Advice for Improving SAIS MAIR Competitiveness?

[yesiwasdrinkinggasoline]

My academic background - 3.4 undergrad GPA (with strong upward trend, started out premed against my better judgment), 3.6 major GPA in Government at Cornell. Graduated nearly 10 years ago (yikes!)

Took a 300 level Econ course, and Calculus I. Did well in both, but did not pursue any additional quantitative coursework. Took a couple of IR courses but was not my major or minor. 
 

Then I went to law school. I did not like law school. It was the path of least resistance - all my friends took the LSAT, and I got a scholarship so I took it. Coasted. Been in litigation the past several years, but been wanting to go back to school for a while. 
 

Problem is, my work experience isn’t directly related. This is a pivot for me. And my work experience, while solid enough I think, is not going to make for a knock your socks off CV. 
 

I’m in New York, but have been interested in getting back into Economics and am intrigued by the apparent quant focus at SAIS  (I’m also interested in SIPA since my spouse’s career is in the city). Despite my career path so far, I’ve always enjoyed math. I’d love to do something like work at Treasury, maybe something related to illicit finance. 
 

So. My plan is this: study my ass off for the GRE and, and knock it out of the park on my statement of purpose and analytic essay. 
 

So my main questions are letters of recommendation and math background. I think I can get strong recommendations from two of my supervisors, but they are lawyers, and not involved in international relations in any way. I’m not sure if it would be worth trying to switch jobs first or do volunteer work of some kind (whatever that would even be in this context)?

And would it be good enough to do well on the GRE or should I enroll in some math courses at the local community college?

Beyond that, anything else? Wasting my time? I know my targets are ambitious, maybe extremely so. But I made the mistake of going to law school just for the sake of going to law school. At my age if I’m going to do even more school, I want to go to my top choice or not go at all. 

Edited December 4, 2020 by yesiwasdrinkinggasoline
clarification

[Ravine55]

You should check out the MIPP program. It's for more experienced professionals like you and it's only one year. With the MAIR, you'd be paying for an extra year of tuition (ouch) and you'd be in class with people who are much younger, although I'm not sure if this matters to you. The average age of a SAIS MAIR student is 25-26.

 

If your heart is really set on the MAIR, getting there is pretty straightforward: take micro and macroeconomics and get A's in both. If you don't have a statistics course on your undergrad transcript, do that too and get an A. If you got a good grade in your undergrad calculus course, that should suffice. I don't think there is any need to take econometrics, as it's not a requirement of the SAIS core and you can avoid it when you get to SAIS if it doesn't align with your interests. 

[yesiwasdrinkinggasoline]

Thanks! The issue I have with MIPP is that this is a pivot for me, and one less year is one less year of in school networking and internships and the like. 
 

I don’t mind going to school with people who are a few years younger than me. Never really had an issue getting along with people older or younger at work. 
 

Was also hoping to avoid having to occur additional expense of taking courses before applying but maybe worth looking into. 

[Ravine55]

Just now, yesiwasdrinkinggasoline said:

Thanks! The issue I have with MIPP is that this is a pivot for me, and one less year is one less year of in school networking and internships and the like. 
 

I don’t mind going to school with people who are a few years younger than me. Never really had an issue getting along with people older or younger at work. 
 

Was also hoping to avoid having to occur additional expense of taking courses before applying but maybe worth looking into. 

I get your problem with the MIPP. I'm avoiding one year programs for that reason too. As for the courses, it seemed to me that the admissions people at SAIS and similar schools didn't care about the prestige of the institution at which you take your econ/math prerequisites. You could do them at an NYC community college for a decent price. I should note that macro/micro are the baseline required courses for admission. I'm not sure if your 300-level course works for that, but you can check. A great GRE quant score will help too. 

[yesiwasdrinkinggasoline]

From the website, it looks like the requirement is before beginning, not before acceptance. I’ll have to think about it - in my case it’d just be a micro class. I placed out of introductory micro via AP, but that was a long time ago.