<p>A bit of background: I went to a well-known university in the US and graduated with a kind of squishy interdisciplinary degree covering print journalism and international relations. After uni I did a Fulbright teaching assistantship and I've been in my current position (writing and editing at a business publication that targets developing countries) for about a year. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA, honors, my GRE scores were 730 verbal, 720 quantitative, 5.0 writing.</p>
<p>I'm hoping to change my career path up a bit, as I think I would like to go into development-related policy work. The issues I am interested in vary rather widely, but at the top are freedom of speech/censorship and sustainable energy/water quite a range, I know in Turkey and the Middle East. For what it's worth, these are countries and issues that my current position deals with rather extensively and I have lived for nearly two years in Turkey and I speak Turkish well. </p>
<p>In trying to decide what path to take for a Masters, I've been paying attention to the jobs that interest me and looking at the qualifications they require. They are mostly at NGOs and the like (Transparency International, German Marshall Fund, Open Society Institute, OECD, etc....all those "Program Officer" positions one sees on the D.C. job boards) and nearly all of them require a masters, though many don't seem to necessarily want IR, but rather economics, law, statistics, engineering for the energy-related jobs, etc. </p>
<p>My research has shown me that economics seems to be useful in nearly every position I'm interested in and is therefore the path I am most keen on taking. My problem is that I don't have a great history in econ. I had basic statistics, macro and micro in my freshman year (B+ and two A-'s), but that's all. I am currently trying to take online courses in order to gain higher math skills, but I don't see myself being able to fulfill Calculus II and III, linear algebra and intermediate macro and micro by next year which seems to be what most MSc programs require. I have also been told by other friends who are studying economics that I shouldn't even bother with a terminal masters degree as those are "useless" and that anyone who is serious about econ should be going on to a PhD. </p>
<p>My options as I see it are this:
I can try to get into a qualifying year/diploma program in economics in Canada or the UK, which are apparently meant to fill in the necessary quantitative blanks for people like me. Then completing a Masters program would be one or two additional years. I don't know how I feel about this as it will be expensive and long for me paying non-citizen fees.
OR
I can try to to the policy route, sparing myself the math courses and getting a degree in IR/Public Policy with a development focus. However, I am afraid that this will just lead to me having one squishy degree on top of another squishy degree and I feel that I should have something more specialized, while with economics I think I will at least gain solid skills for quantitative analysis, which seem to be applicable in a wide range of positions. Cost-wise it could be advantageous as I am interested in various programs in the EU with low fees (even for Americans) and subsidies for students; also, the programs in the UK (LSE, SOAS, etc.) tend to be one year. </p>
<p>So, question is: is it worth it to crack down in the coming year with advanced math classes and move on to a diploma/QY program in the UK or Canada before going on to a master's in econ or should I just try to go the IR/Policy route and hope for the best? </p>
<p>Thanks a lot for any advice</p>