In this episode, we are talking with Shahidul Islam, an EconDU alumni who is currently pursuing his PhD in Economics at the Krannert School of Management of Purdue University. We will hear from him the nitty-gritties of the procedure of getting into such a highly ranked PhD program. Lets Start!
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1. When did you start thinking about pursuing a PhD?
Ans- I had such a goal from undergrad 3rd year. I started thinking actively during the masters.
2. What was the motivation behind this thinking?
Ans- To engage with policy-oriented research.
3. What was your profile? [ CGPA + GRE + IELTS/TOEFL + paper/publication]
Ans- CGPA 3.70+, GRE Quant around 166.
4. How about your work experience, internship, research assistantship etc.?
Ans- I started working on a project with one of our faculties at EconDU, Dr. Rabeya Khatoon during MS in 2015. Later, I worked as a research assistant in a project led by two BIDS researchers before joining as a lecturer at Stamford University Bangladesh where I taught two semesters. In the meantime, I got an offer to join as a Research Associate at BIDS and left Stamford to join there in 2017. I remained at BIDS until I joined my PhD studies at Purdue in 2020.
5. Tell us about your GRE experience. How did you take prep? What were the materials covered?
Ans- When I took the GRE for the first time, I was not aware of the difficulty level of GRE Quant questions. I thought that the syllabus covers easy stuff and took the GRE with that confidence. The score was not up to the expectation. I took time, covered a lot of materials including Manhattan 5lb., Nova M. bible, Princeton 1014, GRE big book and Magoosh for quant. I emphasized the hard questions and tried to figure out what content I was struggling with. I worked based on that self-diagnosis.
6. How many schools did you apply to and from how many schools did you get acceptance (name the acceptances kindly if you don't have any hesitations )?
Ans- Eight. I got acceptance from Iowa State, Georgia State and Purdue. I was waitlisted in Michigan State. All are Econ PhD programs.
7. Were all of your letter writers PhD holders? How many of your recommenders are from EconDU? What kind of letter writers should someone look for while applying?
Ans- Yes. Three from EconDU. Get letters from faculties who know your strength.
8. Which courses in your opinion should future applicants give more weight to stand out from the crowd?
Ans- Math (particularly calculus and matrix algebra), Stats, Micro/Macro (theory) courses.
9. Strategy of writing the Statement of purpose?
Ans- Getting started with some Econ PhD samples.
10. When did you take the tests and when did you apply? [Timeline]
Ans- I would say July is the best time for the GRE. I submitted most of the applications in December.
11. Why did you choose this school? Any particular research interest/ liking of a certain professor's work etc.?
Ans- Applied Micro school, the same that I was looking for. I had a choice of field, but not a particular work.
12. Why USA and why not Europe or UK?
Ans- Coursework!
13. As you were a researcher prior to the PhD, what are the most frequently used software in Bangladesh's research arena? Is the scenario the same out there in Purdue?
Ans- STATA is the first choice in Bangladesh. Not the same here at Purdue. They start teaching econometrics theory courses with MATLAB. Programming/coding skill adds value to an American PhD. We learn Stata, Python, and R in the second year (and beyond).
14. Please give advice to those who have decided to pursue a PhD while they are still undergraduate students.
Ans- Try to figure out what an academic paper is about, in your 4th year. Don’t miss math courses. One thing that I recommend to all PhD aspirants in Development/applied economics is to consider AgEcon PhD programs as well. AgEcon is very good in terms of placements in non-academic jobs in the USA. They have academic jobs too! Many students go to lower-ranked ECON PhD programs. That's absolutely fine if they find a good professor there. Students with some research experience have plus points in AgEcon programs. I understand that some PhD aspirants find it difficult to gather research experience in Bangladesh. They can apply to AgEcon MS programs right after their BSS/MSS as there are many funded AgEcon MS programs in the USA. This will help to gather some RA experience while studying in the MS program.
