<p>Hello all, I am graduating next Spring with a Global Studies major and 3.2gpa from a UC. I picked that major because it was broad and I still didn't completely know what I wanted to do after my 2nd year. I had a vision and know now that I want to pursue something in the realm of environmental policy or environmental engineering but I have some burning questions:</p>
<p>1) My BA is a jack of all trades but master of none type. My electives consisted of social science classes and which were mostly history/political science. I know policy is more social science but engineering is a doozy. Would it still be possible for me to pursue a MA in Environ Policy or Engineering if my BA was unrelated? </p>
<p>2) For someone with an MA in Environmental Policy, would a career most likely be centered around environmental awareness speeches? What can I realistically expect with an MA in this field? </p>
<p>3) I am choosing my graduate school applications now. Although very general, this is what I ultimately want:
I like to move around and feel dead if I stay in one place for long. I'm especially happy when traveling or staying abroad. I am more interested in helping the environment than people. I am a macro thinker and would only be motivated if I do something which I feel could potentially have great impact for the environment. Selling save the squirrels t-shirts is great but not for me. What area of study might you recommend given my preferences? </p>
<p>Thank you all for your time and I hope to be able to contribute in the future.</p>
<p>Look into environmental health -- it's a subset of public health (my field). You could go to a master's in public health program; most of them have concentrations in environmental health sciences. Some of them are more chemical/biological and may have science prerequisites, but some of them take environmental science in more broad terms. Most of these schools also have health policy departments in which you can take courses in policy and management and get expertise in both areas. With an MPH in environmental health, you could definitely get into policy work. Most schools of public health also have a global health concentration or track that you could either combine with environmental health or do alone and take environmental health courses.</p>
<p>Go to the Center for Education in Public Health website (CEPH) and it has a list of all the CEPH-accredited programs in public health; that's definitely a good starting point to begin looking at schools with environmental health programs. It's a core area of public health, so all of the accredited schools of public health in the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) will have a program and most of the CEPH schools have it, too. Top schools in public health are Johns Hopkins, Harvard, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Columbia, Emory, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, University of Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, and the University of Washington. U.S. News and World Report maintains a list.</p>
<p>If you want to go into engineering... you need the coursework. Sounds like you don't and judging from what I've heard from engineering people, it should be last resort and only if you ABSOLUTELY want to do it. It's damn hard and very time-consuming.</p>
<p>All it matters if that you got the degree and have coursework in relevant area. I mean, you could be taking global history courses and political policy courses and that would be good. You may be better off doing Env. Policy at this point and try it before you go to the engineering route.</p>
<p>There are MANY envionrmental think-tanks out there all over the country, particularly out in the West and in Washington, DC. You could also work in the government like the Dept of Agriculture or Interior. I suggest you do MORE research before embarking to the MA.</p>
<p>Since you're only going for the MA, I'm sort of on the fence. I also LOVE to travel and don't like to settle. Fortunately, for my field, I have that possiblity of doing that stuff in the summer. I do, however, wish I had taken a year off to travel a while until I'm actually ready to settle. </p>
<p>Honestly, you sound like you need to do more research and it would be best that you put off graduate school applications until you are sure you know what you're getting yourself into. You don't sound like you're ready to settle in a specific MA program. I would work in a couple of NGOs relating to environment and see where you go from there. There are so many different sub-fields within environment and you would be best taking the time to explore them so you can write a more focus statement (which adcoms really, really like to see, that you come in with a strong focus).</p>