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

littletotoro 2012:
PROFILE
Type of Undergrad: Top 10 Liberal Arts College
Undergrad GPA: Economics Major - 3.72; Cumulative - 3.69; double Philosophy and Mathematics minor
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: 800Q, 660V, 5.0 AW
Math Courses: Calc 1 (A+), Calc 2 (A), Vector Calculus (B+), Linear Algebra (B), ODE (A), Probability Theory (B-), Intro to Analysis (A-), Operations Research (A-), Combinatorics (A)
Econ Courses: Principles of Micro/Macro (A,A); Intermediate Micro/Macro (A-,A-); International Economics (A), Technology and Growth (A), Game Theory (B), Econometrics (A+), Labor Economics (A), Senior Seminar (B)
Other Courses: N/A
Letters of Recommendation: 3 Econ professors, 1 whom I co-authored a political economy paper with in a 4th tier journal
Research Experience: RA for environmental economist over a summer, co-author as mentioned above
Teaching Experience: N/A
Research Interests: Behavioral Economics, Political Economy, Economics of Education, Labor Economics (Economics of Family, Unemployment)
SOP: In retrospect, not very well written, lacked direction.
Results:
Acceptances (Master's): Duke, Tufts($), UBC
Rejections: PhD - Michigan, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Minnesota, Johns Hopkins, Boston University, Cornell, Rochester, Brown, Maryland, Master's - Queen's, Toronto
Waitlists: Wisconsin (rejected)
Attending: Duke
What would I have done differently?
I really should not have been afraid of taking advanced math courses earlier, even though my comparative advantage is not in Math (because I was too obsessed with my GPA). So I should have taken Real Analysis and the Probability-Statistics sequence earlier. If I didn't do well in those courses, then it would have given me a better signal into my comparative advantage. As it stands, I'm still not sure. Should not have taken so many economics elective courses. I should also have done a computer science course (because nowadays facility with computing languages seems to be becoming more crucial for cutting edge economics research). Two words for all applicants: Mathematical Maturity. Build that up in your undergrad, while you have friends and faculty around you to help, as much as you can.
Having said that, I'm happy I got into Duke and I'm going to put myself through as many math, statistics and PhD courses as I can stomach (in the words of Greg Mankiw). My GPA has a high likelihood of tanking. But if an Econ PhD is meant to be, then taking all these technical courses will be the best preparation that I can hope for. If not, then at least I would have challenged myself and learned valuable quantitative skills in the process before heading into the private sector.

revilo 2012:
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Top Australasian University, BA/BE(Hons) in Economics and Engineering Science (Operations Research)
Undergrad GPA: 7.8/9 on my university’s scale (about 3.8 on US scale)
Type of Grad: Same university, BA(Hons) in Economics, MA in Economics
Grad GPA: 8.25/9 on my university’s scale (about 3.88 on US scale)
GRE: V 164, Q 167, AWA 5 (on third attempt...)
Math Courses: Engineering Maths 1-3, Real Analysis 1-2, Measure Theory, Functional Analysis
Econ Courses (grad-level): Micro Theory 1-2, Macro, Econometrics, Energy Economics
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Micro, Macro, Econometrics, Trade, Game theory, Environmental, Financial Economics
Other Courses: 4 Grad operations research courses, 3 grad statistics course (inc time series and probability theory), Some other engineering stuff
Letters of Recommendation: Emeritus Professor at Northwestern, Head of Department, Thesis Supervisor
Research Experience: 1.5 years of RA work on electricity markets for two different professors includes co-authoring two papers. One summer of RA work on nutrient trading schemes. Honours Dissertation on climate change IAM modelling.
Teaching Experience: Two semesters introductory micro, Three semesters introductory macro, One semester introductory programming for engineers
Research Interests: Applied Micro, IO
SOP: full of typos!
Concerns: a smattering of crappy grades
Other: Semester on exchange to Hong Kong
RESULTS:
Acceptances: UChicago (attending), Columbia, UC Berkeley ARE, U British Columbia, U Toronto
Rejections: Stanford, Yale, Northwestern, NYU, Penn, Michigan, Duke, Maryland