Int. Pol. Economy vs. Development Studies (LSE v. Oxford)

[Ricarda]

I have been accepted into LSE's MSc in International Political Economy and Oxford's MPhil in Development Studies. I have pretty much made up my mind about going for Development Studies since it more closely reflects my academic interests, and has the emphasis on research that I would like for my degree.

My dilemma comes when I think of career prospects. I am not immediately interested in pursuing a PhD right after my degree, and I would like to work for a few years beforehand (with NGOs / Int. Org. most probably). My experience with the development industry is that competition is fierce for underpayed jobs. Although I am fine with that, I wonder how many years I can resist. Hence I ask myself:

1) Will I be able to switch industries with a Masters in Development Studies, i.e. will I be able to switch to business/consulting, other, if I get tired of the development milieu?

2) How important are the MSc "titles" when it comes to this? I am interested in the political economy of oil-rich countries and energy security and hence I would be doing similar things in both programmes (the MPhil would actually give me a better training in methodology which is pretty cool).

Both schools are excellent, and both have equal reputations (this is more a concern to employers than it is to me). I know I could not go wrong either way. But in all honesty I would just like to hear: "they won't care about the title of your Masters, the Oxford catchet will hold it for you if you eventually want to switch to business/consulting".

Thank you for helping with this rather spoilt choice

Ricarda

Edited March 25, 2011 by Ricarda