How important is taking a class on econ for grad in public policy or IR?

<p>I want to go to grad school in either public policy or IR, and most of the websites recommend I take a class in microecon. How important is this for admissions? Basically, I took the AP econ exam and I don’t want to take the class in college if the benefit of having it on my transcript for grad school isn’t that high (my university doesn’t accept Econ AP credit). Any advice?</p>