Pre-requisites for Grad school

Graduate School
1

I did my undergraduate degree in Accounting & Financial Management and graduated 2 years ago. Down the road I would like to ultimately get into higher level quantitative analyst jobs but it seems like they all require at least Master’s degrees (if not PhDs) in a quantitative field. So I’m interested to do a graduate degree in Applied Math or Statistics. The University of Michgan is my top choice. However I didn’t take enough math/stats/programming classes in undergrad to be able to submit an application. I need to take 6-8 of these pre-requisite classes before applying.
So my question is where should I take these pre-requisite classes? Community college has most of the courses I’d need (except for stats, probability and a higher level programming course) and they’re fairly affordable. OR should I take these classes from the University of Michigan? The cost of each class is almost 7 times the cost of the community college classes, but I would have access to campus resources, be able to join clubs and do extracurriculars/projects that could strengthen my application and also possibly get letters of recommendation from faculty members who are well known to the admissions committee.
Does it matter to graduate admissions committees where I take these pre-requisite classes?

The other question I have is about Letters of Recommendation. I’m not sure any of my undergrad profs really remember me, so I don’t think I could get LoRs from them. I was planning to ask the professors/instructors from the pre-requisite courses I’ll take. What’s the best approach to getting a strong letter of recommendation from a professor you’ve known only one semester?

2

Taking the prerequisites at a four-year college is preferable to most programs, but a community college is fine.

Also, if you are just taking prerequisites, you don’t need to join any clubs; MAs in academic fields are not going to care about your clubs.

Your professors from undergrad don’t have to have the best, clearest memory of you to write you recommendations. What you do is prepare a resume and a statement for them to help jog their memory and help them write the recommendation. I’d say you’d probably want one recommendation letter from someone who taught you in undergrad.

The best approach is a proactive one - making sure that you get to know the professors in the classes you take and leaving nothing to chance. Ask questions in class, visit office hours, and do work that demonstrates that you have more than just a good grasp of the material - but that you have high aptitude AND an affinity for it. One semester is three whole months, and that’s a good amount of time to get to know someone. And if you have classes in a sequence to take, like stats and probability, see if you can take the sequence with the same professor.