My boss is encouraging me to get a master's degree. I am drawn to something data-oriented. The options I am considering are geography, statistics, or epidemiology. I expect to talk this over with my boss, but I welcome your insight. Wall of text inside.
I am now a data analyst with a recent B.S. in geography. I work at a research center in the United States that does work in demography and other areas, but we have a broad and fuzzy scope. We have started doing more health-related work, and that has potential to grow. I am 55 years old, so I may finish out my career here.
Because I work at a university, I would not need to pay any tuition or fees to take a master's program here. I would continue to work full time, and take just one or two classes per semester. There are no demography courses here.
My quantitative skills are moderate. I took a class in Quantitative Methods in Geography, and got a B-. I also took Spatial Analysis and got an A. My highest math classes were precalculus and trig. but they were about 20 years ago.
I use SAS regularly but am not super advanced with it. I have had a couple of classes using SPSS, but that has been some time back. I have also had basic Python training but forgot most of it already.
Because of something else that I am planning in a few years, I would very much like to be done with my program no later than the spring of 2023.
Geography
This is the only program for which I am immediately prepared.
The program is 30-35 credits. My school offers two concentrations: environmental studies or geographic information science. The latter is the more relevant to my work. This program allows one elective. Geography degrees are probably the most common among our staff members.
According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, jobs in geography are expected to grow about as fast as average, and the median annual pay is nearly $77,000 per year.
Statistics
For the statistics degree, I would need to take at least six classes first, which is not encouraging. This program is 32 credit hours. It does allow for some classes outside the department.
According to O*NET, job growth is expected to be 15 percent, much faster than average. And the median pay is about $84,000 per year.
Epidemiology
I think I am the most interested in this field. The degree is 42 credits, but it only requires one prerequisite that I don't have.
This degree would add a new perspective to the staff where I work. But then again, maybe that doesn't matter because other parts of the university have this area covered.
Their acceptance rate is about 50 percent (I don't know the rate for the other programs). If I decide to go for this, I would likely not apply until December 2019, for the class starting in 2020. In the meantime, I would work to have a stronger application. This means getting a better grade on a stats course, maybe volunteering in a medical setting, studying for the GRE, and starting a couple of public health classes to finish that semester, which would apply to my degree.
According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, median salary for epidemiologists is about $70,000 per year. Job growth is expected to be 9 percent, about average.
Rejected Options
A couple of programs that I considered and rejected are public policy and sociology. The sociology program recommends applicants have at least 12 credits in that field first. And the Occupational Outlook Handbook predicts growth of 0-1 percent. The public policy program is a lot more fuzzy and less analytical than suits me. |
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