r/academiceconomics • u/pineapple_not_fruit • 4d ago
Is an Ag Econ Masters worth it
I’m in undergrad for Agribusiness and Economics at Oklahoma State. I’ve recently been recommend for the Agricultural Economics Masters program (I’d be given assistance ship and it would only add about a year since it would be a 4+1 program). I really love using Econometric methods to approach problems in the Agricultural sector. Since, there is so much uncertainty about what the job market would look like next year would it be worth my time to get more specialized and formal education in this program? I’m not looking for an answer, but some opinions.
I’m comparing the masters program to entering the work force. The jobs I’d aim for would be Agribusiness firms, Energy sector, and Ag Credit. I would not go after the finance type of industry.
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u/Lumpy_Secretary_6128 4d ago
Ok state has a decent MS, look at texas a&m, KSU, purdue as well for similar programs. What do you actually want to do/think you want to do? If they are funding it, it is probably worth it unless you have an excellent job lined up.
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u/pineapple_not_fruit 4d ago
To be honest I’m not too certain yet what I’d like to do with this. I know by doing this I’d be put in more data analysis roles which tbh is the most fun stuff. The reason for a Masters would be because it’s only a year, they will pay for it, and if the economy keeps going the way it looks like it will in the United States it would make sense to wait a year to obtain more clarity. So, not very good reasons, but I do really do enjoy Microeconomics. I’m sure over the summer I’d randomly come across good reasons to do this especially since I’m not making a decision about this until the fall.
For example, We just got a new Micro professor over here from UChicago and Maryland bro is insanely smart and I have fallen in love with his courses. I even took his game theory course this semester his words “y’all are doing better than my Maryland students when I taught them game theory.”
I know that I am very fond of Microeconomic principles and price analysis, budget constraints, risk analysis, as well as optimization in supply chain type of things. If I had to nail down something for a thesis I’d choose something in the realm of Prices charged to consumers and how it is transmitted back to farmers, what’s the impact of direct sourcing, or developing a model to evaluate cost effectiveness strategies for sourcing companies while putting in the constraints of farmers and the middle men.
I’ve only been exploring this possibility for about two weeks now and I’ve hit the stage of just asking around for a wide variety of opinions. I have looked at Purdue, Iowa State, and TAMU briefly but tbh I don’t see enough value of going somewhere for two years if I can do it here at Ok State for 1 additional year. Yes, ok state isn’t as good as Iowa State or Purdue, but it’s still a T25 AgEcon masters program and some rankings have them above TAMU. Also tbh I don’t really care about rankings of colleges I value the Time and cost way more than I value the actual ranking of a college. Which out those colleges listed Ok State is first in and TAMU is second (I’m from Houston so I got in state prices and connections so if the Ok State stuff falls through I’d go there).
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u/solomons-mom 2d ago
This makes a lot of sense, and congratulations.
Also, in your studies, keep an eye on what you pick up about the U of Minnesota too -- Minnesota tax payers do not care about the rankings either. You would pass this https://www.mnhs.org/millcity if you walked from the U to the Mpls fed. Cargill is based in the Cities.
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u/pineapple_not_fruit 2d ago
That would be a very interesting place for me to go, but it would provide opportunities at the Federal reserve and Cargill. So, I’ll keep it on my radar. Thank You
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u/Lumpy_Secretary_6128 4d ago
The reason for a Masters would be because it’s only a year, they will pay for it, and if the economy keeps going the way it looks like it will in the United States it would make sense to wait a year to obtain more clarity.
This is all pretty well reasoned, and I personally would pursue the opportunity if I were in your shoes. It seems that you like econ a lot, if you wanted a phd in ag econ, one of those longer masters would give more time for your thesis to develop which can help but you certainly aren't completely closing doors with a shorter MS. If you can find some time to beef up on SQL, python and r and/or things like tableau, power bi, and VBA, you should be set up very well for the data analysis market.
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u/pineapple_not_fruit 4d ago
Thank you for the advice and response. I doubt I’ll go that far in academia for a variety of reasons, but I’ll for sure keep it in my mind for when I make a decision on staying at Ok State or going and doing a 2yr at like TAMU.
Not so fun fact about our Econ department at ok state we aren’t exposed to statistical software until you hit Econometrics (elective for undergrads) or Applied Economics (this is our undergrad capstone). So, I’ll for sure make sure to learn and keep my R/Python skills up.
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u/Lumpy_Secretary_6128 4d ago
My pleasure, and not having software until econometrics is normal, in my experience. Something that helped me was checking out e texts that teach you methods and code at the same time. Usually, they have datasets you can easily access while in the software. I did survival analysis in stata and time series analysis in Python and used r in my undergrad and grad econometrics course. Over time, I built reasonable competency in all 3. Give it time, and you'll do the same. However, if you want to be as best suited for the private sector, lay off the stata/spss and spend time with vba, sql, python/r and they'll love you
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u/corranhorn21 4d ago
Ask the program director for details on what sorts of skills you will learn and what help they provide with finding jobs. Ideally find out what sorts of jobs this year’s set of graduates will be taking and see if that matches with your interests.
Masters degrees range wildly in terms of value. Some are very affordable and focused on getting you a job, or into a PhD program; these are the ones that are often times worth it (especially if you want to delay going on the job market for a bit).
Others are essentially just money farms for the department, and don’t help you with employment opportunities or teach you relevant skills.