Is it worth stay an extra year to complete a minor in econ?

August 26, 2020 11:33 AM

I am a fourth year student in Sociology and Political Science undergraduate, and I have always been fascinated with economics - especially health econ and development econ.

Would it be worth my time to spend a year minoring in econ as well as a few math prequsites? Or would it be best if I simply take on some extra classes after graduating?

I would like to learn about economics and connect it to Political Science for graduate school and delve more into stats and policy as well on the side, and possibly use it for further academic research especially with quantiative methods.

tl;dr: Not t sure if spending an extra year for a minor is worth it, or simply take a few econ classes and go from there.

posted by RearWindow to Education (12 answers total)

Do it.

This may sound flip but it isn't: I took an extra semester of college because I was supposed to graduate in May 2010, smack dab in the Great Recession, and I knew there wouldn't be a ton of jobs waiting for me afterward. I have never regretted it for a bit. If you have the mental energy to do an extra year of college right now, absolutely do it.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:39 AM on August 26, 2020 [8 favorites]

What's the cost, both direct and indirect (opportunity cost)? How much more is tuition for staying an extra year than compared to taking classes while working? More importantly, what would you be doing otherwise? If you'd be taking a decent-paying job that provided valuable experience, take it. If you'd be unemployed or have to take a low-paying, not-intellectually engaging job, stay in school. (Chances are you don't know, and the potential job will be somewhere in between those extremes, which makes the decision harder.)
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:44 AM on August 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

This will be a very personal decision. In addition to your interest, you will also likely wish to weigh the cost of tuition at your university, your own resources (will you be supported and/or able to support yourself? Will you be taking on debt?), and also what you think that a minor in economics will be worth in terms of what you would like to do in the future. It may be that adding a minor in economics could open opportunities that may not be available otherwise to you (whether for graduate training and/or jobs), or it may be that the minor doesn't add much - you would need to have an economics major to access.

I will say this much: I don't know about undergraduate degrees, but I have observed that having a masters in economics opens opportunities in the Canadian public sector that having related degrees (like sociology) do not, particularly for policy positions.

To determine whether the minor would add such value, you would really need to talk to people who know - that might include people in the economics department who are aware of what former students with minors did after their degrees (faculty may or may not be paying attention to this), to the career advisors at your university, and also to people in the types of jobs you are interested in.

This last point is key: what one should study in university is really more about where you would like to go than (just) and interest in something. I'm not saying don't take things out of interest - I took linguistics and Chinese out of pure interest. But interest can just be a few courses; a minor is a bigger commitment - and if you are doing something because you think it can open a certain path (or paths) to you, you should talk to people who are already on those sorts of paths to find out more about them.
posted by jb at 11:44 AM on August 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

What's your plan after graduating? Are you going to try to get a job or go straight to graduate school? If it's grad school you want immediately then you should ask someone at the place you want to go whether it will make a difference. But in general it wouldn't matter whether you'd minored in economics or not but whether the courses you've taken give you the right background for what you want to study. On the other hand, if you're thinking about getting a job, then it might well help you to have a named economics minor to make you more appealing to economics-leaning jobs.
posted by plonkee at 11:51 AM on August 26, 2020

I'm of two minds here. On the one hand, does a minor really matter? Your major is far more important, and even that's not really all that important. Even if grad school is your plan, it's fairly common for people to go to grad school in a different subject than their undergrad major - especially in social sciences where the same theoretical concepts and methodologies underlie the different subjects and departments are just administrative divisions. On the other hand, economics is somewhat different than the other humanities and social sciences in that people in the "real world" respect it. An econ major and a poli sci major could take 90% of the same classes, but guess who would have the easier time finding a job.

Personally, I got pretty into econ my senior year and thought about taking a fifth year to add a double major. I ended up deciding against it, although I did take some poli sci/econ classes later. I wish I would have done the fifth year, but honestly I don't think that has anything to do with econ. The attraction for me was staying in school, the combination of social life and academic rigor. There's no other time in your life like that, not even grad school. So for that reason, I'd probably suggest doing the minor. But it's easy for me to say that; I'm not the one potentially taking out five figures of student loans for this extra year. If you feel ok doing that, or you don't need to take out loans, go for it.

