<p>I received a B.A. in English in 2007. Since then, I have been working.</p>
<p>I am thinking about returning to school, but I know that I don't want to pursue graduate studies in English, or any closely related fields.</p>
<p>My plan right now is to study Economics, but I realize that to pursue a PhD in Economics, I would need to take a number of prerequisite courses before applying. I have been thinking that getting a B.S. in Economics might be smarter, since I would have to take nearly all of the required classes before applying to a PhD program anyway.</p>
<p>My undergrad was done at BYU, and I did well (3.98 GPA), but as I have researched some of the schools that I'm interested in (Harvard, Stanford, MIT), none of them offer 2nd bachelor's degrees.</p>
<p>My 2 questions are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is pursuing a B.S. a good move? Would I be able to get into a good PhD program even if I just took Econ classes at a local state school as a non-degree-seeking student?</p></li>
<li><p>Are there good schools (especially good Econ schools) that accept people for a second bachelor's degree?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Back in the last century, I turned a BA in Archaeology into a pre-grad school program in Agriculture by spending one year as a “senior transfer” and one semester as a “non-degree grad student” at my home-state public U. Then I got into the top grad program in my specialization. Along the way I met several students who were doing similar things, some completed full second bachelor’s degrees at home-state public Us, some did their re-treading at community colleges, some went back to their undergrad college/university for an extra year or so of coursework.</p>
<p>The biggest problem that you will face is paying for your program. You will not be eligible for most forms of financial aid. There even will be limits on the un-subsidized stafford loans that you could take out. My best recommendation is that you make appointments with the transfer admissions office at your local state school to find out if they do accept “senior transfers”, and to find out what limitations you might face on registering for classes as a “non-degree” student. In my case, being classified as a senior transfer gave me first priority in course registration, had I been a non-degree undergraduate student, I would have had last priority, and simply would not have been able to get into the introductory level courses that I needed.</p>
<p>My experience is a bit paleolithic, too, but similar to HappyMom’s.</p>
<p>I think the fact that you have a B.A. with a high GPA from a reputable university establishes your smarts and your ability to do university-level school work. I think you should pick up courses related to economics (with or without a second bachelor’s degree–it probably doesn’t matter) as cheaply as you can.</p>
<p>Back in the day, I was tanking in the sciences in one of the Ivies. Sensing the need for a new direction, I took a leave of absence, took English lit. courses at My Backyard State U., returned to Old Ivy, and finished my B.A. in the sciences as painlessly as I could contrive to do, while continuing to take as much English as I could make fit. I didn’t get into every graduate program I applied to (my own college discouraged me from applying there, though several professors helped me look elsewhere), but I did get into several then-top-20 ones. </p>
<p>I predict you’ll have a much easier time getting into large universities with large graduate programs in Economics, but you can probably make this work. Harvard, Stanford and MIT? That, I don’t know about. Those are probably universities that don’t have to take a chance on non-traditional grad students because they can fill their programs several times over with outstanding traditional students. I did best among prestigious state flagships and private universities with large English departments (Columbia’s department, for example, was huge back in the '80s).</p>
<p>Good economics graduate programs are not restricted to costly private universities. Places like UW-Madison and UMich have very good PhD programs in economics, and you can probably still do a second bachelors’s degree there if that is what you want to do.</p>
<p>I don’t think you will be able to go straight into a good PhD program without some significant additional undergraduate work unless you took a lot more math and statistics than most English majors. I know a lot of people who got PhDs in economics with non-econ undergraduate degrees, but they were math, engineering and physics majors.</p>
<p>It might be best to start by researching particular programs to see which appeal to you–different programs offer different fields, and have different strengths. For instance, not every program will have economic history as a field, or labor, etc. After you narrow it down to those that interest you, find out what they want to see in their applicants, and go from there.</p>
<p>And I repeat what I said at the top–graduate program rankings do not mirror undergraduate rankings or reputations.</p>
<p>Thanks very much to all of you! So, is a fair summary that:</p>
<ol>
<li>It won’t matter too much whether I get a Bachelor’s or just take the prerequisites.</li>
<li>It won’t matter too much where I take those classes.</li>
</ol>
<p>That’s very good news, financially. :)</p>
<p>@midmo,</p>
<p>I understand that I’ve still got a number of classes to take. I took both college Calc classes, as well as 2 physics classes, and Econ 101. As I understand it, I will need to take probably 2-3 more math classes, and 3-4 more Econ classes. Does that sound about right?</p>
<p>As far as finding a program, what’s the best way to research that? My interest is in using the tools of economics to study complex systems. I’m not interested in the economy per se, but in all bottom-up processes (things like ant colonies, ecosystems, language, neurology, etc.,) where complexity arises from simple components (i.e., emergence). Economics seems like a good toolset for getting at those problems.</p>
<p>^^^Choose your program carefully. All program websites will include links to the faculty publications. Even if a program is high-ranking and includes world famous economists, if no one is doing work that is related to your interests in some fashion, you will have trouble putting a useful committee together. </p>
<p>BTW, I am not an economist, my doctorates are in the natural sciences. I have been married for decades to an econ professor, for what that is worth.</p>
<p>Also, I switched fields after getting a BA in history, and I did find it necessary to get a second bachelor’s degree before going to graduate school, but I really had significant deficiencies in prerequisites. Also, school was cheaper then, and I could put myself through a second degree without more hardship than I had already become accustomed to (since I put myself through the first degree as well).</p>