econphdying

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.

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.