Msc economics help

(I've posted this also in economics section, i don't know which is the right one, feel free to delete one of the two..)

Hello everyone, i need some advices on choosing my Msc course.
I'm italian (from Bocconi economics Bsc) and i'll get my degree next year, probably a first or borderline 2:1 equivalent of an UK uni.
My aim is to take a good Msc in UK (for various reasons) and eventually get a Phd somewhere.
My choices now are among UCL, Edinburgh, Warwick and Soas.
I's say i'm pretty good but not so much to apply in oxbridge or LSE. Also i don't plan to get a GRE.
I want to take a good Msc, but not excessively maths based. I guess that's also because i'm pretty disillusioned with many of the typical mainstream topics. That's why i'm also considering SOAS.

- In fact SOAS seems to be some kind of an heterodox department, which i would enjoy. But i wonder if SOAS msc is still a good program considering the lack of quantitative skills that probably i would find there? My idea is that maybe it would be better to get there later for the Phd, and now get a more "standard" Msc.
- As now i'm leaned a bit towards Edinburgh, which seems to be a good compromise between the necessity of good quantitative skills and the excess of analytical rigour. Plus edinburgh seems to be a good place to spend one year. The only problem is that it's difficult to see how really their programs are (i.e. the course description is pretty poor, for istance no reference book are listed).
- UCL would be good but i fear it's the most quantitative program i could get among these. Its main plus is that it's in London.
- Warwick seems to be good but honestly i don't feel like living in coventry (don't mean to offend anyone), it seems to be a really sad and foggy environment. I think that would influence my attitude towards uni and could affect my whole experience (and thus my courses results..). For that reason i didn't look so well into their Msc programs.

That's a bit confusionary and ridiculously long.. any more info? Are my ideas correct? A last thing: if i do a Msc somewhere would it be hard to get into a Phd somewhere else? I don't mean to do that in Ivy league or so... just i'm wondering about the relationships between the student and his department: always thought that you do phd where you did your msc but i'm probably wrong.
Thanks a lot everyone

Reply 1

Sasha_pt

I am afraid there is no other way to economics. All good universities in the UK have a similar MSc Econ degree structure, and all MSc in Economics are math oriented (which does not mean they are too demanding on the technical side, but it's not like a Management degree). You will study Micro, Macro and Econometrics +2 optional modules, meaning you will do optimisation, operations on matrices, application of probability theory etc.

Sorry, but you can't fool around.

Reply 2

Debraun

I'm doing already lots of optimisation matrices, probabilty, regression and so on.. and i know i will be doing that anyway (probably if i go to Soas i won't.... that's why i'm considering not to go there). I'm not fooling around.
But evn if i'm convinced too that Msc structure is pretty much the same i think that, even more in postrgraduate training, departments strenghts and interests will affect your teachings very much. So there are some full of econometricians in which maths is THE Subject you study.. and other in which maths is one of them. I hope it's clear what i mean. Am i so wrong?

Reply 3

Sasha_pt

Well, I can't speak for all MSc Econ degrees, but judging by their structures I can assume the content is similar. They mostly use the same books. The variability indeed comes from instructors and optional modules. Some courses use different books (e.g. Mas-Colel/Fischer are more challenging than Varian/Romer). Also the content of a course may vary depending on what the instructor likes more. However, this can vary a lot even within one university for different years!

There isn't any math teaching in these degrees apart from the introductory review weeks and occasional handouts on topics like Hamiltonians. Econometrics is technical, though.

There is a lot of application of basic math techniques to economic problems. This can be very difficult to comprehend, but the level of math is not necessarily that high. My background was 1 year of calculus, very weak background in statistics and that was pretty much it. I struggled a lot with econometrics, but in the end did well.

Reply 4

Debraun

Just to understand: Where did you do your Msc? My background in statistics and econometrics is (or will be) pretty deep for a Bsc. There's 2 courses of maths (including financial maths), 1 of stats, 1 advanced quantitative methods half maths half stats, and 1 only econometrics course. My point is not to avoid good further preparations in this fields. I just want to be sure that the primary focus is not maths..
But anyway my original questions were mostly on reputation of Msc programmes of the university i listed. How lower is Edinburgh Msc considered compared to UCL-Warwick?

Reply 5

Sasha_pt

I will PM you where I studied. Your background seems good enough. Honestly speaking, the amount of math you will get even at good schools for MSc in Econ will never be enough, if you're planning an academic career in economics.

