<p>I graduated with a BA in psychology last December.
3.75 GPA, 3.89 in psych
Honors, magna cum laude, 2 years research experience</p>
<p>I would like to pursue a masters or even a PhD in marketing/research. My college did not offer marketing courses beyond perhaps a basic intro course, so I am thinking of going back to school elsewhere and taking some classes.</p>
<p>My question is, will it make a difference whether I pursue an associates in marketing, a BA in marketing, or just take a few marketing courses resulting in no additional degree completion just to build up my recommendations and experience for this field? I know psychology is certainly useful as a background for marketing and research, but I would like to know what else to consider to strengthen my CV when I apply. I probably won't be applying for another year and a half or more, depending what I decide to do with my classes. </p>
<p>Any suggestions/opinions are welcome, thanks!</p>
<p>That is a good story…but my undergrad studies are complete. I had no business/economics classes at all. Primarily psych, English, political science, and religion courses. My honors thesis was on something completely different from what I’d like to do (stereotyping and prejudice - I am now more interested in company/product branding).</p>
<p>I also will likely not be in touch with my former profs when it comes time to apply to graduate programs. My interests have gone in a different direction from my one professor who was helping me a lot by giving me different projects to work on outside of classes - and his research area no longer interests me at all. It was painful finishing up the last article I wrote with him.</p>
<p>So I would really like to take a few courses and make certain that this is the path I want to go in before applying to graduate programs. I am just unsure as to how far I want to take it - I know an associates really wouldn’t mean anything, and a bachelor’s could take another 2+ years depending on how many of my courses would transfer. I just wanted some feedback on that and perhaps on classes are most useful? What kind of math and/or science courses are relevant? Economics courses?</p>
<p>A good amount of people in my program came in only with Psych (no business, marketing, nor economics background).</p>
<p>None of my referees were doing research on things I wanted to do now in marketing. However, their recommendation means just as much whether or not your interests diverge. If you were an exceptional student and RA, they’ll note that and that’s what adcomms will want to hear. I had some research in bio and neuroscience labs and that was actually seen very much as a positive by some top programs as it signaled a breadth of knowledge and skills.</p>
<p>If you’re dead set on auditing marketing before applying, math is minimal – just make sure you have calculus I-II and linear algebra down; on the stats side, intermediate stats (regression analysis, ANOVA, etc.) is all that’s expected. If you want to be impressive to adcomms, take an SEM, HLM, probability theory, and a psychometrics course (if you’re planning on doing behavioral). Economics can help guide your research questions, but knowing formal micro/macro won’t be of much direct use to you in a CB program.</p>
<p>Thank you for the info. The only college math course I had was Elementary Statistics. I had up to Calculus in high school but I can’t imagine it was anything like college calc, so I’m a bit nervous about that. I may take a course or two per semester until I am ready to apply. </p>
<p>It’s good to know I won’t need economics. Behavioral is definitely an area I’d be interested in since social psych was my favorite area of psychology. </p>
<p>Is management experience any help for admission? I was a clothing department manager for seven months and then became the human resources manager at the same store. I was looking at some programs and quite a few have 2+ years of experience as an admissions requirement, but those were mostly MBAs with marketing emphases.</p>
<p>Management and work experience play little role in admissions. It won’t hurt you, but going out of your way to get those experiences to leverage towards a PhD program isn’t the best use of your time.</p>
<p>A lot of students came in with an MBA or at least some full-time work experience (I worked in research/consulting for a year after graduating undergrad), but some come fresh out of undergrad with 0 experience – even at top programs.</p>
<p>Your background in psych research will be of great help to you during admissions. Applicants underestimate how much adcomms love psychology backgrounds and if you have some kind of track record (publications, conference presentations, talks, etc.), then that’s all the better.</p>