what to do to get into econ phd

What are your goals?

If y'all're considering applying for admission to a PhD program, you should start thinking about where you desire to use. Your criteria for selecting target programs will depend on your goals and circumstances, but here are a few things to remember about.

Getting started: Enquire yourself these goal-oriented questions

Let's jump right into the introspective phase of mining your goals:

• Outset (and nearly importantly), what is your goal?
• What are your primary enquiry interests?
• Practice you desire to pursue an academic career?
• Or practice y'all plan to work in another sector?

How volition your goals influence your career?

Inquiry

If you're primarily interested in inquiry, your priority should be finding a plan that will give y'all the enquiry training to launch your career. Follow these steps:

• Try to identify scholars who are working in the areas that interest you lot.
• Review the literature in your field, network at conferences, and review CVs on departmental websites. In short, do your research.
• If you accept an undergrad mentor in your field, consult them for advice virtually departments where exciting research is going on.
• Ask yourself: who would exist a good mentor, and who would I be interested in working with for the next several years?
• Consider the rankings of your target school and/or department. In many fields (see below), top programs are a MUST for securing a task in the field post-graduation. On the other hand, become across the rankings to explore the real dynamism of, and specialities in, a section (especially once you're talking near the specific subfields PhD students are concerned with). Even among the top schools, Princeton and Harvard are very different places!

Outside academia

If your goals lie outside of academia, piece of work on identifying programs that will help you reach your goals. For you lot, these questions volition be virtually relevant:

• What industry are you interested in?
• Does the university you're considering accept research ties with that industry?
• Does the department offer opportunities for professional development (fieldwork, internships, etc.)?
• Whether you are primarily interested in industry or academia (or if you are undecided), the following question is of import: What other resources does the university offer to support graduate students (career development, professional groups, alumni working in the field, etc.)?

Practice your inquiry to discover the best programs for your interests and goals. You might brainstorm past searching for "PhD in X" online, searching past specific universities, and because the dissimilar departments in which your field of involvement could be placed. For example, a doctoral candidate studying religion could, depending on the specialty, be getting her PhD in a religion, history, or literature dept.

Are you lot a competitive PhD applicant?

Once you've established your goals, it's time to evaluate your credentials and consider where y'all volition exist a competitive candidate.

Answering the post-obit questions will assistance yous honestly size up your profile:

Keep in mind: most PhD programs are extremely competitive, and admissions can seem downright capricious. That'due south the inevitable outcome of admitting only a handful of applicants each year.

Are you PhD material at this time?

Accept you lot discussed grad schoolhouse with whatever mentors—and practice they remember you're capable of grad-level work? Here are some other questions to ask yourself:

• Have y'all done research equally an undergrad or main's level student?

  Perhaps y'all helped a professor work on a book; done lab work for a researcher; washed an independent study (these are particularly not bad for revealing a student's deeper inquiry interests, and for cultivating pregnant student-faculty relationships); or participating in summer or yearly academic programming, such as language courses or research piece of work.

  If not, consider gaining more research feel before applying.

• Are your GPA and exam scores competitive?

  About programs (not all) publicize their boilerplate admitted GPA and GRE info. Deport in mind that at some schools, your awarding will be processed kickoff by the university'south graduate schoolhouse, which may impose a minimum GPA or GRE requirement. If yous're concerned about meeting minimum standards, cheque the department's requirements carefully.

  BUT Call up: Top programs desire very high GPAs. And, GRE matters less (compared to SAT or to one's GPA) for many programs, specially in humanities. Look at each school'southward site. Information technology is too crucial to demonstrate that you've washed relevant coursework, to prove you have a real background in your field. For example, was it your major? Did you do a postbac?

• Exercise you run across the prereqs for admission?

  This might seem similar a no-brainer. Only many of the competitive/highly ranked programs (in a variety of fields) have minimum requirements that far surpass the requirements you met as an undergrad. For instance, to enter many English departments, yous'll need to demonstrate fluency in two or more foreign languages. Practice your inquiry.

• Is there a professor in your specialty at the program y'all're targeting, and (important!) are they accepting students?

  Expect at kinesthesia pages for your department at each target school and note the interests, publications, and bios of profs you'd want to work with. Reach out to them directly; offer to meet with them in person (though probably not during COVID) or conform a Zoom call.

