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Making up for insufficient undergraduate maths


econphdying

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Hello all

 

I am a master's student at Johns Hopkins SAIS and have an undergraduate engineering degree in computer science (from India, top-5 at par with the famed Indian Institute of Technologies). During my undergraduates, I never imagined I'd go the econ-phd route and a) never got around to taking real, functional, topology analysis b) I took Calculus 1 & 2 (B,C: a B would be 80-90 percentile and C would be 70-80 percentile score), Linear Algebra (B), Probability and Stats (D), Numerical analysis (B), Graphs and Networks Optimization Operations Research and a bunch of computer programming courses (SAS, Matlab, C, STATA, R)

 

While at SAIS, I have been able to take several courses in econ, going upto advanced level courses in international trade and monetary, applied econometrics, macroeconometrics, etc. - I feel I need to reinforce my maths before I apply to a top 30 school. I have been looking at different options and recently found out about GWU's graduate level certificate program that offers these coures - Graduate Certificate in Mathematics: Program Requirements, Policies, and Advice | The Department of Mathematics | The George Washington University

 

Unfortunately SAIS doesnt offer coursework in theorotical proof based maths and therefore I'm forced to look elsewhere.

 

However, I am concerned that GWU's math department is not that highly ranked and investing $16K in the course may not give me the necessary push that I need in my application. I was wondering what you guys think about that - would the certificate help my case in anyway?

 

Other background details:

Data analyst at the World Bank for the last 4 months, Infrastructure policy analyst at the UN for last 8 months, Interning with Prof at Brookings on Macro and sub national debt issues, worked in housing and housing finance policy in India for 3 years, Fulbright scholar. Will hopefully work as an RA with Brookings/World Bank/IMF or other research based policy groups before applying to econ PhD programs.

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You csn look into taking a course at a school rather than getting a diploma or certification. Maybe take RA and grad level micro. There is definitely no need to take functional analysis or topology just for the sake of applying.
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Thanks a lot Insti. Quick followup question - So my Johns Hopkins SAIS master's doesnt offer RA as an elective. That's the reason why I'm trying to find alternative ways to get the coursework done. My other concern is that my undergraduate maths grades are not exactly stellar (just because as a 20 something with no clue about the world I didn't see the point of doing heavy duty math then). I am hoping that good grades in the certification course will save me from getting shut out by the top 30. That said, GWU maths department seems low ranked and that is my concern (and the huge fees involved) - will the RA and the other advanced courses be worth it and will they save me from relatively not so great undergraduate grades (received as far back as 2005-2009)?

 

I have already taken Intermediate Micro and Macro at school currently.

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An RA course and a grad level micro theory course at a good school would serve you much much much better than a certificate from GWU university. Your math grades may not be stellar but the best you can do now is take proof based classes and show that you have improved a lot.
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It is the classes that matter, not the certificate. You can take the appropriate classes at any DC-area college, and the cheapest way to do that is likely at a Public University, although for an international student it may not be, so you will need to check.

 

University of Maryland is accessible by metro, and you can take real analysis there.

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Can GRE Math be a substitute for those classes, since it covers a great variety of topics from calculus to discrete maths?

Also, University of London offers a distance learning Graduate Math program, can it be of any help?

 

Various threads have suggested that GRE math can actually hurt you, since it is difficult for even math majors.

 

I think the distant learning might be a good option since they offer calculus, real analysis, linear algebra, statistics and even more classes.

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