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I am thinking of getting a Urban and Regional planning Degree over a business degree in accounting or finance. Any goons have this degree or work in the field that could give me some input?
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Oct 21, 2015 19:42
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 18:45 |
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I graduated with a planning masters in 2013, along with a JD, and I work as a planner for a Midwestern college town. What do you want to know? And are you looking at undergrad or grad programs? I'm the only practicing planner I know of on SA but I know another guy just started his masters program. I'll send him a PM and see if he's interested.
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Oct 21, 2015 22:35
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Luckily my local School has both a BA and a Masters accredited program. So I would get my BA first and then see if the Masters is needed. http://www.ewu.edu/cbpa/programs/urban-regional-planning The Live in NE Washington and love the area and would like a Job I could stay there doing. I was wondering on how the job market is and how long it took to get a job. Do you get to go outside and have a good mix of office and outside time? I am going to Start at the Community College this winter since I am 33 and its been so long since High School I need some refresher classes. The School has a direct business transfer that would not have the right prereqs for planning and I can get a general direct transfer with the right prereqs for planning. I got about two months to decided. I just wanted some input from people who are doing the job.
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Oct 21, 2015 23:18
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Uziduke posted:Luckily my local School has both a BA and a Masters accredited program. So I would get my BA first and then see if the Masters is needed. This is a good way to do it. My undergrad degree was not a planning degree; in fact, I didn't know planning was a thing til I was already in law school. The university I attended for law school happened to have a planning graduate program, so it was relatively simple to pick up the joint degree. However, my planning school also offered an undergrad planning degree. I and several of my classmates felt that the undergrad planning curriculum prepared students for planning careers more than the grad curriculum did. Their coursework was more applied, whereas the grad coursework was more theoretical. When I think about what courses were really helpful to me as a practicing planner, I put a few law school courses (e.g. Land Use Law, State and Local Gov't Law) above anything I took in planning school. Is EWU like this as well? I have no idea. But I would suggest trying to learn if the curriculum is more practice-oriented or theory-oriented. The latter is good if you want to work as a researcher. If you want to be a planner though, search for the former. Uziduke posted:I was wondering on how the job market is and how long it took to get a job. Unfortunately I don't really feel qualified to answer the first part of this question. I was very fortunate in that the department I was interning with just happened to have an opening right when I was graduating. It was the only job I applied to and I got it. If I had not gotten the job, I would have gotten to test the job market waters, but as it was I had an uncommonly easy job search. One way to improve your odds with job hunting is to get as much internship experience as possible. Maybe Washington is different, but here in the Midwest there's a definite "it's not what you know so much as who you know" element. This is especially true after a few years of work. Even if your first job isn't ideal, try to go to your state conference and continue to meet people. It will help you later on if you want to jump ship to a different agency. Uziduke posted:Do you get to go outside and have a good mix of office and outside time? Depends on the kind of projects I have at the time. For example, a couple years ago I was the project manager on our city's first Pedestrian Plan. For the first couple months of the process I was outside a lot since we were gathering info on existing conditions, running public events where we would walk in different neighborhoods, etc. Later in the process I was inside a lot because I was compiling data and laying out the document.
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Oct 22, 2015 13:09
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Here is the cool and good BYOB urban planning thread which everyone should read and contribute to: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3716050
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Oct 22, 2015 13:14
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Thank you for your input. My wife wants me to do general business, since there is more jobs for it. I really think planning is what I want to do. From a young age I played every city/empire builder I could find. I also look at every highway system and think how I would of done it better.
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Oct 22, 2015 15:47
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If you're interested in it, I definitely recommend pursuing it. It's a fairly versatile degree and you should pick up some skills that are marketable outside of planning (e.g. GIS, Adobe Creative Suite, finance/budgeting, etc.). Word to the wise though, avoid this: Uziduke posted:From a young age I played every city/empire builder I could find. I also look at every highway system and think how I would of done it better. in any personal statements you write when you apply. Not because they're bad reasons to be interested in planning, but rather that admissions people read dozens of personal statements on these themes and they get bored of them.
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Oct 22, 2015 18:43
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pig slut lisa posted:If you're interested in it, I definitely recommend pursuing it. It's a fairly versatile degree and you should pick up some skills that are marketable outside of planning (e.g. GIS, Adobe Creative Suite, finance/budgeting, etc.). All right thank you.
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Oct 22, 2015 19:49
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Do you already have a bachelors degree? I would definitely recommend trying to go straight to the masters program if so. It doesn't matter much what your bachelors is in and most everyone in the planning field has a masters. Probably just because so few universities offer a bachelors but everything I've read/heard about the job market leads me to believe a masters is pretty much required.