  You could be a superstar and still not exist accepted if the program doesn't think they tin can fit your needs.

• Don't only target the very top-ranked programs in your field.

  Because PhD admission is and then competitive, it is important to practise a broad-ranging, well-researched search.

  Withal: This is non always truthful. In certain fields, many would argue that information technology is only worthwhile to target the very top programs because otherwise you don't take a chance of getting a chore in the field later. It is best not but to ask current doctoral students, but also senior professors who might exist on the hiring end of the profession. Yous can also await at professors' online bios to see where they got their degrees- if anybody, even those at "less-than-peak-tier" universities, all take degrees from Harvard, it probably means in that location are few jobs to go effectually and so simply those coming out of the very best schools are securing them.

More than criteria to consider when selecting a PhD plan

I've discussed some important criteria for helping you to select a grad programme: your goals/inquiry interests, and evaluating whether you'll exist a competitive applicant. Those are large ones. Only as a classic PhD Comic reminds us, you're not just a "brain on a stick"—you lot have concerns and needs exterior of your research. You lot too need to observe a program where you're going to fit and thrive equally a human being being for the next several years. A few things to consider are location, finances, and departmental culture.

Location

Your PhD programme won't exist in a vacuum! Where you'll be spending your side by side few years matters. Ask yourself:

• Is there a part of the country you desire to live in?
• Are you constrained geographically by family needs, or by a career you're pursuing already?

Funding

it'southward a good idea to investigate funding opportunities when you inquiry access information.

• Will you need to submit additional applications?
• What type of funding is available to grad students in your target section?
• Is funding guaranteed for the duration of your program?
• Is funding available during the summer?

Departmental civilization

This is largely an result of "fit"—but you can notice out a off-white amount virtually how a department treats its students past talking to people.

• When yous visit, practice people seem at ease?
• If y'all sit in on a seminar, do y'all sense a collegial environment?

Besides, contact the department registrar to arrive bear upon with current doctoral students to enquire for some of these details, and for their experience in the program: working with certain profs, living in the area, etc. Consider COVID limitations and their impact on in-person visits, of course; consider request permission to sit in on a Zoom class!

The grad plan you select volition be a major part of your life for the next several years, so you desire a good fit on a personal level.

Summary

Remember, make sure the schoolhouse where yous are going to spend several years pursuing your PhD fits your needs, and non merely the other way around. Your target PhD program should assistance y'all reach your goals, and it should enable you lot to work with professors you adore. Call up deeply about the people you'd like as your mentors, and consult with their current advisees: Do they treat their students well? Be certain to find out how they interact with students, and consider writing out for your own cocky-agreement what the ideal advisor-advisee human relationship would expect like. Is your dream advisor hands-off? Hands-on? Is he/she warm, or afar? Practise you want an ongoing mentorship with this person, or simply someone to look over your work when required and help sign the papers to get yous over the end line?

Also, your target plan should be in a location and price bracket that you lot can manage. Don't underestimate the value of fit in these ways, also as school culture—these volition strongly contribute not but to whether or non you become accepted, simply how well y'all fare and how happy you'll exist over the class of your PhD experience.

Do you need assistance choosing the all-time PhD programs for you? Do you demand aid with any other elements of the application procedure? Explore our Graduate Schoolhouse Admissions Consulting & Editing Services and work i-on-one with an expert consultant who volition assist you GET ACCEPTED!

By Dr. Rebecca Blustein, sometime Accustomed admissions consultant. Dr. Blustein has a BA and PhD from UCLA in English language and Comparative Literature. She formerly worked every bit a Student Diplomacy Officer at UCLA's Scholarship Resources Center where she gained experience guiding applicants in areas of admissions and funding. Dr. Blustein'due south clients take been accepted to top Principal's and PhD programs in dozens of fields across all disciplines.Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in bear upon!

Related Resource:

• Plotting Your Manner to a PhD, a gratuitous guide
• Focus on Fit, a podcast episode
• 4 Tips for Securing Effective Recommendation Letters for PhD Admissions at Top Programs

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Source: https://blog.accepted.com/choosing-the-best-phd-program-are-you-a-competitive-applicant/