zenislev

I like this idea ... I take it there are set times of the year when one can sit the A-level exams?

Haha ... this is sage advice. Well Mark_B, your plan is so wonderfully intricate I feel I should follow it out of courtesy! Seriously though, thanks. You're clearly a UNE fan! Anyway, nothing against Australian unis, but I intend to make my life in Europe or the US and I feel as if an Australian education may be looked down upon a bit. I could be wrong and I'm not ruling out anything. If it means getting the education that I want, then I'm more than happy to move back for a time. @Nassau, I had no idea there was such a thing as a non-degree-seeking student, but I had heard that US unis allow people to take subjects piecemeal. Does that mean you enroll at the uni, but not in any specific degree?

Hey all, I posted a thread here earlier about wanting to get into an economics PG Dip … but since then my research has led me to some disturbing and unhappy conclusions and I thought I'd make a new thread about it. Anyway, the story is this: I went to high school in Australia and did really well (top 5%.) At the time I didn't really like maths and the school system allowed me to drop it in favour of advanced humanities subjects … big mistake. Anyway I went on to do a very competitive double-Bachelor of Arts that took 5 years. In this time I more or less realised that the course content wasn't for me and I wanted something more empirical … and, y'know, the prospect of actually getting a job one day. I figured I'd try out economics, since what I experienced of it seemed interesting and I liked it's broad applicability on the job market. I'm living in London now so I went ahead and started researching degrees in the UK. At first I thought about doing a PG Dip at somewhere like Warwick or Nottingham in order to get into an MSc. Turns out I'm pretty much screwed without A-level maths… Okay, what about doing a second bachelor's? Well it turns out in order to get into a decent bachelor's degree, I need A-level maths too. And the only way I can justify spending another 4 years of my life studying is if I'm going to a good uni that'll look nice on my CV (and getting a good education too …) There appear to be standalone A-level maths courses out there, but how much is too much? I mean, I'm 24 now. How much time am I going to have to invest in order to get into an economics program at a top 10 uni? Doing A-levels and then a BSc? Can I deal with the indignity of studying among a bunch of spotty teens? After today's run-in with reality I'm beginning to wonder whether it's worth my time and energy making the transition to economics. Perhaps I'd be better off going into law or business - at least those I can get into without going back to high school! What are my options here? Is there something I've overlooked? Are there perhaps decent universities in other countries (anything but Australia!) that don't expect you to be Professor McMaths in the first year? Is a career in economics worth me spending all of my 20s studying? (which isn't so bad - I like studying and I've got enough money - but what about the ol' CV?) Am I catastrophising this? Thanks for reading my rant. I'm feeling very lost right now. Any advice would be appreciated.

@MicroMacro, whether I have the time? Well I'm 24. Is it terrible to be finishing uni and getting into the job market in your late 20s? Money is not an issue and I'd really like to learn heaps of economics and maths (I say this now, I may hate it in a year) as opposed to just getting a degree. I'd love to get stuck into the maths right now. What would you recommend? Taking some kind of course or just self-teaching via the internet? @jaimelannister, I'm based in London now for personal reasons. But, yeah, the G8 have a pretty good rep internationally and I wish I'd chosen one of them for my undergrad. Grrr ... damn UTS seducing me with free airfares!

That's a great idea, jaimelannister, but I can't imagine any of the units I did in my BA counting towards a BSc... Unless credit transfer works differently to how I image?

I'm sure the GD at Cambridge is wonderful, but sadly I don't have the grades for it. That leaves Warwick, Bristol and Nottingham, which I hear are pretty decent for economics. They all have 'proper' PG Dip/GD programs that may lead to MSc's at their respective unis. Now my concern is that even these unis will reject me on the basis of not having A-level maths. I'm sure it's just a case of taking a few remedial classes in order to patch up that hole, but where? Birkbeck? Open U? Also, as MicroMacro suggests, the content of a PG Dip will be too advanced for a humanities interloper such as myself. Maybe I should take a year's worth of maths before beginning my economics adventure. But yeah, I can't seem to find any 1-year programs for someone with no maths background...

Thanks for clarifying MicroMacro. If the GradDip is insufficient to get into (and cope with) a top or even decent MSc, what additional quant preparation would be necessary/recommendable?

Thanks for the awesome response Mark_B. I like the university of London external DipGrad in Econ, but it's a distance learning course and I'd prefer to have some face time as well. City of London College offers a non-Grad Dip in Econ which is actually taught. What's the difference between the GradDip and the non-Grad Dip? And is the Diploma enough to get me access to a decent MSc afterwards? I actually was thinking very seriously about the DipEc at Warwick (Cambridge is a bit of a long shot), but I'm afraid I don't have the required maths knowledge since I managed to wheedle my way out of maths in the last year of high school (by taking advanced english and history) ... never thought I'd regret that. Anyway I might need to take a refresher or bridging course in maths. I can't seem to find much on the internet though ... anyone aware of a good course in London?

[i was advised to repost this in the econ PhD section. My apologies if I'm wrong here] Hey all, I've got an undergraduate double degree in humanities (nothing quantitative whatsoever) from UTS in Australia. I want to transition into economics and would like to eventually take the MSc in Economics at LSE. The entry requirements include at least a year of calculus and statistics. Right now I'm looking into graduate diplomas in economics that will give me the background I need to apply at LSE afterwards. I was considering SOAS but then found out that they may be a bit too political-economy-ish with not enough quantitative maths stuff. What are the better places to take the graduate diploma in the UK and which ones will include or at least offer enough calculus and statistics? Cheers

Cheers Norsker, I'm not after a PhD but I get your point :)

Hey all, I've got an undergraduate double degree in humanities (nothing quantitative whatsoever) from UTS in Australia. I want to transition into economics and would like to eventually take the MSc in Economics at LSE. The entry requirements include at least a year of calculus and statistics. Right now I'm looking into graduate diplomas in economics that will give me the background I need to apply at LSE afterwards. I was considering SOAS but then found out that they may be a bit too political-economy-ish with not enough quantitative maths stuff. What are the better places to take the graduate diploma in the UK and which ones will include or at least offer enough calculus and statistics? Cheers