I am about to be a junior this Fall and currently have a 2.6 GPA right now. I also don’t go to a very popular college and it’s located in the city. I have low grades and I am thinking about either getting into a masters program for applied statistics or maybe applied math. However, I might have no chance because I got a few C grades in my early math classes and I had to withdraw from Calculus 1 twice. I am also interested in economics and I have a B and B- in the first two economics classes so far. I understand that I screwed up bad but I am thinking about changing my life around. I have a total of 5 w grades and I am thinking about trying to at least get into a masters program for higher education as that I am thinking about pursuing a career in data science or possibly a consulting/financial field like quantitative analysis. I have a total of 5 w grades on my transcript so far and I don’t want to end up a failure. I just need brutal honesty. I am currently about to be a junior this Fall and if it’s not possible for me to get into a master’s program, what are some possible career choices for me? What else can I do? I don’t have internships yet but I am looking for some experience in the field so that I can get accepted later possibly. Are online master’s a good choice because I was just thinking about that. I also graduate in two years so does anyone have some advice for me?
March into your adviser’s office (or make a zoom appointment) and get some expert advice. You need to make sure you ARE going to be a junior-- none of us can tell you how your college handles 5 W’s but you need a solid plan to make sure you are going to graduate before you run out of money! This is more important than your GPA- your college likely has rules around what has to happen/when, number of credits, etc. So get that ironed out- a plan for the next four? five? semesters of what you are going to take in order to get a degree.
Master’s degrees- those will still be there in a year, two years, three years. I promise you. Not going anywhere. But worrying about your NEXT degree when you aren’t on track for THIS degree is a waste of time and energy.
There are hundreds of careers that don’t require a master’s degree, so let this go and focus on the here and now.
What are some of the best decent careers that don’t require a master’s degree? What decent careers that also have decent pay? I am not interested in trades or military because of health conditions
What classes have you enjoyed so far AND done well in? Start there.
Not sure what you consider a decent career with decent pay-- but millions of people have jobs in the insurance industry as adjusters, in sales, underwriting; hospitality industry doing marketing, event management, social media management/PR, or managing a hotel; working in corporate HR (which is what I do) in recruiting, comp and benefits, employee relations, workforce planning.
Some people have master’s in these jobs, many do not. You need to have decent math skills but not calculus or the kind of quant skills you need for a Master’s program in statistics. You need to be able to interpret a chart, a graph, have good, logical excel skills (the computer does the math but you need to interpret or understand the data).
Tech companies hire thousands of non-technical people-- facilities management, PR/Investor Relations, finance and accounting, HR.
What are you interested in- and if you live in a big city you are lucky- lots of opportunities for part-time or summer jobs/internships. What are you doing this summer?
And what does your advisor say- are you on track to graduate?
I am thinking about getting either a bachelor degree in either economics or statistics for my career so I wanted to know what I can do with these degrees at the bachelor level. Any advice??
Lots of students get jobs with econ majors. You can google it. They work in the corporate,nonprofit and public sectors. I would not rush into a master’s degree program with lackluster grades and limited work experience. Working with your school’s placement office is the best idea. What job do you have now?
I don’t have a job right now. I am not going to major in accounting because people said that if you get a GPA of less than 3.5+, you can’t get hired. I am thinking about what jobs that I can get if I have a bachelor degree in economics from a school that is not well known
Get a job and stop listening to people. How will you know what you want to do with your life if you don’t get some work experience? And how obscure is this college anyway???
As I said upthread= there are hundreds of things you can do without a Master’s degree. So get some real life work experience, figure out which of the classes you’ve taken you really enjoy, make sure you are on track to graduate, and then your college’s career center can help you narrow down a few fields to focus on.
An earlier post asked the same question by OP, with similar responses.