Thinking of graduate school in a few years, but terrible undergrad GPA...is it worth the effort?

Graduate School
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<p>To preface, I'm currently working full-time in an industry that's related to my undergrad degree (accounting, NOT public accounting).</p>

<p>However, after taking a few related classes in community college and doing some outside readings, I was thinking of going to back to grad school, but not in accounting.</p>

<p>I'm thinking of doing graduate work in economics, but I don't have the requisite background, so I'm planning on taking some advanced math classes at a nearby 4-year school.</p>

<p>The thing is, with a terrible GPA (think <3.0), is it even worth the effort at this point? I'm not planning on applying right away, since I didn't really taking any econ classes while in school anyway. So I'll be taking the necessary fundamental courses to see if I even have the aptitude for advanced quantitative work. I'm planning on working a few years regardless to gain some job experience and save money first.</p>

<p>Based on what I've researched, it would be beneficial to also try and get some econ-related experience.</p>

<p>Ah, sorry for the long-winded post. But any comments would be appreciated.</p>

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<p>If you are able to do well in the courses you are taking now, it should be enough to demonstrate that you are a good bet for a graduate program. Work experience and added maturity make a difference.</p>

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<p>You don’t really need any econ-specific work experience for econ grad school as many students enter right out of undergrad. Your accounting position would be considered good enough work experience. Your math grades through the second or third semester of calculus as well as linear algebra would be more important.</p>

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<p>Thank you both. In terms of math courses, I’ve been taking the introductory calculus sequence of courses at a local community college. Will that look bad since it seems grad schools don’t like community college courses. I do plan on taking the more advanced calculus courses at a 4 year school, same with the more advanced econ courses, just to see if I can handle actual advanced econ courses. A related question: for the letters of recommendations, I’m assuming it should come from academic faculty instead of employers, correct? Thus, it would be beneficial to take classes at a 4 year school anyway.</p>

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<p>One letter could come from an employer but the others should be from professors who know your academics.</p>

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<p>(Disclaimer: Not my field.) A four-year college would be better, but a community college is probably fine for introductory calculus.</p>

<p>Whether or not it’s worth it is a personal determination. You’re going to have to take the prerequisite classes in both math and econ - although I’ve heard from econ people here that the math classes are more important. That’s about, what, 5-7 math classes (3 semesters of calculus, 1 semester of linear algebra, 1 semester of real analysis, and 1-2 semesters of statistics and probability)? Then perhaps 3-4 economics classes, at least? So you’ll be taking around 8-11 additional undergraduate classes. That’s about 30 credits of coursework. How much you’ll pay will depend on your local four-year’s tuition rates. On the low end, CUNY charges $260 per credit for in-state residents, so 30 credits there would cost just under $8,000. On the higher end, Penn State charges $691/credit for PA residents (yikes!). That’s nearly $21,000 for 30 credits.</p>

<p>Economists make a lot of money, though - the median 2012 salary was nearly $92,000. That’s almost $30,000 more per year than the median for accountants. So even if you spent $15,000 on the prereqs and borrowed another $50,000 for the master’s, on average you’d make the difference back in just 3 years. (On average.)</p>

<p>Money aside, though, I guess it also depends on how badly you want to study economics on the graduate level. Why do you want to do it? Do you want to move into a job as an economist, or a career field in which an MA in economics would be required or useful? </p>

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<p>Hi juillet, I was hoping you’d drop in and offer some sage advice.</p>

<p>I definitely hope to move into a job as a economist doing research. I was looking at mostly doctoral programs, since most econ programs I think are of the doctoral nature. In this case, since there are so many math classes I’d have to take, is it beneficial to just get a masters first? I’m not even sure if I can take that many classes as a non-degree student at a 4-year school.</p>

<p>I’m a CA resident so I’d probably take the classes at either a CSU or UC. There is a campus from each of those 2 system near my house. I’m only taking the first semester calculus at a local community college, but I’m hoping to take the more advanced math and econ classes at a 4 year.</p>

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<p>:)</p>

<p>This isn’t my field, so I can’t be 100% sure. But</p>

<p>1) While you are right in that most top programs only offer the PhD in economics (for example, the only UC that offers a terminal MA in the field is UCSB), there are several departments where you can get an MA in economics. Some people use it as a stepping stone into a PhD program, but there are definitely master’s-level research economist positions. The federal government hires a lot of these (28% of economists work for the federal government, according to the BLS, and another 17% work for state and local governments). However, if you know that you want to do independent research, direct a research team, or really launch a research career in which you eventually become supervisory/management and aren’t always doing the assisting tasks, then you probably do want a PhD.</p>

<p>2) I did just check out the credit hour requirements for MA programs in economics at the CSUs, and the programs all require about 30 semester hours of credit (or 45 quarter hours). Since you’d have to take that much anyway, then even if you had to pay out of pocket for a CSU program them I think it would be worth it to get the full MA in economics.</p>

<p>However, I browsed a couple of those pages and noted that several of them required a major in economics or the equivalent. SF State requires a major in econ or the equivalent with B grades in calculus I, statistics, and intermediate micro and macro (which requires beginning micro and macro) - but says that they sometimes admit students conditionally while they complete these requirements. Cal Poly Pomona and CSU-Fullerton have the same requirements. So it appears that for most MA programs in economics, there are at least six prerequisite courses you should take to be minimally qualified for the program. I would imagine that an undergraduate accounting major with fewer classes could probably be a competitive candidate for a conditional admit, but I don’t know for sure.</p>

<p>You’d also have to make sure that if you did decide to do a 30-credit MA in econ with a CSU that you’d finish your math courses. Most of them only require one semester of calculus, but if you wanted to continue onto a PhD you’d want to finish the calculus sequence and take linear algebra and real analysis (basing this upon words of economists before me, and also UC Berkeley’s requirements page). You’d have to find out whether the MA program would count those towards your graduate degree requirements, or whether you’d have to take those on your own time in addition to the program’s requirements. I’m guessing it would be the latter because undergrad courses usually don’t count towards the master’s.</p>

<p>Berkeley has a very helpful [admit</a> profile](<a href=“https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/grad/admissions/profile]admit”>Ph.D. in Economics Graduate Admissions Profile | Department of Economics) for the kinds of students they are looking for. [url=&lt;a href=“http://economics.stanford.edu/graduate/admissions]Stanford[/url”&gt;http://economics.stanford.edu/graduate/admissions]Stanford[/url</a>] has a less detailed but still very helpful listing of what their competitive economics students have. [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.econ.ucla.edu/graduate/?p=admissions]UCLA[/url”&gt;http://www.econ.ucla.edu/graduate/?p=admissions]UCLA[/url</a>] has one too (scroll down to preparation), and according to the NRC rankings they are more of a mid-tier program, yet they still have pretty stringent math requirements.</p>

<p>Do you have any professors from your undergrad that you might be able to chat with this about?</p>

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<p>CA now charges a fair amount more for Grad level courses. It makes sense to take as many pre-reqs knocked out before you enter the program. Unless you’ve done some pretty amazing stuff at work, I’d encourage you to focus on the CSUs - they will be your best shot.</p>