26-year-old journalist without science background looking to do a science masters. Advice?

Graduate School
1

I studied mass media in my undergrad and gained a post-grad diploma in journalism. I have been a pharma/healthcare reporter for the past five years. I’m 26, and I now want to do a masters in either geology or biology. I’ve been doing online courses, and am confident of my interest in these fields.

How can I prep myself for a masters program? Almost all of them require a science background.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

2

You will need to take the science prerequisites to get into the program. Most websites will give you some indication of what those are. Sometimes they will simply say that the program is intended for people who had an undergraduate major in the geosciences; in that case, you will need to take at least close to the equivalent of a major (that’s usually about 10-12 courses, so I would say you would need at least ~7-8 to be competitive). Other times they don’t require a major, so they will list prerequisite courses online. If they don’t, you can always call the department and ask.

I will say that you should choose up front between biology and geology, though. Those are very different fields with very different career outcomes.

3

What is the reason for this? Is the MS for professional credibility in science journalism, or is it for a career change leading possibly to a PhD in the new field?

Back in the stone age, I enrolled as a “senior transfer” at my home-state public U and took classes full time for a year and a half in order to get the background I needed to apply to grad school in a biological science. Fortunately, on the way to my original liberal arts degree I’d picked up enough first year science classes so I could step into second year classes in a couple of subject areas. To figure out a program of studies for myself, I started with the lists of pre-reqs for the first year grad school courses in my hoped-for subject area that that particular public U offered, and worked backwards through those pre-reqs until I hit the first course in each series. I did not need to complete a second bachelors degree in the new field before applying to grad school, but I had other “re-tread” friends who chose to do that.