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Oct 22, 2015 20:59
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i am he posted:Do you already have a bachelors degree? I would definitely recommend trying to go straight to the masters program if so. It doesn't matter much what your bachelors is in and most everyone in the planning field has a masters. Probably just because so few universities offer a bachelors but everything I've read/heard about the job market leads me to believe a masters is pretty much required. I don't have any Degree's right now, I am just starting School for the first time. There is different classes I would take if I wanted to go for planning or general business.
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Oct 22, 2015 21:18
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Uziduke posted:The School has a direct business transfer that would not have the right prereqs for planning and I can get a general direct transfer with the right prereqs for planning. I got about two months to decided. I just wanted some input from people who are doing the job.
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Oct 23, 2015 01:16
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SiGmA_X posted:My CC also had this for business. It included roughly 6 classes (~2 terms) of useless classes not needed for a BA/BS. If you wanted an associates it would be useful, but if you're going for a BA/BS, I'd start planning the BA/BS credits needed and back into what CC classes to take. My CC has a direct transfer agreement with the State University so the classes I will take at the CC will = to the classes needed at the State University.
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Oct 23, 2015 15:46
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Make sure they transfer into the correct program though. Not just to the university.
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Oct 23, 2015 17:30
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Uziduke posted:My CC has a direct transfer agreement with the State University so the classes I will take at the CC will = to the classes needed at the State University.
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Oct 23, 2015 19:25
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The main issue now is do I want to do a job that makes a lot of cash and I would be okay with like accounting or do something like planning that I think I would like coming to work each day.
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Oct 26, 2015 19:44
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Define lot of cash. I'm a corporate accountant ("senior accountant") doing derivative accounting as well as misc investment accounting for a 3bn company with ~22bn in investment assets. The pay is not exceptional. With benefits I make around ~68k, 61k of that in cash, minimum bonus, and 401k match. I only have 1.5yrs of experience but most people at my grade have 5yrs+. My company also pays for CPA exams and material, and my bosses are all CPA's. CPA track is worth a lot more, and that's where I am heading, but you aren't a 22yo at a firm. You need to find the right company and right job to make it happen. AND enjoy accounting, have you taken the 100/200 levels yet?
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Oct 26, 2015 19:55
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I haven't taken any classes yet. I have real work experience with invoicing and some AR activity's that I am fine doing. My real concerns with planning are: I have to take a foreign language and business doesn't require that. The job market, I see so many jobs looking for accountants, but nothing looking for planning.
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Oct 26, 2015 23:41
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Well I can't talk about planning, but I can about accounting. If you can understand how it comes together (I work with a green accountant who took my first position with the company - and he loving sucks.) and have decent to strong logic processing and research ability for complex code stuff, you'll be good and move up quickly enough. There are definitely lots of jobs, but 'lots of money' isn't as prevalent as you'd hope. Best track for money is do 3-7yrs at a big4 firm, get your CPA, be smart, move to a senior financial analyst role at a public company and make just below 100k, or low to mid 100's, depending on person, job, and location. Check out the accounting thread. And take the first couple classes before picking accounting as a major - if you get pretty lost with debits and credits and account structure, put more time in and then find something else to major in. My coworker didn't do this last step  We all think his logic processor is broken.
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Oct 27, 2015 00:50
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I have an undergrad planning degree, which I earned in 2009. While it did get me job in a "hey, it's a job!" sense, the job(s) I had after graduating were not particularly related to my degree, and I could have gotten them had I gotten a degree in business, etc. I probably could have tried real real hard and maybe gotten an actual planning job, but such opportunities were very few at that time. Also, 65-75% of any planning jobs these days want a Master's degree. Undergrad planning programs are not terribly common and I don't know if employers are just not willing to "trust" them or what the deal is. But I do know that of the people I graduated undergrad with who actually went out there and did well for themselves, pretty much all of them got either a MUPP (Masters of Urban Planning & Policy) or an MPA (Masters of Public Administration) degree in the years following undergrad. My story: I went and started on an MPA after a few years of lovely jobs (emphasis: jobs, not a career) in transportation finance which I hated. Graduated last spring, and since then I've been working part-time (sens benefits) at a research center at the university where I held an assistantship while I was a student. After getting 25 hours a week since graduation, I was finally bumped up to full-time hours this past week, and due to one of the senior researchers leaving for a new job across the country, I've been told that full-time position + benefits will be following soon. In the time spent as a student while in the MPA program, I took a few classes which fell under the MUPP program (my university offered both under the same college). I found that most students in the MUPP program did not have Bachelors' level planning degrees. If you're thinking about this Urban Planning option, I think the degree you *really* need is at the master's level. Go ahead and get your bachelors' degree in something else, and if you still think Planning might something you'd like to pursue at the start of your senior year, start applying to grad school(s) before you graduate.
