# A Guide to Econ Grad School Applications (esp. for Indians)

# Background

- I'm Sudarshan. I was an undergrad at Ashoka between 2020 and 2024 (UG23 and ASP24).
- This guide shares my experiences from the Fall 2023 graduate school application cycle.
- I applied exclusively to economics programs (9 Master's programs and 1 PhD program, all within QS's top 20)---no public policy, no finance.
- I had a strong GRE score.
- I was accepted everywhere I applied.
- You can contact me over email at [e-mail].
- This guide assumes you're an undergraduate student (closest context: Ashoka) for the most part (however, a good chunk will be useful for master's students and students outside Ashoka as well). It also assumes you want to have the possibility of continuing to a PhD open.
- It was written assuming you will be applying to Master's programs. However, almost all of it is applicable for PhD applications as well. PhD application specific advice is also detailed in a specific section. Broadly, interpret this as a guide to graduate school (master's/PhD) for Indian students (especially those at Ashoka) interested in Research in Economics.
- It is intended to substitute for 'guidance counsellors'. I strongly believe you shouldn't have to pay for this advice---if you can help it, you should avoid it.
- A word of caution: I am just one guy. So, I may have made some errors in writing below. My apologies in advance for them.

# Table of Contents

1. What you can do while at Ashoka/during your Undergraduate degree
2. Short-listing Graduate Schools
3. The GRE
4. Getting Letters of Recommendation
5. Writing your Statement of Purpose
6. Funding your education
7. A Master's at Ashoka
8. Special Case: Applying to PhDs directly
9. Pre-Docs
10. Other Guides that I found useful when I was applying

