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MSc Economics and Philosophy after Philosophy BA?

Hi guys, I will be studying philosophy at University of Nottingham in a few weeks, and have a quick question, but here are some details first. At Nottingham I have a lot of optional module choices from other schools/departments, and in total I can take 8 of these. If I were to take 8 Economics modules this would make my course almost exactly the same as a Philosophy and Economics BA at Nottingham.

I'm interested in doing a Master's, probably in something like Economics and Philosophy. A graduate with an Economics and Philosophy BA would obviously be quite suited to this Master's course, but, would a University offering this course consider an applicant such as me who would have taken a lot of quantitate economics modules? I'm worried that I wouldn't be considered, because at first glance a university would probably think someone doing philosophy hasn't studied much quantitative content.

So, in short, would I be considered for a Master's course which includes economics, even though my degree title doesn't include economics, but I will be taking a lot of economics modules.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Chris

Reply 1

username474976

Rather than doing straight Philosophy and then choosing all economics optional modules, why don't you just do BA Economics and Philosophy? (I just graduated from this course by the way, though at a different university, in case you have any subject specific questions). If there is no option for you to switch now then talk to your tutor within the first few weeks of starting BA Philosophy.

To answer your question though, admissions will look at your transcript to see what modules you have taken - they don't just look at the degree title! If they think you have sufficient economics/quantitative credits (and you have scored highly in them) then it should be okay. I presume you are talking about LSE's MSc Econ & Phil by the way, which is going to be particularly competitive and most applicants will come from an economics background. However, they do offer places with the condition of a summer session before starting the MSc so they may very well do that for you if you have a 1st class and strong economics results.

You may also want to consider these options if you cannot switch courses at Nottingham:

-Economics conversion course (graduate diploma) and then a Master's in the second year
-MA PPE at York
-Taking a gap year and getting on the course that would be more suited to your career plans, e.g. PPE, Econ & Phil/Poli, etc.

Reply 2

CrackerMuffin

Thanks for all the info/advice. Yeah, I was going to ask my tutor when I start if it would be possible to switch from straight Philosophy to Econ & Philosophy, as I would be taking very similar modules either way. I reckon it would be unlikely, as there are only 12 places on the course, but I'll give it ago anyway. But again, it wouldn't make too much difference to the actual content of my degree either way, due to the flexibility of my module choices at Nottingham.

I didn't know about about summer sessions before an MSc, so I'll keep that in mind when pursing this further.

Thanks

Chris