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Could I do a Masters in Economics with BSc Political Economy?

I've been given an offer for Political Economy at King's College. Would I be able to progress onto postgraduate study in Economics with this? Would I be excluded from the top universities for it because I've not studied straight Economics?
Thanks guys.

Reply 1

A Wild Student

I'm in exactly the same situation as you are; got offered Political Economy at Kings and would like to do a masters in Economics (hopefully Oxford) and want to know if I would be at a disadvantage?

Reply 2

Trinculo

Nah, we don't have anywhere near enough Economics in the PolEcon degree, even the BSc.

No doubt you'd find a department somewhere that you could persuade to let you on (they want the students after all), but I think you'd really, really struggle.

Even if you've maxed out the economics options, you'd be well short of what a straight-up Econ student would have done. We also don't get offered Advanced macro, micro and econometrics at undergrad. I presume the MSc macro, micro and econometrics are higher than those advanced undergrad modules, if so, there's no way to bridge the gap.

Reply 3

IPEguy

Unfortunately not, I was in your exact position and didn't get in for that reason. You could however get onto an advanced diploma if you show maths skills via GMAT/GRE and get into MSc after that. Or if you were flexible its possible you could get into a Msc Finance if you showed interest and again some maths.

Reply 4

username2228735

Doubt it. There are some quality conversion courses you can do (think Warwick or the LSE). But if you know you want to do an MSc in Economics after graduating, I would recommend doing a BSc in the subject. You'll be much better prepared!

Reply 5

tutonic

What they want in a student of graduate economics isn't a necessarily a prior formal education in the subject (although it helps, greatly) but rather quantitative training. You have to realise that graduate economics is mostly math, severely contrasting the stuff we learn at the GCE A or even undergraduate level courses (barring, of course, advanced undergraduate economics courses).

Simply put, the school can teach you the economics but it wants you to demonstrate that you are capable of handling the maths. The best way to demonstrate mathematical prowess is by taking a quantitative discipline at undergraduate level. That's the reason why you sometimes see Physics, Math and Engineering undergraduates pursuing graduate study in econs at the top places.

However, if you absolutely love political economy as a field of study, you can choose to spend a year after graduation and do a graduate diploma in mathematics and score well in the modules so that you can demonstrate your mathematical ability.

Also, since most economics courses require the GRE, getting above the 90th percentile for the quant section can further boost your chances. That means you need to get 165+ for quant. In the event that the gre requirement is waived for you, it's still in your best interest to sit for it and get a good score since it'll only help your profile.