A major change: stay the course or Economics?

[eotb109]

I just graduated with a music degree this past August, and in the end I found the experience hollow, as far as overall interest and intellectual rigor, and I'm also obviously having problems with finding work; not just in my field, but in any field. The normal lack of demand for my specialties was further compounded by recession and all that. Naturally I thought it would be a good idea to apply for grad school, but now I'm having second thoughts. I was going to apply for some interdisciplinary programs (American Studies/Musicology and other sorts of Humanities and history-related subjects), thinking I could blend my interest in music with my interest in history and social science, but I just found that these programs were inherently flawed for various reasons (such as not having enough quantitative analysis and usually possessing certain ideological agendas). On top of all that, these degree programs really only prepare you for life as an academic, and I have more desire to do research and analysis sorts of things than teaching, and I really don't want to go out into a market where the highest position I can hope to attain is as an adjunct in a college where my position could be easily swiped away from me at any moment.

The one social science which I've always seemed to gravitate towards is economics: I'm really interested in it and it seems like the practical and grounded choice. The only thing is that in my undergrad I didn't have to take any rigorous math courses, so I was thinking of just going ahead and taking Calculus I-III and Linear Algebra at the local college near me, and some Econ pre-reqs, so I can apply for MS/Ph.D programs in Economics, I'd just have to take the next year off. Given my bigger interests (not teaching and wanting a career more aligned with research, statistics, gov't/politics etc) and ambivalence towards my undergrad studies, should I make this jump or is it too rash? I may have answered my own question while writing this post, but I just thought I'd get some feedback from others who might have gone through something similar.

Edited November 11, 2009 by eotb109