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

VGC 2008:
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Good Latin American university
Undergrad GPA: 5.9/7
Type of Grad: Same Latin American university as undergrad.
Ggrad GPA: 6.4/7
GRE: 790Q 510V 3.0AWA
TOEFL: 108/120
Math Courses (undergrad and grad): Calculus I & II, Algebra I & II, Probability, Mathematical Statistics, Analysis, Mathematical Economics (dynamic systems and optimal control)
Econ Courses(grad): Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Game Theory, Industrial Organization, Econometrics, Aplied Econometrics, Financial Econometrics, Financial Economics, Enviorenmental Economics.
Letters of Recommendation: Strong letter of recommendation from economics professor who know me well.
Research Experience: Master's Thesis, Working Paper, and several research assistanships. Mostly theoretical.
Teaching Experience: Undergraduate Principles of finance.
Research Interests: finance, auction theory.
SOP: I invested a lot of time in it.
RESULTS:
Acceptances: Stanford GSB (finance)($$), MIT Sloan (Financial Economics)($$), Harvard (Business Economics)($$), Northwestern Kellogg (Finance)($$), NYU Stern(Finance)($$), Princeton (Economics)($$), Chicago (Economics)($$).
Waitlists: Berkeley Haas (Finance).
Rejections: Harvard (Economics), Wharton (Finance), Columbia GSB (Finance), Duke Fuqua (Finance).
Pending: MIT (Economics), Chicago GSB (Finance).
What would you have done differently?
I really have applied to fewer places.

no_time 2008:
Been free riding this forum too long. Perhaps this could be useful for someone as it has been for me.
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: industrial engineering major from top school in small, developing latin american country
Undergrad GPA: 6.3/7.0
GRE: 800q, 650v, 5.0w
Math Courses: Calculus, Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations, Elements of Vector Analysis, Functions of C in C, Numerical Methods, Probabilities, Statistics, Cue Theory, Optimization, Operations Research
Econ Courses: Micro, Macro, IO, Finance Theory, Derivatives Pricing
Letters of Recommendation: 1 from a finance professor from MIT-Sloan who I'm working with as an RA, 1 from a locally well known econ prof with whom I co-authored a paper, 1 from a locally well known OR prof from my university
Research Experience: RA on two empirical finance projects for an MIT prof, co-authored 3 pol econ paper (not very relevant except for the fact that I got to work with my future recommender)
Teaching Experience: I work as a junior faculty member at my former univeristy. I've instructed Finance Theory I and II several times and have extensive experience as a TA
Research Interests: Corporate Finance, slightly biased to empirical
SOP: I highlighted the fact that I worked at an investment bank prior to my academic interest, found some interesting questions that this experience had given me
Other: International student,
RESULTS:
Acceptances: Columbia GSB Finance & Economics (attending), UCLA Anderson, CMU Tepper, London Business School, Yale SOM, Boston College (interview), UBC Sauder
Waitlists:
Rejections: MIT Sloan, Chicago GSB, Stanford GSB, Kellogg, Berkeley Haas, NYU Stern, Duke Fuqua
Pending: Harvard GSB
What would you have done differently? Nothing really, this was by far the best outcome I could have dreamt of

Mr.Keen 2008:
Schools: Top econ undergrad from Mexico, Masters from unknown US department, graduate summer at Duke.
Major: Economics. Now taking maths while working full-time for the fed.
GPA: Undergrad: 81/100 (tough program). Grad: 3.8, 4.0 at Duke.
GRE: Q=790, V=550, AW=3.5
Courses:
Economics: up to grad level micro, macro, econometrics (mostly A's on grad-level, B's and C's in undergrad) All the standard field courses you take in a top latin american undergraduate program: IO (Tirole), International Trade (Feenstra-level material and Helpman and Krugman), Public Finance I and II (Musgrave & Musgrave, Rosen), Open Macro (mostly journal articles, Sebastian Edwards' book on RXR).
Statistics: Probability Theory, Mathematical Statistics, 3 theoretical econometrics (Greene was the textbook in all three). Applied econometrics, applied time-series.
Mathematics: Calc I and II, Logic and Proofs, Linear Algebra, Numerical Optimization, Introductory Real Anlaysis, Dynamic Optimization (Continuous and discrete), C's in easiest, A's on the hardest.
Research: Published paper in exchange rate error correction modeling. Working paper on international real business cycles (research sample). Working paper on growth and space. Several Fed publications.
TA: TA in intro Macro, International and Development.
letter of recommendation: Two Duke professors (tenured with strong publication record). One respected Fed economist. Another professor from the Duke summer program. All of them very strong, I think.
SOP: I explained the wholes in my application and stressed the strengths. I tried to signal that I know what I am getting into. In cases where it made sense I mentioned faculty members I would like to work with. I mentioned specific topics I am interested in studying.
Interests: Open Macro, International Trade, Growth and Applied IO
Schools:
Chicago
Northwestern (Finance at Kellog)
NYU
Yale
MIT (Financial Econ at Sloan)
UT Austin
Minnesota
Duke
Stanford
My Concerns:
My low undergraduate grades. I hope the coursework at Duke and research experience can compensate for those. I expect the recommendations to be superb, so that must help.
RESULTS
In: UT Austin (funding decision pending), Chicago (Level 1 funding)
Waiting list: Minnesota
No news: Yale, NYU, Stanford, NWU Kellogg, MIT Sloan
Rejections: Duke
What would you have done differently?: Nothing, really. I did my best to make up for the effects of past mistakes and it paid off.
NB: I must add that those Bs and Cs in undergrad are in no way compared to their American counterparts. Beyond principles of micro and macro, I don't know what a course in economics without calculus is. My intermediate micro textbook (in my junior year) was MWG.