Monday, April 12, 2010

INTRODUCTION: Steps to Economics PhD admission

>Well... let’s start with the question: why is admission process to graduate program in Economics a mystery? I would not give a straight answer of this question for the truth is I don’t have one. The admission process involves a number of steps, every single step is crucial and if you want to achieve your dream university a minor mistake in any of these may cost you rejection from the very same university and from other universities as well. Though it’s difficult to point down the steps to the admission process in the right order yet more or less it would be in the order given below:

1. Write Graduate Record Examination (GRE)

2. Write Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL), you can also opt for other test which can be replaced instead of TOEFL such as IELTS (you don’t need to have TOEFL score if you are from US or the countries where English is the native language, there are some more exceptions which will be discussed later in the post exclusively dedicated for TOEFL section)

3. Determine the right program for you within the discipline such as agricultural economics, labour economics, macroeconomics and so on

4. Choose the right school depending upon your area of interest, your GPA and test scores, your financial aid priority and the college profile

5. Write your statement of purpose and Resume

6. Get the recommendation letters

7. Get your transcripts

8. Apply to the targeted universities well before the deadline

9. Sending your application materials to the university

10. Submitting your application

11. Be in touch with the program heads of the departments you have applied to

12. Choose the best university for you from the universities you have got acceptances

13. Sending the financial affidavit

14. Apply for student visa

15. Congrats! pack your bags

The first step however is of course, that you should be aware well in advance (probably when you are in your undergraduate school) that you are interested in graduating in economics and would be applying for the same. So opt for lots of maths and economics courses and try to maintain good GPA’s preferably more than 3.5 and definitely not less than 3.

Some thesis work may help you a great deal in securing admission to a good university for PhD. The thesis work can be done as course work or working on some research project as a research assistant with some professor. If you are applying after a gap of 1-2 years after your undergrad it’s advisable to work as a research or teaching assistant at some good institution. These are the precursors to admission process which are going to be of great help in securing admission.

The order of the steps only indicates the timing of event and not the importance. All the criteria are extremely important and it’s really difficult to say which one is the most important. The importance may also depend upon individual applications, universities and for the candidates from the different countries. Hence, it’s best to have everything near to perfect to get admission to your dream university.

The next post will discuss the importance of GRE and will provide the information regarding GRE. The comments and questions are welcome so that more and more information can be provided and the mystery can be unraveled.

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