SIPA Masters of International Affairs Economics Requirements

[Hilary89]

Hi there,

I'm not planning on applying to grad school for another year or two, but I want to make sure I am as competitive of an applicant as possible.

I think the program I'm most interested is the MIA at Columbia's SIPA. The one thing though is that they appear to be very economics heavy in their admissions requirements, even though their curriculum for most concentrations only one basic econ class and one statistical analysis class is required.

I studied econ in high school and learned a great deal of the fundamentals through my other classes in undergrad, but I only took one actual econ class in college and it was an environmental econ course : /

So basically I'm missing the microeconomics and macroeconomics that they seem to emphasize in their application process. Would that severely hurt my application? I have a 3.6 GPA, a transcript well geared towards the program and significant research and work experience in Asia and Africa (although I haven't taken the GRE yet so I'm not sure how that would affect my app).

Should I be looking into taking a micro and macro econ classes before applying? If I took them at a community college would the credit be accepted as valid at a school like Columbia?

Any insights would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

-Hilary

[eigenvector]

Having applied for MPA at SIPA (with zero economics courses), I can let you know in a few weeks whether they matter or not.

Anyway, with your kind of experience, I'd say economics courses would definitely strengthen your chances, and since you have time before you apply, why not go for it? SIPA's application process does not require applicants to submit a SOP, where you could talk about your quantitative credentials and familiarity with economics. They do however need a Quantitative Resume, where you'll need to enlist quantitative and economics courses. In that case, completing a few courses in econ/statistics would establish your familiarity with the concepts. Though, it also depends on whether your undergrad/grad major was a quant heavy topic. Mine was Electrical Engineering, and we do a hell lot of mathematics, so I'm hoping it counts to some extent.

With regards to whether a community college course would be counted, I'd say why not? But you'd better check it once with the admissions office before enrolling.

[Hilary89]

Thanks for your response! I emailed the admissions office but I'm not going to hold my breath on hearing back from them (as they're likely in the throws of reviewing applications) but if they respond I'll post the details on here. I think I'm just going to go ahead and at least try to get the economics under my belt in the near future. I'm just wondering if it would be best to focus on advanced mathematics (like algebra and calculus) or focus on statistics. I'd be interested in the MIA, not the MPA, so do you think 1 or 2 statistics courses would compensate for my lack of math background?

[rose1]

I think you should definitely go for the econ classes. The application literally has you upload a second resume listing ONLY your quantitative and second language abilities. That resume is going to look really sparse if you don't have any econ. This is just a guess, but of the classes you suggested, I would take econ first, then calculus or statistics. I don't know if I'd bother with algebra. I would also highlight your quantitative job responsibilities in your current profession. If you don't have any, I would try to get some, even if it's just using Excel on a daily basis.

[rose1]

Also, I don't know about SIPA, but some of the others schools I'm applying to that are of roughly the same caliber have reassured applicants that community college is a fine place to take extra classes that will boost their chances of admission. They expect people to have full-time jobs and don't have any problem with online classes/community college courses as long as you've already demonstrated your academic abilities with a four-year degree from a decent school.