Pro Choice

For the first time in the program thus far, the Master's students get to choose their classes for the next two terms. The power of our future is in our hands... sort of. I have to qualify that statement because in the next two terms there are two required classes which leaves only two open slots, and the Econ department has only three classes to choose from. Still, some choice is better than no choice at all, and we also have the opportunity to take MBA classes or environmental economics, but I'm basically ignoring those because I'm not personally interested in them. For the third termester (I'm never sure if it's a semester or term or what, but it's the time period between January and March), the required classes are the seminar and econometrics 2, and the Economics department is offeringSustainable Development, International Finance, and History of Economic Thought. I'm hoping to balance the left wing, dirty hippy economic theories of sustainable development with the pro-business, pro-trade, pro-efficiency theories of international finance. Although the history of thought class is definitely interesting and important, it just doesn't seem as practical as the other two might be - it's the sort of class that PhD students would take (and are required to take) but at this point I'm not interested in trying to get a PhD. That's another important choice that everyone else in the program has probably figured out already, but I'm kind of indecisive. Graduate school applications are due around the middle of December or January, which means if people want to apply to PhD programs, they should have already started asking for letters of recommendation and such. I've always been more interested in practical issues and seeing how things work in the real world (I'm part engineer), so I'm hoping to find a job at the end of this year. In the fourth term, the seminar class is still required, in addition to a research skills class. The Econ offerings are Econometrics 3, Health Economics, and Environmental Valuation.
For people considering the UNH Master's program: the options change each year, so if the classes I mentioned don't appeal to you, you might want to check the department and see what will be offered during your year. Also, don't forget the possibility of taking MBA classes or environmental, or even doing independent research. And if those don't interest you, you can always choose to do your Master's paper or econometrics projects on some other topic that does. Now I'm going to choose to work on said project, after being incredibly lazy during a fabulous Thanksgiving break.