Journey to an Economics PhD at US from a non-traditional background from outside US-Part 1:Educational Background.
I had received an offer for PhD in economics to Boston College .After posting this update in LinkedIn, I had a number of requests on advice to apply for PhD in Economics .Thus I have decided to write my experiences (before I forget ) so as to help other students who wish to pursue Phd in economics especially those from other educational background like mathematics ,statistics ,computer science and Physics who come from non target schools. Also this post is for students from non -USA institutions who do not have a 4 year bachelors degree.
PS: You just cant randomly think that you want to do PhD one day after your masters! You have to start preparing from undergraduate or at least beginning of your masters.
PS: This is my perspective of what I felt during this journey! Please do not persecute me for this.
1)Educational Background
Under this falls three aspects that one has to take care of -the Subject in which you have majored, the courses that you have taken and your educational institution .
Degree Major
Obviously people who pursue economics form a huge chunk of people who eventually pursue Phd in the same subject. But a degree in Physics, Mathematics or Computer Science can also be a ticket to a PhD program in economics .
This is because people who studied the aforementioned subjects have been trained rigorously in both mathematical skills and the ability to analyse everything technically .These majors actually help the student to think and produce academic literature which has clarity of argument and quantitative prediction.
If one has a National/International Olympiad in Physics or mathematics ,there has been a guarantee in admission spots in MIT/Harvard. But for lesser mortals like me ,this is not an option . The other much easier option is to consistently score the highest grade possible .Grades matters the most! (no matter what anybody says ) because grades are what the admission committee decides whether to admit you and pay you a stipend .This is the performance barometer on which they are going to decide.
Moreover , if you are in top 2 % in any courses or overall in your cohort ,do mention that in your resume.
Courses
Math is the most important prerequisite of a PhD in economics!
Sorry to disappoint you ,but that is the truth !It doesn't matter whether you want to go to policy jobs after your PhD or pursue your research in a field which requires less mathematics. This is because every economist needs to have a solid foundation in the basics of economic theory and econometrics, which is only possible when we have a clear understanding of mathematics that these fields use. We want to be able to show quantitatively causal links and forecast the effects of policies and other economic phenomena. Using the tools of mathematics, we can take economic intuition and insight and rigorously develop a model that both establishes under what conditions we might observe x causing y but also to what degree x can affect y. Moreover , it’s really easy to claim that certain things cause certain economic phenomena and using comprehensive language hide any logical fallacies/inconsistencies. However, it is really difficult to do this with mathematics, so when writing a proof of something, it’s really easy to pick up where a person’s model is actually false.
Ph.D. programs expect applicants to have advanced calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, probability theory , statistics .It would also strongly boost your application if you have taken courses in real analysis, stochastic calculus and methods of proof .Mind you as mentioned earlier ,it doesn't matter if you just take them ,you have to score a good grade in them (possibly the highest).
Your background also has to have some economics in it (Obviously since you want to do a PhD in economics !) One way is to take courses in varying levels in econometrics, microeconomics and macroeconomics. But this is not entirely necessary. The courses can either substituted or complemented by research assistantships or thesis in econ related fields .I will explain more of this in my next part of the blog I myself have taken graduate courses in econometrics, microeconomics and macroeconomics while completely skipping intermediate levels .There are few others who have done BSc+MSc in mathematics and research assistantship in economics while the majority students have done BSc+MSc in economics and research assistantship in economics.
Educational institution
So reading till this point ,you must have thought ,WOW! this is easy .You just have to get the highest scores in a few mathematical courses and have an interest in economics. Voila! Like most areas in life, economics is very brand conscious almost to the point that it resembles a caste system. Your A+ in real analysis have two different meaning if one comes from Delhi School of Economics and one from a less known college (no matter how good or reputed it is in that particular region) .Not anybody can get in even if they have good grades-You have to study in certain colleges in particular combinations (Harsh Truth !).In the other sides defence ,this is because most US /European departments do not know the different academic standards of all universities in various countries.
