Undergraduate Program

General:

Applications are due early, often in Fall of the year preceding admission. There is a big advantage in future success in employment to going to the best program that will admit you, especially for Ph.D. programs. You should apply to a number and range of programs, to hedge you bets and because there is a certain element of chance involved.

1. Overall GPA
2. Performance in Specific Courses
   
   Especially pre-requisite and other relevant courses.
3. Performance on Key Standardized Tests (GRE, GMAT, LSAT,...)
   
   Take the test before Fall. If advisers know your score then they can give you a better idea of how high to shoot. And if you don't like your score you have time for a retake.
4. Letters of Recommendation
   
   This is most overlooked. A letter that says only that you took an A and have a good overall GPA is not helpful as it adds nothing to what is already in the transcript. A good letter says that the professor has known you for some time, and thinks you are a mature and smart person capable of independent research.
   
   To obtain such a letter you need to develop a relationship with the professor. Ways to do this include working (as Reader or TA), attending office hours quite often, interaction in class, taking more than one class from the same professor, writing a term paper or honors thesis.
   
   Make it easy for the professor to write the letter for you. Make it clear what range of schools you are aiming for. Information to give the professor typically includes: transcript (most professor will accept a photocopy, but ask first); statement of purpose; other personal information relevant to explaining your goals and parts of your past that you would like to be highlighted (or downplayed); written work from the class such as essays or exams which can give more information than just the recorded score.
   
   Try to give the recommendation forms to be completed by the professor in a packet rather than one school at a time.

Ph.D. in Economics:

Ph.D. students do course work for the first two or so years before moving to the thesis. If you don't go on to the thesis you can usually get a Masters as a consolation prize. A thesis takes a long time and five years is a quick time to complete the Ph.D.

If you want to do a Ph.D. degree and are well prepared coming out of UCD, than apply for admission to a Ph.D. program and not a Masters program. Admission to the better Ph.D. programs comes with four years of funding sufficient to cover tuition and living expenses, in return for working twenty hours a week as a TA or RA. You can afford to go to Stanford, if they admit you.

Economics Ph.D. programs are oriented to people seeking careers in academia or the government. The American Economic Association website is a good reference for Ph.D. study in economics. There is a great advantage in going to a tier 1 or tier 2 school. The first 3 of the 5 tiers are (UCD is tier 4):

In the most recent National Research Council rankings of economics graduate programs (using old 1993 data) the top three tiers include:

Tier 1 (ranked 1-6): Chicago, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.

Tier 2 (ranked 7-15): Columbia, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Pennsylvania, Rochester, California-Berkeley, UCLA, and Wisconsin-Madison.

Tier 3 (ranked 16-30): Illinois-Urbana, Boston University, Brown, Cornell, Duke, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, New York University, North Carolina, Texas-Austin, Virginia, California-San Diego, University of Washington, and Washington University-St. Louis.

Graduate programs in economics are very mathematical by comparison to undergraduate programs, and lack of mathematical ability is a key indicator of failure. A major admission criteria is the performance on the quantitative section of the GRE. For all entering Ph.D. students in 2002, the average GRE quantitative score was 772 (out of a possible 800), and the average GRE verbal score was 562 (out of a possible 800). For those entering the most selective tier 1 schools, the averages were 785 and 575. For those entering tier 2 schools, the averages were 782 and 547. And for those entering tier 3 schools, the averages were 765 and 573. (Research by Stock, Finegan, and Siegfried) The economics section of the GRE is much less important. Another admission criteria is what math classes you have taken.

A minimum preparation is:

Stat 13, Math 21A-21D (or 16A-16C with very high grades), Math 67 and Econ 140

To be fully prepared for a top ten program you should also take:

Statistics: Stat 131A-B or 130A-B. Mathematics: Math 25 and then Math 125A-B.

It is also very beneficial to be able to demonstrate research ability through Econ 194H.