The Student Room Group

Evaluation of profile required: Economics Msc or Mphil

Hello everybody,

I would like to ask the kind people of this forum to evaluate my profile and give me some suggestions where I could apply

GRE:
Quant: 790
Verbal: 550
AW: 5.0
TOEFL ibt:
120 (all points)
Undergraduate education:
- more or less unknown Economics faculty (University of Ljubljana), it does have EQUIS qualification though and it is trying to get AACSB now
- studying in the department of economics (2 pure math subjects, 2 pure statistics subjects plus economic statistics, micro and macro 1, micro and macro 2, econometrics, etc.)
- I am currently enrolled in the last, fourth year of the BA in economics program
- cumulative GPA 9.0 out of 10
- commendations of merit (for good grades) in 2nd, 3rd and expecting also 4th year
- one publication in a faculty student magazine about new political economy (I now it is not really a publication but hey, it s all I got)
SOP:
strong I think :smile:
Referees:
one professor that taught me macro 2 and one that taught me social choice, when a 3rd is needed - dean of the faculty (he does not know me well and has agreed to give a general supportive recommendation)

I am applying to:
- Oxford Msc in Economics for development (one year),
- Oxford Mphil in Economics (two years),
- Cambridge Mphil in Economics (one year),
- LSE Msc in Economics (one year),
- LSE Msc in Economics and philosophy (one year)

Mostly I am interested in political economy, voting theory, rationality, collective action and theory of groups, institutional economy, although I find other fields attractive as well. I was thinking about doing one of the masters programmes above and then continue to pursue a phd in economics later.

Are there any other possibilities or suggestions? Perhaps other universities? I was even entertaining the idea of applying to some phd programmes in the states, but I do not know precisely which field I would like to do research in and if I could get anywhere good with my profile.

Anyways, thanx for your thoughts on the topic.

Regards,
Take a look at the University of Chicago and Harvard for economics. There's always International Political Economy at LSE as well. Good luck!

--Phoenix
Reply 2
Actually what I heard about the International political economy at LSE is that it is not a very good programme. Supposedly, if you go to LSE, Economics is the way to go...
As for Harvard and Chicago, the wet dreams of economics students :smile:, I bet they are almost impossible to get in, so working in that direction is lost time for me I think.

What do you gals and guys think about the above mentioned programmes. How strong does your profile have to be to get accepted?

Regards,
Reply 3
Surely I can get some more replies? There have been over 100 views.... :smile:

Regards,
Reply 4
dehawkes
Surely I can get some more replies? There have been over 100 views.... :smile:

Regards,

Yes, but lots of those will be from people like me, who know nothing about economics degrees and can't help you.
Reply 5
well I'm not so sure about that, since plenty of threads started here have to do with economics...
I am hoping for some opinions from international students that are in a similar possition.

Regards,
dehawkes
well I'm not so sure about that, since plenty of threads started here have to do with economics...
I am hoping for some opinions from international students that are in a similar possition.

Regards,


They are all threads asking the same questions and very few get many answers...

I don't know of any of the regular postgrad posters in this particular section who have an economics background.

TSR gets a lot of fly-by-night members asking a question then disappearing into the ether afterwards.

Are you going to hang around?
Reply 7
Sounds like a good course-load and pretty good grades (I'm guessing 9/10 would be a first-class standard). I would be less sure of the GRE score though, as my tutor (at Oxford) wasn't that happy about mine on the verbal side, and I got 670. Though I think that was more as a native speaker. The quant is obviously fine and though 5.0 may be below average for the essay one, it won't be by much.

You should have a chance, but all those programmes you listed are extremely competitive.
Reply 8
Yeah well, we shall see soon...

And by soon I mean a couple of months. Is anybody else out there going crazy because this whole process of applying and waiting lasts for so long???

Another Q, anybody knows how long does it take for the people in LSE admission to make a decision (that is after one turnes in a complete application)?

