suggest a degree?

[JJChicken]

well, my path is set.

i'm currently enrolled in a JC for Calc I, starting this month. will go thru till december 18th.

i'm planning on doing the entire masters in 1 year. but i won't be able to attend till next year. so i'll knock out 2 of the calc courses prior to attending. then just have to do the linear algebra and calc III while doing the master's.

i'll be going for an MS in statistics, going to school full-time during that year.

i can't afford to screw around. i have to get A's in basically everything. this is gonna be hell >_<

Cool, let us know how it goes. FWIW I'm starting my masters (in quantitative finance) in March next year. It covers prob theory, stats, stochastic calc, math programming, matrixes, etc. We can probably help each other out on homework problems

 

[Fayd]

60,000 a year starting out? Hahahahaha. Hahahahahaha.. Breathe... Hahahahahaha.

i'm not sure what you're laughing about?

i just checked online looking for entry level positions for someone with a masters in statistics. i found things for entry level searching for a bachelors in stats starting at 55k.

if anything, expected entry level for a masters in statistics would be higher.

 

[Farang]

i'm not sure what you're laughing about?

i just checked online looking for entry level positions for someone with a masters in statistics. i found things for entry level searching for a bachelors in stats starting at 55k.

if anything, expected entry level for a masters in statistics would be higher.

Entry level salary reports are horseshit. I don't understand where they get the numbers from but they aren't based in reality.

What was your undergrad? Are you making what these salary reports say you should be making? Have the callbacks you've gotten been for jobs making what you should be making?

 

[Fayd]

Entry level salary reports are horseshit. I don't understand where they get the numbers from but they aren't based in reality.

What was your undergrad? Are you making what these salary reports say you should be making? Have the callbacks you've gotten been for jobs making what you should be making?

my sister was offered a job just out of school (actually didnt even have to go interview, just offered the job. they apparently liked her from when they were reviewing resumes at the school job fair) for 67k. entry level, engineer. bachelors.

my undergrad was econ. yeah, it's crap. i should have realized that there wouldn't be any demand for someone with a bachelors in econ, especially from a third-rate university like CSU San Marcos.

however, SDSU is at least second-tier, and has a huge tie-in with the local community for bio-statistics. (san diego has a lot of biotech companies) even with just a normal MS in statistics, the worst i could look at is actuarial department.

that's the difference between a BA in econ, which doesn't prepare you to do ANYTHING, and a MS in statistics, which does give you a marketable job skill. with a marketable job skill, you're comparing against a defined field, which takes a lot of the fluffiness out of estimating salaries.

 

[Farang]

my sister was offered a job just out of school (actually didnt even have to go interview, just offered the job. they apparently liked her from when they were reviewing resumes at the school job fair) for 67k. entry level, engineer. bachelors.

my undergrad was econ. yeah, it's crap. i should have realized that there wouldn't be any demand for someone with a bachelors in econ, especially from a third-rate university like CSU San Marcos.

however, SDSU is at least second-tier, and has a huge tie-in with the local community for bio-statistics. (san diego has a lot of biotech companies) even with just a normal MS in statistics, the worst i could look at is actuarial department.

that's the difference between a BA in econ, which doesn't prepare you to do ANYTHING, and a MS in statistics, which does give you a marketable job skill. with a marketable job skill, you're comparing against a defined field, which takes a lot of the fluffiness out of estimating salaries.

I was going to add a caveat that degrees with strong technical skills (i.e. engineer or CS) are the exception. Although it can take them a while to land that first job, it seems to me they can usually depend on a good starting salary.

I think you're being too hard on yourself. Econ is a very valuable degree. A close friend of mine did it and was offered $45k at Boeing as a purchaser of aircraft components. He lost that for reasons unrelated to his qualifications, landing a job as a purchaser at a general contractor for $33k. He moved on after a couple years to become an Estimator/Project Manager in construction for $55k. He uses every day his economics education, basically his job is to create prices and then manage the purchase of material and labor.

I think a lot of people are tempted to jump back into school but some work experience can open up a lot of opportunities you never knew existed. It seems like you can't find work now, but you're just a phone call away from being +$35k over the next year rather than -$20k or whatever tuition is. Landing a job is can be very unpredictable.