# What you can do while at Ashoka/during your Undergraduate degree

- On Courses
- Your grades in economics courses matter. Your CGPA matters (with caveats).
- However, if you have a major GPA significantly higher than your CGPA, I suspect you will be fine.
- A good rule of thumb is, a CGPA >=3.8 is pretty good. If you have one >=3.9, you are very well placed. You can certainly get away with lower, but you will need to have other things like research/relevant work experience to show for that.
- I will state this explicitly now and here: ***do not be discouraged if you have a low CGPA***. Most of that deficit can be made up for through hard work, research experience and internships. I have seen so many people with CGPAs that are conventionally considered low make it to good programs. You will just have to work harder to better your profile in other aspects (GRE, letters, experience, etc.).
- Retaking and P/Fs
- If you have a B or lower on an important course that cannot be compensated by performing well in an advanced elective, you should retake the course.
- For example, if you do poorly in Macro 2, you maybe able to compensate by taking Advanced Macroeconomics/Macro 1 at the Master's level.
- Do not P/F a course unless you think you will get lower than a B+ (sometimes, even a B).
- P/Fs are not great signals.
- Course choices largely matter only up until the first semester of your ASP degree/4th year. This is because when you apply to grad schools, you will likely only submit a provisional transcript for even the first semester of your ASP degree/fourth year. So, unless you're taking a required/highly recommended math course (specifically, those mentioned below) then, your ASP/4th year grades will likely not matter after a certain point. However, be careful that some programs make CGPA-based conditional offers.
- Cambridge, for example, will always require students from Ashoka to have a 3.9 or above (weirdly).
- Typically, you will not receive conditional offers unless your CGPA is not strong (say, lower than 3.8/3.75 in my experience). However, better safe than sorry.
- Please take as many math courses as you can. Graduate schools (for economics programs) ***seriously*** value math courses and good grades in them on your transcript. Many even state them as a requirement.
- The ones that are a near-necessity are:
- Calculus, Multivariable Calculus
- Linear Algebra
- Real Analysis
- Probability & Statistics/Statistical Inference
- The ones that you will find very helpful (but are higher-order):
- Metric and Topological Spaces
- Matrix Analysis
- Measure Theory
- These course requirements mean that you should plan your courses well starting from your first year. Or at the very least, from your second year.
- Attempt taking Master's Courses in your 3rd and 4th years.
- Econometrics 2 is a course that teaches you a good amount while not adding too much to the level of difficulty.
- Microeconomics 1 will teach you how to write proofs in economics and just how dry and abstract the subject can be.
- Topics in Microeconomic Theory (Networks) is a great course---just in terms of how interesting it is. If you can, please take it.
- There are other options you can consider exploring as well: the graduate decision theory course, Econometrics 1 (math intensive), etc.
- Do not waste your time taking computer applications if you already know how to code half-decently.
- Good grades in master's courses will be a good signal to send. However, it is acknowledged that their difficulty will inevitably be higher. So if you get a B+, do not be very discouraged---graduate schools will likely account for this as well.
- Good electives can change your life. If you've heard an elective is soul sapping or horrible---please do not take it. Unless you're really really interested in the subject. Interest in the discipline is important and so it is also important to take courses that will not be unfairly discouraging due to the instructor's style/grading system.
- Please do not waste your time taking Entrepreneurship courses. I cannot emphasize this enough. They will neither add to your profile (for this purpose) nor will they help expand your horizons. Course slots are precious. If you really want to be a better economist/better candidate for graduate schools (and are tired of math courses), take courses from other disciplines---like Sociology and Anthropology, Philosophy or Political Science.
- Do summer semesters if you can so you can get FCs out of your way early on.
- Clubs are not very useful.
- Your Consulting and Investments Club experience will not be helpful. If you can help it, you should avoid them.
- Working with the economics society maybe marginally helpful---by giving you access to speakers from talks.
- I, personally, found all other club work to be a huge waste of time. Unless you're heading something significant, avoid all of them.
- Your time is usually better spent collecting research experience
- For RAships, write *lots* of emails.
- Good grades are a useful signal here. But if you do not have them, **that's fine**. Be very earnest in your communication. You can also build your skills and show records of them through things like github repositories.
- People who have money will usually want to hire---regardless of what position they've posted a listing for.
- Did you see a listing for pre-doc position? Write to them saying you can be a part-time RA (or summer RA).
- Useful links: predoc.org, nber.org/career-resources/research-assistant-positions-not-nber, twitter.com/econ_ra
- Also write cold emails. Find professors abroad who match your interests and write to them.
- Write personalized emails, mentioning their research interests, why you like the same and describing what part of their work/papers interested you. Only genuine interest will get you jobs.
- Should you write mass, python-automated emails like our friends in engineering do, expect to not receive many responses.
- If you can manage it, work during the semester as well.
- Do not commit more than 20 hours per week during the semester.
- Course projects can sometimes be converted to a useful ISM or continuing paper with a professor.
- So, choose your course project ideas carefully. Do not settle---they should always be worth your time.
- Familiarize yourself with as many data sources in India as you can. Also familiarize yourself with the mathematics and the utilization of various 'causal methods': at the very least, using IVs, RDs, DiDs and RCTs.
- Spend some time reading papers in the discipline every week.
- Just hop onto the latest issue of one of the 'top 5' journals:
- American Economic Review, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Review of Economic Studies, Econometrica and the Journal of Political Economy.
- However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't cultivate non-academic experience.
- I recommend spending atleast one internship/summer working for an organization that is involved in some sort of policy advice/government-related work/experiment.
- Examples of these organizations include J-PAL, CHAI, Dalberg, Pratham, NITI Aayog, etc.
- At Ashoka, experience at CEDA is valuable. Until the end of your second year, TCPD experience is valuable. Avoid working at any other centre.

