appersonbl2

I would say to give you the best chances, take a few more econ classes if possible. You should, at a minumum, have intro to micro and macro done, and should try to get through intermediate micro and macro. In addition to that, take as many calc classes as you can before graduating (you may have done this as a physics major), and see if you can squeeze in Real Analysis.

One other thing i totally forgot. If you are interested in a PhD in Political Science or Public Policy/Admin/Affairs, this is the perfect program for you if you seek to get a masters first.

I am currently in the program, and agree with everything Econguy said. I suppose a good way to think about an applied program such as this is to say that it isn’t a PhD program in the sense that it contains less theoretical math (and little to no independent research such as a dissertation would entail), and could be better equated to applied statistics (particularly if you take as many quant classes as possible). In the job market you may compete with an Econ PhD grad for some small proportion of jobs, but it is much more likely that you would compete with people with MPPs, MBAs, MS in finance, and Applied math/stats degrees, and if you take the right courses your quantitative skills will exceed all of those listed except for the math/stats guys. In essence I would say it is an excellent program, but I would only apply to it if it conforms to what your career goals are. One other option would be to, if accepted to the program, apply to PhD programs out of the masters. I have 1 or 2 friends that are doing that.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't learn a bit about CGE Modeling from watching Youtube videos. I am not sure if there are any good instructional books on the subject that would be at a level that would enable you to teach yourself, but there might be one floating around out there. The issue that I forsee here is that CGE modeling is not a particularly easy thing to apply in general, much less in a way that would be interesting to employers (acedemic or non). I fear that not having been formally educated in it, you would never have any hopes of applying it in the real world. Although, if your goal is simply to learn it for your own personal development, go for it and hit youtube.

Well, if you really want to go to NYU, then shoot for NYU. The one thing that I would like to point out/add is that depending on how profound your interest is in Beyesian Statistical methods, you may want to take a second look at Duke's Statistics department. They have one of the largest concentrations of Beyesian Stats guys that I know of. In addition, they are (by they i mean their stats departments in particular) pushing for interdisiplinary study, so they have concentrations such as "Statistics in Economics" or "Statistics in Psychology." Hopefully that helps...