 

[Hacp]

I was going to add a caveat that degrees with strong technical skills (i.e. engineer or CS) are the exception. Although it can take them a while to land that first job, it seems to me they can usually depend on a good starting salary.

I think you're being too hard on yourself. Econ is a very valuable degree. A close friend of mine did it and was offered $45k at Boeing as a purchaser of aircraft components. He lost that for reasons unrelated to his qualifications, landing a job as a purchaser at a general contractor for $33k. He moved on after a couple years to become an Estimator/Project Manager in construction for $55k. He uses every day his economics education, basically his job is to create prices and then manage the purchase of material and labor.

I think a lot of people are tempted to jump back into school but some work experience can open up a lot of opportunities you never knew existed. It seems like you can't find work now, but you're just a phone call away from being +$35k over the next year rather than -$20k or whatever tuition is. Landing a job is can be very unpredictable.

Why would they hire you when they can outsource the job for 15k?

 

[Fayd]

I was going to add a caveat that degrees with strong technical skills (i.e. engineer or CS) are the exception. Although it can take them a while to land that first job, it seems to me they can usually depend on a good starting salary.

I think you're being too hard on yourself. Econ is a very valuable degree. A close friend of mine did it and was offered $45k at Boeing as a purchaser of aircraft components. He lost that for reasons unrelated to his qualifications, landing a job as a purchaser at a general contractor for $33k. He moved on after a couple years to become an Estimator/Project Manager in construction for $55k. He uses every day his economics education, basically his job is to create prices and then manage the purchase of material and labor.

I think a lot of people are tempted to jump back into school but some work experience can open up a lot of opportunities you never knew existed. It seems like you can't find work now, but you're just a phone call away from being +$35k over the next year rather than -$20k or whatever tuition is. Landing a job is can be very unpredictable.

or i can go to school, then come out ahead 3 years from now, and every year down the line?

or continue school, and do what i really want to do, ~5-8 years down the line?

i've been looking for a job using my econ degree for 2 years. NOTHING has come of it.

 

[postmortemIA]

SDSU is registered trademark of South Dakota State University ... is it bit far from you?

 

[Farang]

or i can go to school, then come out ahead 3 years from now, and every year down the line?

or continue school, and do what i really want to do, ~5-8 years down the line?

i've been looking for a job using my econ degree for 2 years. NOTHING has come of it.

Obviously you know whats best for you, and I can't be too specific since I don't know your situation very well. Since I don't know you very well, I'll just have to say this: If you've literally found nothing over two years of job hunting with your economics degree, not even something that could lead to something else, then I'd suggest the problem is not the fact that you do not have a master's degree. That sort of problem isn't caused by hiring managers saying 'But, he doesn't have a masters... next!' It's caused by something else. Something that does not cost tens of thousands of dollars and three years of your time to figure out.

 

[tokie]

I'm intending on going back to school next year... applying to SDSU, for pursuit of a master's degree. I haven't decided which one.

ultimately, my intention is to apply to UCSD for a Ph.D. in Economics. problem with that is my grades from undergrad = not so good. and I don't have the math necessary for ucsd's econ program. (3 semesters calc + linear algebra)

so i've been thinking what I want to do. a simple answer would just be to get a MA in Econ from SDSU..that'd be relatively easy. a tougher answer would be to get a MS in Statistics, which would give me a more rounded skillset. and if i decided to stop there, i'd have a degree worth something. (no jobs for econ till phd )

my goal from all this is to do research, and write books.

by my thinking, statistics would be a very complementary degree to econ. and the math req for UCSD would be taken care of in the first year of statistics. (in fact, they require it.)

suggestions?

I haven't read all the replies, but they look like jibberish for the most part so I'm going to add my own 2 cents.

If you want to apply for a PhD in Econ @ UCSD, getting a Masters from SDSU is not going to get you admitted. UCSD is a top-15 institution for Economics and the top 30 admit maybe 15-20 people per department. They have their pick from all over the world and these people all have perfect GREQ scores and 90%+ averages in everything they have ever taken from name brand schools. Doing well in a Masters program doesn't wipe your undergrad record clean.

In your situation, a MSc in Stats would be much more valuable than an MA in Econ. However, any sort of theoretical stats courses may prove to be too hard for you given your math background. I would definitely not take it from a state school though... this is the kind of situation where it's worthwhile to go 30k in the hole for a year to get a name brand MSc (and the LoRs that come with it).