One other thing: Your sociology/poli sci curriculum should have given you at least a basic introduction to quantitative methodology. If you just want to dive deeper, wait until you're in grad school, with funding. They expect you to do that anyway. From a curriculum standpoint, the only reason I could see the econ minor helping with grad school is if you have no background in quantitative methods whatsoever. And if that's the case, I'd ask you two questions. What were you doing (or not doing) as an undergrad where you weren't exposed to it? And why are you interested in graduate study in a field where you don't have experience with one of the primary tools used in the field? This makes me wonder if you're looking at grad school like I was looking at my potential fifth year, in which case: Go straight to grad school, get funding, and live the life on someone else's dime!
posted by kevinbelt at 12:23 PM on August 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Do you have the money to make it happen or would you need to borrow (more)? If you can afford to do it and want to, go for it! If not, I don't think it's worth it but I don't know you or your career plans.

Another option would be to find a job you like that is a mix of sociology/political science/economics, and see if it'll pay for additional classes in economics or even a Master's one day!
posted by smorgasbord at 4:36 PM on August 26, 2020

Additionally, I took two Latin American Studies classes my senior year of college and found myself wishing I minored in the subject! However, I kept studying on my own (learning Spanish and reading and traveling) and now here I am 15 years later back at university (in Latin America!) making that dream come true. Obviously, the way you immerse yourself in economics is a little different than immersing yourself in another country or language but we never have to stop learning just because we graduate. I had considered -- and had offers -- to do a PhD and an EdD. I am glad I didn't do either, as cool as they would have been, and instead focused on my job at the time. That said, I am also glad I am back in school as a non-degree-seeking student. The options really are limitless, wherever you live and whatever you choose! It's cool that you're still so passionate about learning new things because that will lead to a lot of happiness on a personal and professional level.
posted by smorgasbord at 4:41 PM on August 26, 2020

It depends. It depends on what your situation is, what you want to go to grad school in, what scores you've pulled on your quant GRE.

If your family has enough money that you just don't need to worry about your future, than do whatever combination of what-feels-right and what-your-family-wants makes sense to you.

Otherwise, the only combination where *either* staying for a minor or taking extra coursework would really make any sense is if you want to go to grad school in polisci or policy, your quant GRE scores aren't high, but for whatever reason you're confident that your actual math skills are better than that. In that case, doing something to show admissions committees that you can do the work might help. Doesn't need to be econ.

Beyond that, no. Neither is worth doing. It's just spinning your wheels instead of getting started.

You certainly don't need either for grad school in polisci, though your interests argue more for phd programs in the US than in Canada. Phd programs in polisci will assume that you took and remember some algebra, and start from that basis. Most of them in the US run coursework up through maximum likelihood estimators or bayesian estimators, depending on who's there. If you're at a program where using econ-style analytical tools is acceptable, they will have their own classes on different types of rational-choice methods.

I haven't been through a policy program, but they're much the same in that they'll start from a baseline of no-statistics and little to no exposure to college econ and teach you the stuff you need to know.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:43 PM on August 26, 2020

BA in poli sci (international relations emphasis), graduating in 04.

Do you already have the math credits to graduate with a bachelor of science?
posted by Fukiyama at 5:41 PM on August 26, 2020

My economics degree has never helped me but I use what I learned in my economics classes every day of my life.

Also, now is a super shitty time to graduate. If you can, I would stay in school another year regardless.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:46 AM on August 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Beyond that, no. Neither is worth doing. It's just spinning your wheels instead of getting started.

In fall 2020, is that really such a bad thing?
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:42 AM on August 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

If you think you can get into an appealing, fully-funded graduate program now, taking those classes while in grad school is an option worth considering. It might cut the number of other required classes and save you both time and money.

(I'm in a very different field, so treat my answer with skepticism. But, either of your options are things I'd only advise to students who are otherwise very unlikely to get into a program that will make them happy. And then with caution. If you're thinking of jobs rather than grad school. . . I have no idea and you should ignore everything I say.)
posted by eotvos at 5:02 AM on August 28, 2020