UCLA Graduate Admissions Statistics
- UCLA publishes rather impressive yearly reports on their graduate programs which include detailed admissions and applications data by academic department. For your convenience, I've collected the data on the Economics department from several reports into one place below. Interestingly, since 1996 the number of yearly graduate applications to
the Economics department has more than doubled:
- Summary Statistics -- Chart
- Detailed Statistics
- The archive for these yearly UCLA graduate program reports can be found here. In addition to admissions data, there is data on funding, enrollment, degree progress, and degrees awarded. Many questions you might want answered about the program can be answered here.
- Economics Program Profile Report: Aggregated graduate applications and admissions data via the UCLA Graduate Division.
Fall 2006 UCLA Entering Class -- Statistical Summary
- Average Age: 25
- Average Undergraduate GPA
- 4 point scale: 3.71 -- (range: 3.43 - 4.00)
- Percent scale: 94% -- (range: 86% - 99%)
- Average Master's GPA
- 4 point scale: 3.76
- Percent scale: 94%
- Average GRE: Verbal -- 610; Quantitative -- 770; Analytical -- 5.5
- Average TOEFL: 260
- (Note:a very authoritative source tells me that the fall 2005 stats are similar to those above.)
- Counts
- Region of collegiate studies
- America: 15
- Latin America: 6
- Asia/India: 8
- Europe and Africa: 1 each
- Total: 30
- (Fall 2005 Entering Class: 19 total)
- Other Stuff
- For you international applicants: most of the entering international students have master's degrees. Update: I made an informal count, and of my classmates who came from foreign universities, only 4 came without master's degrees (one has an MBA, which I'll not count since it isn't so relevant).
- At least half the students in our class haven't taken Real Analysis. So it is possible to get in without it. I would suggest that not having taken it puts you at a disadvantage, though, so you really should try and take it if you can.
- I've spoken to at least two profs from the admission committee from last year (determining the fall 2006 entering class), and they both indicated it pretty much all comes down to math classes and LOR's, with LOR's being the most important. Also, the committees are not static -- they change every couple of years (or more often). So admissions criteria also could be very different from year to year.
- Universities represented by the entering class include a broad range, from Ivy leagues to small liberal arts, to big public schools. So don't think that if you don't come from a top 20 school that you won't have a chance.
- According to fellow students, ALL of the current second year students (the class entering in Fall of 2005) passed their comprehensive exams (for those who took them, at least -- I understand one or two students left before taking them).
- Of my class, 5 students were 29 or older entering the program.
- By the start of fall quarter finals, two of my fellow classmates had dropped out of the program. The rumor mill suggests that one student left due to a family illness, and may return next year. The other was unhappy in the program.
Admissions Data for Other Departments
- Surely Minnesota sets the standard for graduate admissions
transparency to which every program in the country should aspire. They
have extensive, detailed statistics here, including:
- detailed GRE distributions of admitted students,
- an analyses on degree progress,
- and a very interesting survey of the program here. Be sure to check this page out!
- Way to go Golden Gophers!
- If Minnesota is the number 1 in admissions transparency, then UCSD is number 1a. The Tritons publish reports with detailed annual admissions data by department here. Check the 2004 page here, which has the most recent data as well as the historical data for all years back to the 70's. These reports include data on GRE scores, funding, placement, degree counts, demographics, and more. Great job to UCSD!
- UC Davis data for Fall 2005 can be found here. This includes admissions and a cohort retention analysis that is very interesting.
- Yale publishes a very minimum amount of admissions data here, though this report does include a lot of other useful data about the Yale program.
- UWisconsin-Madison publishes a small but interesting profile of their graduate program here. Surprisingly, they only awarded 10 phd degrees in 2004-2005 according to this.
- Duke also publishes extremely detailed statistics on their program: admission and enrollment; completion rate; time to degree; placement. Superb job by Duke Graduate School. (I originally tried to find this data on my own, but never did. However, a much more resourceful individual from the testmagic forum, who goes by the user name of "Skipper," found and posted these links -- so thanks to the Skipper.)
- Update: Rochester publishes a small number of key stats here.
- More to come?
Other UCLA Economics Links and Stuff
- Department web site
- Graduate program
- PhD and MA degree requirements
- Graduate school advice from the UCLA Graduate Economics Association
- First quarter books
- Micro -- John Riley's as of yet unpublished book
- Macro -- Stokey/Lucas, Ljungqvist/Sargent
- Metrics -- Hogg: Intro to Math Stats, Greene: Econometric Analysis
- Second quarter books
- Micro (game theory) -- Osborne/Rubinstein: A Course in Game Theory
- Macro (business cycles) -- Ljungqvist/Sargent
- Metrics (single equation models) -- Hayashi
Helpful Economics Admissions Sites
- The Grad Cafe: Contains a database of admissions notices. Really comes in handy during the nail-biting days of march. Also includes a forum.
- EconPhD.net: Lots of useful information for admissions, such as applicant characteristics tables, detailed department rankings, and admissions advice. Also includes lecture notes links, lists of economics books, department research concentrations, graduate school advice, and more. It's the one stop shop for graduate economics information on the web.
- Becoming an Economist: What's left of Chris Silvey's old becoming an economist web site. Still contains lots of admissions advice from graduate students in top departments.
Economics Forums
Miscellaneous