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 as well. These programs were not on my radar at all, and I appreciate you and HStencil flagging the most prominent ones.
Thank you!
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:
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!