So, regarding your 1st question, none of the degrees should be overly math-focused. Most (I'd say all) good MSc in Econ are rigorous, but are nowhere close to a math degree. Thus, you shouldn't worry about that, it will be very similar everywhere.

Regarding the rankings, it is very hard to judge to be honest. Here are research assessment results

http://www.rae.ac.uk/results/qualityProfile.aspx?id=34&type=uoa

which indicate that UCL or Warwick departments are better. But this is very, very speculative. Your choice should depend on different factors, in particular whether you're aiming for an academic career, on the areas you are interested in and so on.

Reply 6

Debraun

Well i'd say i'm interested in "deviated" micro:P I'd like to study how cooperation works from a microperspective but not only (i like very much the work of elinor orstrom for istance, or how can cooperation be stimulated). I agree it can mean pretty much everything... but i'm still undergraduate.
UCL dept seems to be very focused on micro, but looking ad edinburgh staff's interests i just felt that maybe it's better for me.. don't know why, maybe it's just a feeling.

Reply 7

Tarutaru

Debraun... SOAS is a heterodox school and its economic department is more political economy, or, more precisely Marxist economics.

Nevertheless, you will also learn standard mathematical and statsitical topics at the school, althouhg the content is much less mathematical and technical than that you would encounter in Warwick, Ucl, edinburgh etc msc courses.

you ont get deviated micro, but rather you will get more deviated macro as i heard and actually know many of the professors there are marxist. Some of them are very big in non-mainstream economics like professor Ben Fine (a guy with orthodox economics and mathematic background at Oxford) and professor Mustaq (a heterodox political economy star at Cambridge).

if you like political eocnomy and especially marxist economics then probably SOAs is the best place you can find in Europe XD

and to be honest, SOAs is ranked as 33rd by the Times, it was ranked 6th by the Times and FT in 1999/early 2000s, and consistently top 10 or even five by the guardian XD

Reply 8

jthb

Debraun, send me an email: jthb3(at)hi.is - I'll email you the latest Msc economics handbook (Course description and everything else you need to know) from Edinburgh

Reply 9

Sasha_pt

I am not so keen on micro. Afaik Ostrom is an institutional economist of some sort, and in her book that I have there isn't much micro that I learnt. If you are very interested in institutional economics, then this is a different matter. There are 2-3 institutional economics PhDs around the world, but I am not so sure what to do with these degrees.

As for UCL vs. Warwick etc. you should check which optional modules in advanced micro/game theory they offer, and which ones you find interesting. Simply browse course specifications and see for yourself what suits you more. Also look for distinguished microeconomists that teach the core & electives that you find worth pursuing. They will be often, but not always good teachers and referees for your future.

Reply 10

Debraun

@tarutaru I know them both and i read some of their works. I appreciate them and let's say i appreciate marxist economics too. But as you wrote, both went to study in great "orthodox" school (i guess at their time it was pretty different..). Then, knowing very well mainstream, they started to do heterodox works. I think they are also respected for that reason. If you graduate ad oxford or cambridge, you can be heterodox and well respected. If you graduate at soas i think it'd be different. I don't to be discriminated in the future.. and i fear that studying in soas would mean that. Am i wrong?
@jthb thanks. i mailed you.
@sasha Well as far as i know in edinburgh program they teach you evolutionary game theory, which is a thing that i would like to understand better. It seems to be pretty interesting. It doesn't seem to be taught at UCL, anyone knows more about it? And btw, i like what ostrom said about the governance of the commons. This doesn't make me a wannabe institutional economist:P
Thanks all :smile:

Reply 11

Tarutaru

dude, you amke the decision... Marxist economics is not recognized in the mainstream... but bare in mind, SOAS is not only strong in Marxist economics; this tiny school with only 4000 students is unique in the sense that many of th regional content you wont be able to learn elsewhere. And it is one of the very economic department offers MSc Development Economics

i dont think you will be discriminated against with a SOAS master as SOAS is quite well-known nationally and worldwide.

Reply 12

Debraun

Are you currently studying there tarutaru? Anyway maybe the point is also that i'm not so interested in regional studies or development. I mean, if you write on your curriculum Msc devolpment economics, and you're not interested in doing research in development it's probably not so worthy. I think that soas is probably awesome if you're interested in working in ngo, for istance in Africa.. but maybe not so much for research. For now, i think that if i choose to go there, i'd better do that after Msc..