Career counselling: Tips to pursue master’s in economics overseas

All you need to know about a career in economics outside India

I am pursuing BA economics from Indira Gandhi National Open University and I am also preparing for the Graduate Record Examination. I wish to pursue master’s in economics overseas. Will I get a job abroad with an open degree ­qualification?

US universities require 16 years of study so you will need to complete a 16th year of study after your three-year BA. (Shutterstock)

– Chetas Rao

Most universities abroad will admit students with qualifications from recognised universities, even if they are distance learning programmes. However, there are a number of other deciding factors, including good academic grades, high GRE scores, TOEFL (the English language test) in addition to other requirements.

As you are preparing for GRE, I presume you are looking for admission to a US university. Any application to a master’s degree programme at a US university requires a statement of purpose, CV/résumé, three academic references, official transcripts detailing your university-level qualifications and marks and English language test scores. US universities require 16 years of study so you would need to complete a 16th year of study after your three-year BA in economics. This could be either the first year of a master’s degree in economics in India, or any full-time course recognised by the University Grants Commission. You also need to keep in mind that the cost of a master’s degree programme abroad could range from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 50 lakh (including cost of stay) per year, and getting a scholarship is not always possible.

You can get all the information you require from study abroad websites.

Delhi University offers similar graduate courses for students of physics, chemistry and biology. Which one should I take up? Please help.

- DS Chhaya

When deciding on which course to take up, it is best to consider the subject or subjects you are most interested in, and what further study or career goals you wish to pursue. If you are looking for a career related to the medical or healthcare sector, the BSc bio-medical sciences is ideal. BSc life science and BSc biological science is a good course for a wider learning base, which can enable you to take up further study or research in any life science field, whether biotechnology, food and nutrition, pharmacy, environment science, genetics etc. The applied life science is a more practical course where you learn to apply knowledge from one or more natural scientific fields to practical problems.

If you graduate in this course, you can go into fields related to agriculture, ecology, waste management, polymer sciences, food industry, paints and plastics and many others.

(Send your queries at ­hteducation@­hindustantimes.com or to Career Counselling, HT Education, 1st floor, HT House, 18-20, KG Marg, New Delhi-110001. The columnist is director of Careers Smart, and author of the Penguin India Career Guides Vol 1 and 2)