For example in India-There are very specific combination of students that usually get in. This is based on extensive research that I have done while applying for Phd. Please note that these categories have generally applied to students who have pursued PhD in top 30 econ programs .This excludes students in other programs.
First category- India Statistical Institute (ISI) MSQE students .This is by default the best and most competitive program in India with many students regularly been successfully placed in top departments starting from MIT ,Princeton Columbia, Wisconsin-Madison, Minnesota, Cornell ,Michigan .
Second Category-Delhi University(from a higher ranked college )/Presidency Bachelors+Delhi School of Economics / JNU Masters. This is the most common route which has produced extremely famous economists like Geeta Gopinath ,Abhijeet Banerjee, Maitressh Ghatak .Even now ,I know many in my just senior batches who have successfully got offers with such educational backgrounds.This route has seen placements in almost all top economics departments you name
Third Category: IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore ,Calcutta regularly send their top rankers to the economics programs in the Business schools. The most famous example: Raghuram Rajan.
Fourth Category: Any fairly reputed college in India +Masters in Economics from an extremely well known department abroad .This includes-LSE ,Oxford, Cambridge, NYU, Columbia, UCLA, UChicago etc.This is not a comprehensive list .
I myself belong to this category having done Bachelors in Mathematics and Computing from Birla Institute of Technology, (BIT) a famous college in India but not so widely known in economics circle abroad, Master in Computational Mathematics from University of Edinburgh and Msc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from London School of Economics. I have taken all the mathematics courses that I mentioned in point two twice both in undergraduate at BIT and in Edinburgh. But since, Edinburgh mathematics department is highly ranked in the world ,my high grades attained there was taken into greater consideration while my transcript from BIT (with the same courses and equivalent grades ) was disregarded. My masters from LSE is known as the one of the most academically rigorous masters program in econ world and hence was a further assurance for the admissions committee that I will be a suitable candidate for their program.
Fifth Category: Some other college like St Xaviers or Ashoka University regularly has sent students for Phd programs .But most of the students have a masters degree from places mentioned in the first three categories.
Sixth Category: This is a category of students who have done their econ degree from other regional colleges and gone on to do their masters from Delhi School of Economics or JNU. These students have scored top grades in the courses in their masters and then have gone on to do their PhD at a reputed program abroad.
Of course this is a rough categorisation and there are always exceptions ,but this is the general trend that has been seen .
This is sadly not a case only in India.
Some universities that some of friends ,classmates or seniors did their undergraduate and masters who have gone on to pursue PhD are:
UK- LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL ,Warwick.
Germany-Manheim, Bonn, Munich,Technical University of Berlin
Spain-Pompeu Fabra University ,Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. University of Barcelona, CEMFI
France-Ecole Polytechnique, Sciences Po Paris,Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon,Paris School of Economics
Switzerland- University of Zurich, ETH Zurich.
Italy-Bocconi University, University of Turin, University of Bologna,University of Padua
Sweden-Stockholm School of Economics
Denmark-Aarhus
Netherlands-Tilburg ,University of Groningen
China-Peking University , Tsinghua University.Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Renmin University of China.,Fudan University.
Australia-University of Melbourne, University of Sydney,Australian National University
Turkey-Boğaziçi University ,Bilkent University
This above list is not comprehensive. This is a general compilation of the students that I have actually seen in my community who have gone on to do PhD in a top program at either US/Europe .They have a permutation of bachelors+ masters degrees in one of these colleges .
For example :A classmate of mine who is pursuing PhD in Cambridge has a bachelors in economics from Bilkent and MSc in EME from LSE. Another common acquinatnce of mine who is going to pursue Phd at Boston University has completely done his bachelors+masters in economics in Peking University.Another friend of mine has done engineering ETH Zurich,Mphil in Oxford and now Phd in Oxford.( I will mention these examples again in my next blog post )\
So its a combination of great grades in mathematics courses + right permutation of universities which are well known by economics departments and you are guaranteed a place in a good program ?
Wrong
The most important thing is references!
I will discuss this in my next post!
Check out the next part!