# Short-listing Graduate Schools

- There are a few factors that you should consider seriously in the short-listing process
- Cost
- American schools are *very* costly for master's programs. Their master's programs are also not wholly excellent either. If you can help it, you should stay away from them---unless you have found yourself a good scholarship.
- Columbia University (for it's MA Econ program), for example, has something called the Shardashish Fellowship for which it awards ~50,000$. This brings down costs to levels comparable to schools in Europe.
- Some programs in Europe have *very* low tuition fee/award scholarships liberally if you apply early.
- The Paris School of Economics is one example of the former. Uni Bocconi is an example of the latter.
- Where the school is also matters a lot. NYU for example is both costly attend and arrange residence for. I've heard of rent in NY being thrice as much as what you'd have to pay in places like Chicago. If you can help it, you should try to avoid choices that'll lead to these large overheads.
- Who teaches the program
- In many American universities, the master's courses are taught by adjunct/visiting faculty. This is ***supremely*** unhelpful. Part of the reason why you want to use an American university as a stepping board is the letter of recommendations you will be able to get---the most important component of an Econ PhD application. It is difficult to find a very strong letter from very new faculty.
- Where the program places
- Good PhD placements are a good sign.
- Many pre-doc placements instead are not.
- Some master's programs have pipelines to specific PhD programs. Note these by looking at their websites and speaking to your professors.
- For example, in India, the best scoring student from ISI typically goes onto a PhD at NYU. These pipelines are a result of professor networks.
- The academic orientation of the school
- Some schools lean a lot more toward macroeconomics than toward microeconomics.
- The Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, for example, will likely make you lean toward macroeconomics---because it is known for it and focuses on it.
- Oxford, on the other hand, is the opposite.
- Ideally, you want to target the top 30 schools (in econ, not generally). If you think the sum of your grades, experience, letters and statement cannot get you there (which will ***very*** rarely be the case given hard work), account for that and apply to some lower ranked schools as well.
- Some lower ranked schools may have neat pipelines to top PhD programs as well. So, look out for them.
- The Toulouse School of Economics, for example, is one of them.

# The GRE

- Most good programs require the GRE. At the very least, they're informally recommended. If you can help it, you should give the GRE. **Do not** give the GMAT.
- The GRE is not difficult. However, you should start preparation early. If you can, start preparation during the summer prior to the application cycle in which you want to make applications. For example, if you're applying in Fall 2025 (for the Fall 2026 intake), start your preparation during Summer 2025. If you can, you should also give the exam at the end of the same summer.
- Here's a guide from me and a friend:
* "This is the exact order I did my prep in (Approx 5 weeks starting from reg date)
1. All verbal questions in Manhattan 5 lb (Week 1-2 mostly) - these are slightly harder than the real questions but have very detailed answer explanations and have a lot of questions of each type. I practiced these untimed just to see if I'm actually able to do it.
2. Magoosh GRE book - All verbal - this has lesser questions than the first but it's close enough to the real one. It also has some nice suggestions for the verbal sections. (2-3 days I think)
3. Official ETS GRE practice books - these are official questions and are the closest to the real ones. I did all verbal from the verbal practice book and the official guide to GRE book. Some quant I did but I didn't have time for the rest. (Week 4-5) If you're practicing quant, I think do the ones in these, that is enough. You'll understand the question types and syllabus. There's also a official quant book if there's time.
4. Practice Tests - I took these on the weekends of week 4 and 5. Order: Kaplan, Manhattan, Powerprep 1, Powerprep 2, Princeton Review. There is no specific order to this except it's usually better to do powerprep last because they're the official ones. I wanted to do practice tests at the end because I wanted to estimate scores after prep. Mcgraw hill also gives some mock tests for free but I didn't have time to try those. All except princeton give no grades for the essay."
- I gave my GRE exam at the end of October. I recommend you do not wait this late. You typically want to have a 25 day buffer for another attempt as well. Finishing the GRE over the summer will also leave you a lot more time to work on other things.
- Here are scores you should target at minimum:
- Quantitative: >=165
- Verbal: >=160
- Writing: >4 (people do not care about this too much unless you've done very poorly)
- Ideally, above 167 in the quantitative section and above 163 in the verbal section will be *very* good. These will, from what I know, typically get you past the 90 percentile marks in both/place you well in any case.

