What's with the Johns Hopkins MA?

[acaden]

To apply for this degree

 

- Intermediate macroeconomics and microeconomics are not required

- The GRE and GMAT are not required

- A student only needs to have taken one semester of calculus

 

What's going on here? I have no interest in a PhD, and as a terminal degree it seems very attractive if only for the brand reputation. But why are the stated admissions requirements lower than every other school out there, even the ones that have never appeared on any ranking of any sort?

 

I searched a year back and found one post saying "anyone" could be admitted, but which provided no further details or support for that statement.

 

Seems there are some JHU PhD candidates here, or at least applicants to the school. Anyone know about this MA program?

[Tenhik]

Are you talking about the MA in Applied Economics at JHU? Well, first of all, it's not an academic program what so ever. It's meant strictly for professional training, and is actually a professional degree program. Second, the Applied Economics MA is actually not offered by the JHU Economics department, but rather an applied econ department that's part of the school of professional studies (continuing education). The professors who teach the Applied Econ programs are only instructive faculty (except for maybe the director) who work at policy institutions and think tanks in the DC area.

 

Not to say it's a bad program; not at all. The faculty is apparently excellent, with PhDs from the better schools out there. Also, the amount of hands on exposure to practical uses of economics is apparently excellent, downplaying the theory in favor of real world application. It's apparently looked at very well by employers in the DC area, as well. However, they make no real claims to being and you shouldn't think of it as an academic program whatsoever. Why it doesn't have some of the stricter admissions policies of the other terminal MA programs, it just may be because of its continuing studies nature, but apparently it doesn't do much to hinder the program. However, if you already have advanced undergraduate training in economics, I don't think it's a good place to go to, unless you're strictly looking at developing your technical skills, of which it has a good amount of courses in metrics to take. I thought about applying there for a while, before I decided to kick my undergraduate training in high gear, but I'll likely choose another program for my MA.

 

Also, not apparently "everybody" can get in. I talked to the admissions guy when he came to W&M, and apparently their average GPA hovers around a 3.4. While easy to enter for most here, I don't buy that argument. Many of the MA programs, besides the most competitive to enter like Duke or NYU, have comparable standards.

[acaden]

The GPA info is very helpful to know, thanks.

[Dannyb19]

In some cases, PhD students from the Econ department teach in the program. For example, I will be teaching the Math Methods for Economists course during the summer and most likely next fall and spring. Another student will be teaching the intro to metrics course as well this summer. Not sure this is helpful information, but I thought I would share.