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Oct 27, 2015 04:44
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SiGmA_X posted:Well I can't talk about planning, but I can about accounting. If you can understand how it comes together (I work with a green accountant who took my first position with the company - and he loving sucks.) and have decent to strong logic processing and research ability for complex code stuff, you'll be good and move up quickly enough. There are definitely lots of jobs, but 'lots of money' isn't as prevalent as you'd hope. Best track for money is do 3-7yrs at a big4 firm, get your CPA, be smart, move to a senior financial analyst role at a public company and make just below 100k, or low to mid 100's, depending on person, job, and location. The Transferable business degree suggested schedule has account taken in the first two quarters, so I guess I would learn quickly if I liked it or not. I am one of the best researchers at my current place of work, even goes to me to figure things out. I sat with the accounting person at work a bit to watch what she did and helped clear some of the books, nothing she told me seemed over my head at all. Also so stereotype my own race, I am Jewish so I have a racial bonus to accounting.
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Oct 27, 2015 16:27
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I have a bachelors in a planning-related field, and I can confirm that a masters is pretty much required to get hired as a planner.
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Jan 21, 2016 08:40
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Drunk Tomato posted:I have a bachelors in a planning-related field, and I can confirm that a masters is pretty much required to get hired as a planner. Which is weird, because most of the actual planning related curriculum is undergrad. Masters is much more abstract/research/policy. Uziduke posted:I am thinking of getting a Urban and Regional planning Degree over a business degree in accounting or finance. Do not loving do this. 100% you should get the finance or accounting degree. Most people go into planning and think that they are eventually going to be playing SimCity. You will not. The vast majority of your work is reviewing developments for zoning and environmental compliance. It's largely really boring and about attention to detail. The problem is most of the fun parts of urban planning will be done by people with other degrees: Affordable Housing? Finance/MBA/Master of Real Estate Development Transportation? Sometimes planners but often engineers Environmental planner? Engineers and/or natural sciences Policy? Lawyers or Policy Urban Design? Landscape architects Budgets? Finance/Economics Planning positions are hyper competitive in the public sector, and most private planning positions are done by other professions.
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Jan 21, 2016 14:24
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You will literally have both higher compensation and job security with those other degrees.
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Jan 21, 2016 14:26
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Drunk Tomato posted:I have a bachelors in a planning-related field, and I can confirm that a masters is pretty much required to get hired as a planner. What part of the country are you in? The undergrads coming out of my alma mater in the Midwest seem to have done pretty well for themselves, at least in terms of finding entry-level employment.
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Jan 21, 2016 15:19
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My sister got a planning degree in the MidWest and found a job in North Carolina after looking for like a month.
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Jan 21, 2016 21:43
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pig slut lisa posted:What part of the country are you in? The undergrads coming out of my alma mater in the Midwest seem to have done pretty well for themselves, at least in terms of finding entry-level employment. Seattle area. I didn't have trouble finding jobs, but they were underpaid temp contacts until I lucked out with a job at a private sector civil engineering firm. I am a consultant at a bunch of government agencies through that job. Needless to say, I don't use my actual planning degree at all, except when I talk to people about urban design. Of my classmates, the only ones who got actual planning jobs were those who went on to get MUP degrees.
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Jan 21, 2016 22:03
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 18:45 |
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Sorry for being late -- I mostly lurk the forums these days. I have an M.A. in planning and an undergrad degree in creative writing. There are very few bachelor programs in planning and AFAIK a lot of them are just accelerated master's programs (or that is sort of the expected end goal). I would definitely do your undergrad in something else, take some master's level planning courses if you can, and then you can always go to grad school if you decide you really want to be a planner. But in the meantime you will have a good fallback, and if you want to do something that's not exactly planning the other degree will be more helpful. Planning is weird as a discipline because it is a lot of different skills and knowledge -- communication, writing, geography, history, economics, sociology among others. Which is why I like it, but makes it kind of weird to go to school for. I honestly knew a lot of what we covered in school already just from my personal interests, and many of my classmates had already worked in similar jobs, but needed to get the degree. It was helpful for me to make connections and get a lot of practical work experience, but I didn't really learn loads of stuff. Which I guess is like a lot of degrees. I work now for a government agency in transportation. I had to piece together a bunch of temp work for a year + before getting a permanent job so I wouldn't say the job market is great. A lot of it goes with the public sector and my state elected a new governor who put in a state hiring freeze just when I was looking for work, so I may have had better luck if I lived elsewhere. But I like my job now. One thing not really mentioned was that you usually get to focus on some aspect of planning in grad school: land use, law, transportation, community development, etc. So that helps you get a job in that specific area. I wouldn't say the post above about the "fun parts" of planning being done by people with other degrees is entirely accurate. Any other questions, let me know.
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Feb 21, 2016 15:34
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