# Getting Letters of Recommendation

- Graduate schools usually do not allow more than one professional referee to write you letters. So, you will need atleast 2 letters from professors at Ashoka.
- Ask professors who you've taken atleast 2 or more courses with to write you letters---unless you really impressed them in 1 course.
- Please do not ask work supervisors---unless, of course, they are also economists (with PhDs).
- Your supervisor, even if a partner at Deloitte or KPMG, will not be able to give you a stronger letter than an economist in academia.
- This is, unfortunately (or fortunately), how graduate school letters work and are perceived.
- Let your professors know ***atleast a month in advance***. Writing letters takes time. Letters written over a longer period are more likely to be better thought out and comprehensive.
- Have your CV and statement of purpose (atleast a first draft/bullet points) ready to send to them when you email them.
- Please do not ask to see your letters.
- How strong your letters are matters.
- This is a function of 2 things:
- The degree to which the professor knows you and your work.
- The seniority of the professor.
- Consequently, it's useful to have atleast one senior professor write a letter for you (if possible, plan your courses accordingly). It's also very useful to have professors you are amicable with and sure you've impressed write you letters.
- Sometimes, you can request your professors to tailor your letters in a certain way.
- For example, if you've asked 2 professors, both of whom taught you but only one of whom worked with you, you can request one to write about your academic competence and the other about your ability in research.
- Similarly, if a program (like the LSE's EME or really, any PhD program) places a lot of emphasis on your mathematical proficiency, you can request your professors to keep that in consideration while they write your letter.

# Writing your Statement of Purpose

- Your statement of purpose must not be dramatic. Be clinical. For serious programs, serious people and professors will read them. You cannot get away with a statement similar to what you sent in for your undergraduate applications.
- Your statement must be dense. Every line should convey useful signals. Be harsh in cutting out redundant content.
- Your statement essentially makes a case for both a) why you are a good fit for a school and b) why the school is a good fit for you. In economics, typically you argue for yourself using your academic performance, research experience and ideas. Yes, a short paragraph at the end describing research ideas you'd like to explore while in grad school will be a positive signal.
- It is also useful to mention which professors you would like to work with once you get to the relevant university and the intersection between your and their research interests.
- Please do not spend too much time on motivation
- Telling your panel why you want to study economics by starting from your history with it in 12th grade is useless.
- As a rule of thumb, cut out all content prior to those that pertain to the time after you started your undergraduate degree. That is, no high school business.
- If possible, you should focus less on your first year as well (although not necessary).
- However, it maybe a little useful to spend some space stating specific experience(s) that motivated you to apply for the program (one line for maybe a first year internship?)
- Do not spend time and space on platitudes and general descriptions like "London is a great place to study/Oxford is a prestigious and longstanding institution". This will *definitely* be a **negative** signal.

# Funding your education

- Make a budget of how much money you'll need, approximately, for each graduate school. Account for special expenses like expensive insurance in case you fall sick easily and so on.
- Start applying to scholarships as soon as you can. Also apply to as many as you can---however small. Every bit will help.
- Some common names are: the Rhodes Scholarship, the Inlaks Scholarship, the J N Tata Scholarship (Loan), The Fullbright Nehru Scholarship (might require work ex), The Chevening (might require work ex), The Commonwealth Scholarship, etc.
- There are also various other university specific scholarships like the Felix Scholarship at Oxford. At Oxford and Cambridge, you will likely be nominated for these automatically. For others, my impression is that you will have to apply one by one and manually.
- Do not ever think "My profile is not good enough. Why should I even apply?". There are enough examples of underperformers bagging various scholarships.
- At some level, whether you will get them are not, is arbitrary.
- Sometimes, something as simple as the interviewer having a good day can make the difference.
- After acceptance, keep in touch with the relevant university's program director to look for opportunities of funding and financial aid.
- Speak to as many seniors as you can who've gone onto grad school and funded their studies.
- Sometimes, it maybe possible to fund your studies through a combination of a loan and part time work abroad. This is typically possible only if you study in less expensive cities (unlike New York or Boston) like Chicago.
- A useful rule of thumb is to not take a loan of more than 30 lakhs. Any more and it will take ~2 years or more to pay off the loan with, approximately median post graduate salaries.

