Applicant Mentoring Programme (AMP)
The aim of the Economics Applicant Mentoring Programme (AMP) is to help applicants from underrepresented backgrounds prepare their applications to economics PhD programmes by matching applicants to mentors who are PhD students in the economics departments at Cambridge, LSE, Oxford, UCL, and Warwick.
Preparing a competitive application to MPhil/PhD Economics programmes can be a difficult task for applicants who have little or no access to people who have experience with the process. Some applicants benefit tremendously from the help and insights provided by family or friends who are themselves academics or who are otherwise familiar with admissions into top academic programmes. Unfortunately, access to such a network of expertise is particularly rare for applicants from groups who are underrepresented in economics. AMP's objective is to reduce these information barriers.
The AMP application deadline is October 1st, 2023.
In 2021 and 2022, AMP mentored 97 and 175 applicants respectively.
Who is encouraged to join?
AMP welcomes applicants from all groups that are underrepresented in economics. This includes, but is not limited to, applicants from minority backgrounds, female, low-income, first generation (i.e. first in the family to attend university), LGTBQ+, and people with disabilities. Only students who are currently pursuing or have completed undergraduate studies should join the programme.
What kind of advice can AMP mentors provide?
AMP mentors are economics PhD students at Cambridge, LSE, Oxford, UCL, or Warwick who volunteer their time for AMP. They are able to answer questions about and provide advice on the application process. This may include writing a strong statement of purpose or research proposal, highlighting strengths and explaining weaknesses in the applicant’s profile, which courses to take, and how to approach professors with requests for reference letters.
Furthermore, AMP mentors can share their experiences as PhD students with applicants to give them a more accurate idea of what doing an MPhil or a PhD in economics is like.
Mentees can expect to meet via video call for up to an hour with their assigned mentor. This call is an opportunity to discuss the applicant's profile and to answer any questions the applicant has about the application process.
Who are you and why are you doing this?
We are a group of PhD students across five British universities: Cambridge, LSE, Oxford, UCL, and Warwick. We are all enrolled in economics PhD programmes in these universities and we are excited to share what we know about MPhil/PhD applications with people from underrepresented backgrounds in economics.
Our goal with AMP is to improve the variety of backgrounds within our very exciting, yet not very diverse field. Like many other people within economics, we are concerned about how similar people studying, teaching and researching economics are. The same sex, countries, ethnicities, levels of parental education, and income are overrepresented in our departments. We launched AMP for the first time in autumn 2020 and we have grown in strength ever since.
We come from a wide variety of countries and social backgrounds. We hope to be able to make a difference at the stage of education where we can have the greatest impact: admissions to PhD programmes. Most importantly, we hope to see you as colleagues and friends in our departments soon!
When should I join?
AMP is designed for prospective applicants who will submit their applications to MPhil/PhD economics programmes either this year or the next. It is expected that mentees are applying to one or more of the following universities: Cambridge, LSE, Oxford, UCL, or Warwick.
The application deadline is October 1st, 2023.
When should I apply for PhD programmes?
Cambridge - 1st December 2023
LSE - 16th December 2023
Oxford - 20th January 2024
UCL - 13th January 2024
Warwick - 15th January 2024
What other initiatives might be of interest to me?
Graduate Applications International Network
The GAIN program matches African-American, Latino, and Native American economics Ph.D. students and new doctorates with mentors in the field
Deadline: March
Open to all WiE members with an economist background (or related) who identify as women, non-binary, gender non-conforming, queer or questioning.
Deadline: September
The Research In Color Foundation (RIC) is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that is dedicated to increasing the number of Ph.D. students of color in economics and economics-adjacent disciplines
Deadline: December
Application Assistance & Mentoring Program
Many students interested in an economics PhD experience disparate degree of support in the application process. The Application Assistance and Mentoring Program (AAMP) aims to mitigate these gaps by helping students from underrepresented groups connect with a graduate student mentor in MIT or Harvard’s PhD economics programs.
Deadline: July
The aim of the Duke Economics Graduate Mentorship Program (GMP) is to help applicants from under-represented backgrounds in the field prepare their applications to Economics Ph.D. programs by matching them to mentors in the Duke Econ Ph.D. program.
Deadline: Late August
AMP is an initiative led by PhD students at the following departments:
Cambridge
Department of Economics
LSE
Department of Economics
Oxford
Department of Economics
UCL
Department of Economics
Warwick
Department of Economics