Regards,
Reply 9
It'll take 2 months to get a reply from LSE ,at the least. I wanted to apply there about 2 weeks back but apparently I wont get a reply before March.
dehawkes
Hello everybody,

I would like to ask the kind people of this forum to evaluate my profile and give me some suggestions where I could apply

GRE:
Quant: 790
Verbal: 550
AW: 5.0
TOEFL ibt:
120 (all points)
Undergraduate education:
- more or less unknown Economics faculty (University of Ljubljana), it does have EQUIS qualification though and it is trying to get AACSB now
- studying in the department of economics (2 pure math subjects, 2 pure statistics subjects plus economic statistics, micro and macro 1, micro and macro 2, econometrics, etc.)
- I am currently enrolled in the last, fourth year of the BA in economics program
- cumulative GPA 9.0 out of 10

I am applying to:
- Oxford Msc in Economics for development (one year),
- Oxford Mphil in Economics (two years),
- Cambridge Mphil in Economics (one year),
- LSE Msc in Economics (one year),
- LSE Msc in Economics and philosophy (one year)



I see that a lot of us intl students are struggling out here..
i've got a lesser profile - GRE Q-800,V-500,E-4.0 which is not good enough. But your do qualify for the LSE MSc Economics programme, and of not the 1 yr, yo have good chances of getting through the 2-yr one (which i dont want.. its simply *expensive*) Same issue with the Cam MPhil; i dropped tht app mainly out of the degree-competition-chances of sidelining into the 2yr programme. I have two papers in my credit, got a leser GPA (from India, and its tuf to score above 3.6 on 4.0) amd ours is a 3-yr BA programme.

I'd recommend you go thru the Manchester, Birmingham, SOAS Econ depts too.. and PM me if you need any help :smile:
Reply 11
dehawkes


Are there any other possibilities or suggestions? Perhaps other universities? I was even entertaining the idea of applying to some phd programmes in the states, but I do not know precisely which field I would like to do research in and if I could get anywhere good with my profile.

Anyways, thanx for your thoughts on the topic.

Regards,

5 good places in Uk for Msc Economics. Warwick, Oxford, Cambridge, LSE and UCL. So try Warwick and UCl as well.
Reply 12
You have done a BA which is a bit of a warning sign.

As you are interested in Msc Economics, here is my checklist for what you would ideally know before starting. How do you score?
.
Micro
Classical: Can you solve 2 good consumer demand problems? And can you solve 2 good 2 consumer General Equilibrium problems?
Game Theory: It is good you have done this before, as it takes time to settle. Can you:
i)find pure Nash for a 2 by 2 game?
ii)find mixed Nash for a 2 by 2 game?
iii)do SPE: Subgame Perfect Equilbria

Macro
Section A is:
i) Monetary Policy Have you covered The Kydland and Prescott Paper?
ii) Neo-classical. have you previously covered classical models of economies?
iii) Neo-Keynesain. have you previously covered Keynesian models of economies?

Maths and stats
Introductory Mathematics:
(i) Introduction to analysis;Have you covered the theory behind differentiation?
(ii) Linear Algebra; Have you seen matrix algebra before? Do you know what a rank is? what a determinant?
(iii) Revision of multi-variable function and calculus and constrained optimisation. Can you do differentiation? What about with more than 1 variable?

(iv) Differential and difference equations. Have you seen differential equations before? e.g. particular solution and complementary function.

Introductory Statistics:
(i) Basic probability theory. Do you know what Bayes Rule is? What does it mean for two events to be independent?
(ii) Estimation and significance tests. Do you know what a T test is? Do you know what an F test is? Have you used a computer to do regressions?

hope this quick ‘quiz’ helps.
i.e. the more subjects with lots of no’s the more demanding you will find it
Reply 13
Paulwhy
You have done a BA which is a bit of a warning sign.

Not necessarily. Not all universities offer BScs in Economics.
Reply 14
hobnob
Not necessarily. Not all universities offer BScs in Economics.

Sure it is not a one to one relationship. But as I put it is a bit of a warning sign. BAs tend to be more discusive, more essay based, less technical. But if dehawkes answers my questions, the speculation can end!
Reply 15
Paulwhy
Sure it is not a one to one relationship. But as I put it is a bit of a warning sign. BAs tend to be more discusive, more essay based, less technical. But if dehawkes answers my questions, the speculation can end!

Well, seeing as he's expecting to hear about the outcome of at least one of those applications within the next couple of days, it might be a little late for that, but fair enough.:smile:
Reply 16
hobnob
Well, seeing as he's expecting to hear about the outcome of at least one of those applications within the next couple of days, it might be a little late for that, but fair enough.:smile:

Well it is more a warning sign in terms of doing the msc well rather than in terms of getting an offer. i.e. if the student is ill prepared but pays his 10K fees why will the uni care?
Reply 17
Actually I have learned about most if not all (hard to know everything by heart, especially cuz I have to translate from one language to another) of the stuff Paulwhy is asking about. I have also been informed that it is better to name my undergraduate programme Bsc :P
It takes four years (plus one for the final thesis) to complete and it is strong in economics (quant economics, not only essay type).

Hope this answers this dilemma :smile:

Regards