# A Master's at Ashoka

- Ashoka allows you to directly continue onto it's master's program after your undergraduate degree (in my time, 3 years) should you have a CGPA above a bar (I believe, 3.65).
- Ashoka's MA program is probably the best in the country (if not second to ISI's MsQE). It will set you up well to apply to PhD programs later.
- It is also much less expensive than programs abroad. And given how generous Ashoka is with financial aid, if you have significant financial constraints, you should seriously consider continuing to the MA program.
- However, keep in mind that you do not expand the set of professors and sub-disciplines you can get/have exposure to. So, if you can bag a scholarship for a well-regarded university abroad (roughly, top 50 or below), you should consider to going there. Additionally, if you seriously want to keep open the possibility of corporate placements, univerisites like ISI (and universities abroad) will have better placements.

# Special Case: Applying to PhDs directly

- Many people will tell you not to apply to PhD programs directly from Ashoka. This advice has some merit to it. However, I recommend you do not follow it.
- Apply to PhD programs you think are accessible and you will attend if you get into. If you perform sufficiently well at Ashoka (have a CGPA of 3.9 or above), have some research experience under your belt and think can get strong letters of recommendation, you should certainly apply.
- However, note that the PhD is a large decision. It will likely take you 6 years to graduate, place you away from friends and family for the same duration and will likely place you in a job that will pay lesser than had you spent the same time in the private sector---your brand manager friend in Zomato will certainly be doing better. Even within those that think they want to do a PhD, many of them end up dropping out. It is a large commitment that will require you to make many many sacrifices. Be cautioned.
- Consequently, if you are sure about doing it, it is important you do it in a good school---atleast with a good, experienced and well-regarded supervisor.

# Pre-Docs

- If you are not enthusiastic about paying to go to graduate school, you should consider applying to pre-docs across the world (particularly the US).
- Pre-docs/Pre-doctoral fellowship programs are typically programs where you spend 1-2 years with an experienced professor abroad working on their research. Often, your contribution also becomes large enough to make co-author.
- Pre-docs are paid positions---paid typically around 60,000$ per annum.
- Pre-docs are also typically allowed take a limited number of courses in the university they work in and also attend seminars there. Consequently, this could end up being a sweet deal academically as well.
- Typically, people get strong letters of recommendation after pre-docs. They make for *excellent* pathways to PhD programs---not requiring you to shell out a fortune or search for scholarships.
- However, pre-docs put you into a 'pipeline'. Everyone handling you in the program will assume you will go onto a PhD and will tailor your work accordingly. If you want to keep the option of exiting economics open, this may not be the best job for you.
- Moreover, you will spend a lot of time on a handful of research projects for nearly 2 years or more. You will not have the breadth of work you experienced in university. So unless you are very confident about research in economics and more specifically, confident about working within the research interests of the professor you've signed up with, predocs may not be for you.
- Additionally (although a less relevant consideration for many), pre-docs tend to be relatively lonely programs. At best, you will have easy access to other pre-docs in your department and your flatmates. Cultivating more community will require active effort.
- Believe it or not, having community will be important in maintaining your mental health abroad.
- Pre-doc listings are very frequently popularized on twitter and aggregated here:
- predoc.org, nber.org/career-resources/research-assistant-positions-not-nber, twitter.com/econ_ra
- Look for Pre-docs where they will sponsor your visa and travel.

# Other Guides that I found useful when I was applying

- Aaditya Dar's (ISB Prof.) guide for Indian students looking to get research experience/RAships
* https://aadityadar.com/econ_ra_india/
* Chris Blattman's Advice Page for Econ Students
* https://chrisblattman.com/undergrad-ma/
* https://chrisblattman.com/phd-advice/
* Karthik Muralidharan's Page on Econ Grad School Advice
* https://econweb.ucsd.edu/~kamurali/Resources.html
* Econ PhD applications guide from a bunch of grad students in 2021
- https://aadityadar.com/econ_ra_india/assets/Econ_PhD_Guide.pdf
- Guide for Econ RAships a bunch of Econ Academics and Predocs put together post-pandemic
- https://raguide.github.io
- https://econphd.econwiki.com