Hi everyone,
I'd like to pursue a masters in economics, aiming for a fulfilling career in a field which I have great interest in, and to ideally bump my income to $100k+.
I'm 27 y/o, have a journalism BA from Toronto's TMU (2021), and zero math background - I've been in touch with several Ontario econ masters programs, and have learned I'll require at least two years of part-time continuing education courses to meet competitive math and econ requirements (various calculous, linear algebra and stats/econometrics courses). With these in hand, when I'm about 29 or 30 y/o, I'm eyeing WLU's full-time Business Economics (MABE) program, particularly given its relatively short time frame (12 months), applied-focus, and strong co-op offering.
However: Research tells me that paying for the required math courses, and then funding a year of full-time study, could prove quite costly. I have very little savings today, and after paying for various part-time math courses, will likely have to take out another student loan to support myself during any 12 month full-time masters - in this case, combined with my pre-exiting bachelor student loan, I'd sit at about 45-50k student debt. Total opportunity cost would be north of 100k, summing forgone earnings, tuition and student loan debt. Given this opportunity cost, I'm wondering if I should just consider a less expensive, less time intensive credential.
I'm very passionate about quantitative measurements of peoples and businesses outcomes - this is why I got into journalism at age 17, without knowing the field I should be looking at is econ. I make $75k today as a business reporter/long-form sector data report writer - but I know my journalism degree has likely taken me as far as I can go on the economic analysis path without a new credential.
Any insight from someone who's been through something similar would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Edit for clarification: Today, my student loan debt is ~$24k. Post grad-school, I envision that to be ~$50k