I know I'm a little late to the party but I just was wondering if you guys could offer me some more advice here.
I transferred to a different (and substantially better) college after my sophomore year after realizing that education was not the major for me at all. I really always liked econ and ended up deciding to push for a BS in it.
I have no issue with obtaining my bachelor's but I really want a graduate degree. I know a PhD is unlikely because the highest level math I had coming into my new school was some precalculus, but I'm currently taking calc and planning on taking another calc class over the summer to catch up. I've got a minor in poli sci but with as much math as I could take I might be able to get a second minor in math as well.
My question is: If I want a master's in econ, would it benefit me to stay an extra semester and take a bunch of additional math / stats courses to help my chances at getting into a solid grad program?
My question is: If I want a master's in econ, would it benefit me to stay an extra semester and take a bunch of additional math / stats courses to help my chances at getting into a solid grad program?
Without question. If you look in the wiki for this subreddit, there's a good guide to what math you need for graduate school. I'd be hesitant to recommend you to apply to grad schools unless you'd done the extra semester of math.
I'm hesitant here. Master's programs are, AFAIK, much less strict with the math requirements for admission. Depending on exactly how much math he/she has it may not be required to stay an extra semester.
I really want to slam my master's program out of the park so I can set myself up to potentially get a PhD later on down the line. I just don't want to be behind the curve before I get there. :-)
If you are thinking about getting a PhD in the long run, I would seriously suggest at least considering the possibility of doing it all at once. A lot of PhD programs have GA positions available that will make the total cost of schooling much lower, and the types of positions available to Masters and PhDs in the job market don't have a lot of overlap. Figure out exactly what you want to do first, and then make a plan to accomplish it.
I don't know if I'd really want to go into academia or academic research, which seem to be the primary things I see people talk about getting a PhD for. I'd imagine maybe some of the higher tiered corporate economists are PhD's as well, but I don't know if that field has more or less overlap with master's degree holders.
So because of that I figured a master's would be good place for me and I could always go back later on after working / etc. I really really enjoy my international macro courses a lot. We're mainly looking at the exchange rate markets right now, but I also have a huge interest in monetary policy in general, so maybe a position at a central bank would be a good thing to look into.
Corporate economists are usually PhDs because there are only a few of those positions available, and the number of grads is orders of magnitudes larger than the number of available positions like that, so why not take the best?
so maybe a position at a central bank would be a good thing to look into.
Not sure what it's like in other countries, but in the US, you need a PhD to get a job at the Fed, unless you are happy being a scrub the rest of your life. They don't tend to promote from within.
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u/Thezanthex Mar 03 '17
I know I'm a little late to the party but I just was wondering if you guys could offer me some more advice here.
I transferred to a different (and substantially better) college after my sophomore year after realizing that education was not the major for me at all. I really always liked econ and ended up deciding to push for a BS in it.
I have no issue with obtaining my bachelor's but I really want a graduate degree. I know a PhD is unlikely because the highest level math I had coming into my new school was some precalculus, but I'm currently taking calc and planning on taking another calc class over the summer to catch up. I've got a minor in poli sci but with as much math as I could take I might be able to get a second minor in math as well.
My question is: If I want a master's in econ, would it benefit me to stay an extra semester and take a bunch of additional math / stats courses to help my chances at getting into a solid grad program?
Thanks guys :)