and was presented at a local economic society conference.
Teaching Experience:
Taught statistics subjects for more than 4 years.
Research Interests:
Financial Econometrics
SOP:
There was a severe weakness in my application: bad engineering grades. I told them the truth in three sentences, that I lost interest in the course and no matter how I tried I just didn't do well in it. Then I proceeded to elaborate on how I overcame this and eventually did well in my two undergraduate degrees. I presented a logical justification of jumping from stat to econ to stat as a strong preparation for PhD in econ later. I also highlighted whatever academic achievements I have to drown doubts about my intellectual ability and emotional maturity.
Others:
Presented paper to an Econometric Society meeting and it was then published in a local statistics journal. This paper consists of a proposed econometric model with derivations, monte carlo simulations and empirical evaluation.
RESULTS:
Acceptance: Singapore Management U MSc by Research (full $), Toronto MA (?)
Waitlist: QEM Erasmus Mundus (got in eventually but declined)
Rejections: Purdue, SSE
What would you have done differently?
I was able to apply to only one U.S. and one Canadian universities because I took the IELTS instead of TOEFL for some reasons. I decided not to apply to some others that accept IELTS because I knew my chances were slim to nil. If I had TOEFL I would have applied to some more in the lower end of some U.S. programs. Yet, based on my current performance I guess I would not have done any better.
What lesson did I learn?
The quality of my research experience counted a lot more than my academic record. I had strong recommendations but not from well-known professors so research experience itself did not offset my weak spots. Perhaps real analysis and functional analysis from the Math department would have helped.
The admission to SgMU for another MSc will help me in my chances of getting admitted to a PhD program in the U.S. & in Canada. Of course, that is under the assumption that I'll do well there. I'm pretty much inclined to doing economic research so I guess that will be a natural motivation.
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