<p>I graduated from undergrad in the spring of 2010. My majors were in political science and women's studies -- two subjects that I'm very interested in, and that I did very well in. I've always considered myself to be better with ideas and theories rather than details, so the essay-based approach to most of my classes suited me well.</p>
<p>Like many, however, I was naive in thinking that a liberal arts degree would lead me to a career in which I could support myself (I know it CAN, but thus far, for me, it has not), so I would like to get my master's degree in something a bit more practical. Being that I'm still interested in government and policy, I've been considering getting going back to school for some form of economic study to gain some quantitative background and skill to make my knowledge-base a little more "useful." I think that doing some sort of economic or policy analysis would suit me well.</p>
<p>First off, I have never been bad at math. In fact, growing up, I did quite well in it. In college, however, I just decided that I preferred not to do it at that time, and being that my majors didn't require more, I only took one math course in college. Clearly, this will not satisfy the requirements of any graduate admissions in economics. </p>
<p>I'm wondering, then, how to proceed. Would catching up on the classes that I'm short (macro/microeconomics, linear algebra, calculus) at a local community college look bad on an application to a decent school? I'm not thinking of Harvard or MIT, but maybe somewhere along the lines of Minnesota or Wisconsin or the like. Should I instead try to fill in those classes at a four-year school, or even go back and get another bachelor's in a related field?</p>
<p>I'm just trying to figure out where to start here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Find out from the schools you are interested in attending what their requirements for a masters in economics are and then take those courses as a non-degree student either at a Community College or a local 4-year college on a part time basis. Most graduate programs at the Masters level will have entry points for students with a different major and will thus require some remedial course work but that is OK. </p>
<p>I would not recommend another Bachelor’s degree unless the list of courses is so enormous that it would take 2 years of full time study. My guess is that you would primarily need mathematics courses.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. I just didn’t know if community college courses would look bad, as they’re generally known as being easier than most four-year schools. One of the programs I’m interested in would require about six courses to catch up…so you’re saying that I may be able to take a couple of those at a local community or four-year college and then maybe take a couple at my grad university prior to starting my actual coursework?</p>
<p>Besides master’s programs in economics, consider master’s programs in public policy or urban planning. Still other areas to consider: applied economics programs in ag econ departments (various policy areas including environmental policy, food policy, international trade, development), or consumer econ & policy programs in schools of human ecology/family & consumer sciences.</p>
<p>I know you graduated some time ago, and I’m not sure what you mean by the fact that you don’t have a career in which you can support yourself. But I’m not sure that getting a master’s degree (as in, any master’s degree) will make you more marketable or able to find a job if you don’t have a clear focus for what you want. Never having been bad at math is different from wanting to do math and work with mathematical models most or all of the day, and that’s what economists do.</p>
<p>So before you can figure out what kinds of classes you need to take, first you need to figure out what degree you want to get. And in order to do that, you need to figure out what job you want to have at the end and what degrees that job entails. It’s quite possible that you can get an entry-level policy analysis job without a master’s, with your degrees right now. There are many think tanks that hire BA level research assistants. Perhaps an NGO or nonprofit may hire you on to do some analysis or research work for them in which you can work with theories and ideas.</p>
<p>Because like zapfino said, you may realize that an MPP or MPA is better for you and then you don’t need to go take calculus and linear algebra; you can go straight into a program. Another recommendation is the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences master’s program at Columbia - that does require some background in quantitative methods, but no calculus or linear algebra. So before you go take classes you need to decide on the degree you plan to pursue.</p>