曾学长好 ~~:p
I am also applying for Duke Ph.D. this semester.
The econometrics program in UCSD is top 5 and they seems to give 1-2 offers to HKU every year.
Penn State also has quite good econometrics program but their focus is more on micro-econometrics.
The econometrics in LSE used to be super strong, but after several faulty members died, the program seems less strong. However, in general it is still quite strong program.
Also try Wisconsin (great econometrics program)! Many people (like me) do not apply for it because it requires a writing sample. And it does place a lot of weight on the writing sample.
Generally, Toefl cannot be waived even if our university use "English" as instruction language.
Wish you good luck~
lol~
professors here knows more about the programs in U.S. Most of them graduated from top 10 programs.
My background is so so la~~ but I got a friend who kinda has an internal offer from top 10 schools