wavywaves

Thanks to everyone for the responses! It might not be correct, but for right now I'm looking at this course as a separate component from my writing sample. I need to be able to explain my undergraduate gpa -- and I do have a well-considered statement ready for that -- but beyond the explanation I think it'd be nice to add demonstrable proof that I can succeed in a graduate level course, so that's my primary motivation here. If I could also walk away from the experience with a killer writing sample, that'd be a great upside. Any recommendations as to what programs or courses I might look into that could let me kill two birds with one stone here? KB6, I appreciate you considering the big picture! Ideally, because it's a passion of mine, I'd like to eventually end up working on policy research related to economic inequality; my dream job long-term would be a fellowship at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. I just don't expect that I'll be able to make that type of transition without a stint at grad school somewhere along the line. You're right that it'd be crazy to quit on a job as solid as the one at HUD within two years for grad school, and I definitely don't plan to do that. If the HUD position comes through I'll be riding it out for a while, looking into part-time grad programs down the line and weighing the new career options that a few years of federal experience will open up. But it's not that simple because right now I'm also having to weigh the possibility that the HUD position won't come through -- like I mentioned, I've been waiting on the position to start for the better part of a year now as a result of the hiring freeze -- so I want to be prepared to apply for a full-time program in the nearish future if need be.

These two comments pretty well sum up the internal debate haha. On one hand it definitely can't hurt, but on the other hand it's a ~$4,500 expense. I guess it comes down to how much I personally value it and how much I'm willing to spend. I'm leaning heavily towards seeing it through -- no one's called me an idiot for this yet, and that's mostly what I'm checking for

I'd like to steer my career towards policy, specifically as related to economic inequality, and to facilitate that transition I intend to pick up an MPP sometime in the next few years. A lot of things about my application look strong -- I got a BA in Economics from a Top 30 program, I did really well on the GRE a couple of months ago (167/167/5.0) and my work experience is solid (I was a financial analyst at a successful startup, I did an Americorps VISTA year and I'm currently waiting to begin a position as a GS-11 Program Analyst with HUD). The only thing I feel is holding me back is that my undergrad GPA was outright awful -- 2.41 cumulative, not much higher than that in-major. In light of that, I'm trying to do everything I can pad out my application over the next year or so. Elsewhere in the forums I came across the idea of doing a non-degree grad school course and that made a lot of sense to me, so I got registered at American U for PUAD601, Quantitative Methods for Policy Analysis. My reasoning with picking this course is that: 1) it seems substantially rigorous to display academic competency should I do well in it; 2) it seems like it would be universally relevant to whichever graduate program I might end up attending in the future; and 3) picking up extra Stata experience can't be a bad thing in the job market (I've been waiting for about six months for this HUD position to start, so I'm getting a bit antsy and considering backup options). My questions are: A) did I pick the right course?; and B) even if I pull an A in this course, will I have any chance of being admitted into a decent program with such a low undergrad GPA? The process for applying to and being admitted to this course happened really quickly, so I'm just looking for some input on whether I'm making the right decision here -- it's a significant expense to take a class this way, after all. Regarding A: the other course that seemed reasonable to me was Econometrics, but I wouldn't be able to take it until next semester for scheduling reasons. Any input as to whether one might be a better option than the other for me, or as to whether it might be reasonable to take both? Thanks!