masters/post bacc in econ with no econ background

[Anonymous]

DD is a senior in college, political science major, and is looking for jobs in policy, think tanks, so on. She has repeatedly hit a barrier in her job search that she has no economics background. I’m confident she’ll figure out some kind of post graduation job, but to move ahead in her career, I suspect she’ll need background that she doesn’t have.

Is it a reasonable goal to get a masters in economics for someone with no university level economics/math background? I guess I have always envisioned persons seeking that masters to have an undergrad degree or at least exposure in economics, math, business, that sort of study.

[Anonymous]

College masters program websites may tell you exactly how much econ is expected. Some might even have a pre-masters program for taking those courses - masters programs are cash cows for the university.

[Anonymous]

If she is not strong in math it will be a tough road to travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College masters program websites may tell you exactly how much econ is expected. Some might even have a pre-masters program for taking those courses - masters programs are cash cows for the university.

Good idea, thank you from OP. Maybe she can do the pre-masters classes at night.

DD has strong aptitude in math, but has never liked nor done well in economics (she took intro and macro in college, they were probably her two worst grades- but she took thru MV calculus in high school and scored 800 on the math portion of the SAT). She would do this to have a grounding in economics to be a stronger candidate for policy jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College masters program websites may tell you exactly how much econ is expected. Some might even have a pre-masters program for taking those courses - masters programs are cash cows for the university.

Good idea, thank you from OP. Maybe she can do the pre-masters classes at night.

DD has strong aptitude in math, but has never liked nor done well in economics (she took intro and macro in college, they were probably her two worst grades- but she took thru MV calculus in high school and scored 800 on the math portion of the SAT). She would do this to have a grounding in economics to be a stronger candidate for policy jobs.

An undergraduate econ major is likely to require intro to micro and macro and intermediate micro and macro. Intro to micro and macro are likely to be algebra based. Intermediate micro and macro are going to be calculus based. A master's program would likely require advanced micro and macro, also calculus based (expecting the intermediate micro/macro foundation from undergraduate). An econ major is also likely to have a required statistics course or so (either general or tailored to social sciences). These days I'm also guessing some data science/analysis coursework, either required or strongly encouraged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a senior in college, political science major, and is looking for jobs in policy, think tanks, so on. She has repeatedly hit a barrier in her job search that she has no economics background. I’m confident she’ll figure out some kind of post graduation job, but to move ahead in her career, I suspect she’ll need background that she doesn’t have.

Is it a reasonable goal to get a masters in economics for someone with no university level economics/math background? I guess I have always envisioned persons seeking that masters to have an undergrad degree or at least exposure in economics, math, business, that sort of study.

well does she even like econ?

if so, why are you asking here? go look at the entry requirements for econ grad programs, or better yet, she should be looking at this age, not you.

if she doesn't have what they want, she can work for a year and take them in the evening. a friend of mine did this for med school requs so i don't see why that can't be done for this too.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who did that, though they may have just taken College classes in econ after they graduated to make up for it. They're doing a PhD now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College masters program websites may tell you exactly how much econ is expected. Some might even have a pre-masters program for taking those courses - masters programs are cash cows for the university.

Good idea, thank you from OP. Maybe she can do the pre-masters classes at night.

DD has strong aptitude in math, but has never liked nor done well in economics (she took intro and macro in college, they were probably her two worst grades- but she took thru MV calculus in high school and scored 800 on the math portion of the SAT). She would do this to have a grounding in economics to be a stronger candidate for policy jobs.

if she didn't like econ and didn't do well in it, why on earth would you want her to pursue it? find something else

[Anonymous]

If she doesn't like economics she will be miserable.

A good master's in econ program will be highly mathematical.

I think terminal master's in economics are not as common as PhD track.

Does your DD have a policy interests suitable for exploring in graduate school?

You both should also read this 2020 blog post by a professional economist.

https://macromomblog.com/2020/07/29/economics-is-a-disgrace/

[Anonymous]

She can also just do a policy-oriented master’s which will have enough econ to get her past most gatekeepers, or an econ-oriented degree in a policy school. This is the path for much of the DC policy community. But a master’s of some sort is very common and plenty of policy and related jobs require it, even more than econ requirements themselves.

Bigger question is what kind of job she wants. Some are more welcoming of lighter econ than others.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you for all of the information!

DD is a second semester senior without a job - she is looking at all jobs in the political science and adjacent fields, and doesn’t know what she wants to do in the big picture as she really has no idea what options are in her field. I don’t think that is unusual, right? She hasn’t been exposed to any of that in her university, it’s an academic program. Her internship last summer was in state level politics and she didn’t enjoy it. Her job search is now focused on think tanks, research and government affairs positions, and the like- I suspect she doesn’t even quite know what those jobs entail (I don’t either) but you have to start somewhere and learn as you go.

This has come up because in the course of job hunting, there have been a number of positions or organizations that she thinks sound interesting, but the candidate qualifications often list a background in economics and she is just a political science major (with almost no economics or math classes). She is discouraged about that, and I respond to her not to count out thise jobs/careers but to think of ways to plug that gap in her resume. This led me to wonder if she could pursue a post-bacc or masters in economics. (Relatedly and for example, if she wants to pursue a phd in political science, she would not have any of the math required, but her advisor has suggested she could do a post-bacc or cerificate in applied math to plug that gap before applying to phd programs.)

I’ll be honest I don’t know what a masters in public policy entails and it sounds like”fluff” to me, but I am completely unknowledgeable in this field so I’ll suggest she consider that.

In any event her focus is now on getting a job- I just want her to know if she finds that the positions that hold most appeal to her require some econ background, whether she has paths for filling that gap in her skill set.

Thank you again from the OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she doesn't like economics she will be miserable.

A good master's in econ program will be highly mathematical.

I think terminal master's in economics are not as common as PhD track.

Does your DD have a policy interests suitable for exploring in graduate school?

You both should also read this 2020 blog post by a professional economist.

https://macromomblog.com/2020/07/29/economics-is-a-disgrace/

She could take math and advanced econ classes in community college while working after college.

The blogger above was a very bitter person, economist or not.

[Anonymous]

She should get a master’s in public policy. She will be fine.

[Anonymous]

She could do a masters in public policy at a place like the university of Michigan. However the good jobs go mostly to PhDs. And I expect there are very few policy jobs right now with all the cutting in the federal government. There are lots of political science and economics majors in the world (supply) but few policy jobs (demand). I worked in economic policy in Washington DC.

[Anonymous]

You'll generally have to take certain math, econ, and stats courses first before applying. Here's NYU's guidelines for a strong application:
https://as.nyu.edu/departments/econ/graduate/ma/faq.html?challenge=d06e90d7-4d8f-4b88-9d8c-10b73beb60f1