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PhD Economics - Oxbridge/ LSE/ Harvard/ MIT

Hey guys

I'm currently in my 2nd year of studying Economics as an undergraduate at Cambridge. I am thinking fairly seriously at going on to a PhD in Economics and am thinking at either Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford etc.

I got a 1st last year although it wasn't a particularly outstanding one. Admittedly I didn't work that hard and I know I could do a lot better (and hopefully will!). I was wondering what sort of things you need to do to get onto the PhD programmes with full funding at these sort of unis. I am only really interested in the best universities as, while I am very keen to pursue a PhD, there are a bunch of other things I would also like to do with the years after I graduate. And I would be very hesitant to do it without full funding, along the lines of ESRC in the UK.

I am asking because I hear some people saying that you could get in with a high 2.i, and others saying you need to be in the top few people in your class :s-smilie:

. Needless to say the top 5% at Cambridge Econ is very difficult to get in to, so it would be nice to know if this sort of thing is really a necessity. Thanks!

Reply 1

poohat

After LSE, UCL is usually considered as being joint with Oxford as the best econ department in the UK afaik, so you should probably go for that too.

Harvard and MIT are the two best in the world so yeah, its going to be insanely competitive.

American universities tend to dominate economics due to the high salaries they pay compared to (eg) the UK, so your idea of the "best univeristies" might be slightly skewed; LSE is perhaps the only place in the UK that would be considered in the same tier as the top 5-10 US departments. So if you are prepared to move to the US for a PhD then you should probably consider applying to the top 20-30 schools over there, since they will all generally be considered just as good as Cambridge (at least by Americans). Realistically these are all top places, and even going to a slightly lower tier place would still get you a job assuming you done a decent PhD.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 2

Overmars

As poohat (interesting name, buddy) says, there's a big difference between doing a PhD in economics at Cambridge and doing one at, say, MIT or Chicago; the latter two being far more competitive and, well, better.

You certainly won't need to be one of the top few of your class to get onto a good masters programme. But obviously from then on it's all about your masters performance -- and you will need to be one of the best in your class if you're aiming for a top department.

At this stage I'd just focus on picking your undergrad options carefully and doing as well as you can. I think your undergrad will prepare you very well for a masters course and then it's all down to that.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3

janjanmmm

The way it usually works is this: most schools in the US do not give you money the first year. IF you will show yourself to be good, they will give you funding second year.
There are exceptions, of course. First, they always are more inclined to give funding to those they want the most. IF you are exceptionally good, they will give you funding, maybe even full funding. But believe me, to get full funding in Harvard or Yale you have to be REALLY DAMN GOOD, not just good.
As far as I know some schools are more generous than others, I think NYU (also top school when it comes to Economics) gives funding to most students for PhD, their website basically says "if we take you, we fund you". How true they are to their word- I do not know.

You can take a look at the US Economics message boards, they have threads of people who applied and got/did not get accepted to top schools and how much funding they got. As far as I remember, out of 100 people with perfect record maybe 1 or 2 get accepted into top schools, and rarely with funding, so you do the math...