What to get a masters in?

Anybody here who did journalism undergrad and got a masters in something else?

If so, what?

 

Well, I did communications undergrad, and thought I was heading in that direction.

 

I got a master's in urban affairs, which was basically a mix of urban planning and economic development. That was with an American Studies major and a journalism minor for undergrad. So, no particular prerequisites. I took basically no math in college, and the only thing I needed to do catch-up work on was statistics, but it's not a stats-heavy field unless you want it to be.
After I finished I went back into the newspaper biz, and today I write about economic development. But I could just as easily have gone to work in one of several related fields (and I still might). It's pretty interesting stuff if you're in to cities and how they work and function as economic entities, or want to be a developer, or dig GIS and mapping.

 

-bating.

 

The way I see it, I'd have two options:journalism (which would mean I'd teach it at the college level ... at my former shop, I did a LOT of mentoring) or history.

I'm an avid history buff. When I was in eighth grade, I think I might have done enough research on the War of 1812 to write a graduate paper on it.

 

I recently got my bachelor's in economics, 2 1/2 years after giving up on journalism. That has netted me a job as a valet in this economy and I'm damned happy to have the valet gig with more bad news on the economy out every day.

That said, I have worked a lot with the alumni career center at the university I graduated from. I mentioned grad school to the counselor, a guy who has been through a few career changes himself and a guy whose opinion I respect. His advice on grad school: Pretty much what BYH said. Unless you have decided on a position you want and that position you desire definitely requires a master's, you are wasting your time and money going to grad school. He should know: He got a master's in HR in 1997, worked in insurance claims for a decade and is now doing career counseling. Never used that master's in HR!

As for suggestions: My econ degree was from the university's policy school, so I thought about either a master's in econ or public policy. Both are very interesting and the M.A. route for econ wouldn't be horribly math intensive. History and political science (my undergrad minor) also seem to complement newspaper types.

 

Could one get a master's in golf course management and then get hired at Augusta?

 

An education unlike any other.

 

Outstanding.