I’ve jumped career paths a few times since graduating from a top US undergrad program (major: economics) with average grades. I did management consulting for 1.5 years (didn’t like it), data analysis at a small-ish tech company for 1.5 years (liked it but got laid off when the company restructured), and for the past few years have been pursuing a moonshot career in comedy while holding a minimally taxing day job (executive assistant).
I’ve now decided to quit comedy and am considering grad school. Since I enjoyed my time as a data analyst, I think grad studies that would lead to a career in data science, aiming to use these skills at an organization or in a sector of US government aligned with EA goals, might make sense. I never did research in undergrad, so it’s a real unknown for me and might be a nice option to keep open with my choice of program.
The options I’m considering are:
Master’s in Data Science/Business Analytics, though I’m wary of how short a track record these programs have at this point
Master’s in Statistics; I’ve never loved math classes but I’ve done well in them and stats was by far my favorite math course in high school
MBA; I understand this doesn’t align with my goals, but my entire family has one, so it’s hard to ignore the potential nature/nurture overlap
Post-Bac program to prepare for a Master’s in Computer Science; I did a little comp sci in undergrad and enjoyed it
Master’s in Economics; while this was my undergrad area of study, I don’t see myself going for a PhD at this point and am skeptical of the exit opps after a master’s
The only other piece of context is that I was fortunate to get a perfect score on the GRE. I’m not sure how far that goes with each of these programs, especially given my nontraditional path, but I hope it could help.
If you’re committed to using data science to address public policy questions in the U.S. (either in government or a think tank-type organization), I suspect you’d be best-served by a program like one of these:
Hi all,
I’ve jumped career paths a few times since graduating from a top US undergrad program (major: economics) with average grades. I did management consulting for 1.5 years (didn’t like it), data analysis at a small-ish tech company for 1.5 years (liked it but got laid off when the company restructured), and for the past few years have been pursuing a moonshot career in comedy while holding a minimally taxing day job (executive assistant).
I’ve now decided to quit comedy and am considering grad school. Since I enjoyed my time as a data analyst, I think grad studies that would lead to a career in data science, aiming to use these skills at an organization or in a sector of US government aligned with EA goals, might make sense. I never did research in undergrad, so it’s a real unknown for me and might be a nice option to keep open with my choice of program.
The options I’m considering are:
Master’s in Data Science/Business Analytics, though I’m wary of how short a track record these programs have at this point
Master’s in Statistics; I’ve never loved math classes but I’ve done well in them and stats was by far my favorite math course in high school
MBA; I understand this doesn’t align with my goals, but my entire family has one, so it’s hard to ignore the potential nature/nurture overlap
Post-Bac program to prepare for a Master’s in Computer Science; I did a little comp sci in undergrad and enjoyed it
Master’s in Economics; while this was my undergrad area of study, I don’t see myself going for a PhD at this point and am skeptical of the exit opps after a master’s
The only other piece of context is that I was fortunate to get a perfect score on the GRE. I’m not sure how far that goes with each of these programs, especially given my nontraditional path, but I hope it could help.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have!
If you’re committed to using data science to address public policy questions in the U.S. (either in government or a think tank-type organization), I suspect you’d be best-served by a program like one of these:
https://mccourt.georgetown.edu/master-of-science-in-data-science-for-public-policy/
https://harris.uchicago.edu/academics/degrees/ms-computational-analysis-public-policy-mscapp
https://macss.uchicago.edu/
Agree with these. I’ll also throw in Carnegie Mellon’s Public Policy and Data Analytics program.
McCourt, Harris, and Heinz (at CMU) are essentially the top three schools offering this track from what I can tell.
Thanks as well. These programs were not on my radar at all, and I appreciate you and HStencil flagging the most prominent ones.
Thank you!