Profile Evaluation for MSc. Economics and MSc. Development Economics

Hey there, I want to apply for MSc Economics (1 year) at LSE and Warwick and the MSc. Economics for Development at Oxford.

I graduated Magna *** Laude (3.83/4 GPA) in Econ and was in the top 3 percentile of my class. Here are some courses I took: Econometrics (A), Micro 1 (A), Micro 2 (A-), Macro 1 (A-), and Macro 2 (A).

I've taken most mathematics courses that graduate schools require— Calculus (A), Linear Algebra (A), Multivariate Calc (A), Probability and Statistics (A), and Real Analysis (B).

GRE: 330 (166Q/164V)

I'll be pursuing a postgraduate diploma from the same uni (Sept 2023-May 2024) where I'll be writing a postgrad dissertation/thesis focused on FLFP in India post-COVID.

I'll most likely also be a Teaching Assistant for an undergrad econ course in my uni next semester.

Work Experience:

Currently working with the Government of India's Ministry of Policy in Trade & Commerce, Economics, Finance & Disinvestment, and G-20 Coordination as a research intern. This is a fairly selective internship with an acceptance rate of 5-7%.

I am also working as a Research Assistant for a professor at my uni till May 2024.

I have previously worked as a Research Fellow (basically an internship) at a social consultancy firm which works as an independent affiliate of the World Bank and ADB.

I have been the editor of my uni's undergraduate PPE journal.

I worked as a Research Assistant for another professor at my Uni in 2020.

Research Work:

I have written 4 term papers in economics which were fairly econometrically rigorous (as much as possible with an undergraduate understanding of econometrics, so basically DID, IV regressions etc.) but no publications. I am currently working towards getting a paper published in the next few months.

SoP/LoR
I think I'm fairly confident in my abilities to write a pretty good SoP. I am getting my LoRs from Professors I have worked with closely and have usually ranked in the top 5-10% percentile of their classes.

Do I stand a realistic chance of getting in? Is there anything specific I should work on in the time I have?

Profile looks strong re classes taken, research experience, work experience, etc.

But it's kinda impossible to say as a lot will depend on your uni. This is because the quality of your uni dictates how impressive your grades are, whether you're RAing for someone who publishes in the top journals, etc. Seems like your profile could be best suited to the MSc development economics course.

Thanks for your response. The Professor I am working with is not very reputed but I'm the sole RA and doing a lot of heavy datawork. However, I am getting LoRs from 2 of the best economists in my country (according to RePEc at least).

Tbf you don't really need research experience to get into the top UK MSc programs. I didn't have any when I got into their MSc Econometrics and mathematical economics course. But I went their for my undergrad so they have a good idea of your grades Vs the quality of modules. So typically if you're not coming from a top European/US uni, they will take a look at things beyond your grades as their assessment of the difficulty of modules is imperfect. Again though, getting LoRs from top economists in your country depend on which country haha, as well as whether they're top economists in the fields that you're wanting to study especially (e.g. dev econ).

But with the limited info available, pretty difficult to make an assessment of whether you'll be successful in applying to LSE/Oxbridge, but Warwick has much lower requirements in reality so you've probably got a better shot there if you don't get the others