(N/C?) Need thoughts on applied math MS

[Subfallen]

(1) If I want to go into research, but I'm not sure of which field, can going for an applied math MS be a bad move? My current math background is sparse (only up to Cal3), so I would need probably a year of remedial work as well.

(2) What sort of schools can I consider applying to? I'm 22, I finished a MS in computer science from a state school two years ago. But I only worked 6 months before (nearly) going crazy and quit my job to play poker. So my resume has a gap...I had 4.0 in all coursework undergrad and graduate, and I scored 800/750 quant/verbal on the GRE.

[gumpzilla]

What is applied math? I have no idea what a master's in that would entail, and I'm not sure what sorts of serious research you'll be able to do with only a master's degree in a field likely to be irrelevant to whatever it is you end up wanting to do.

I think this is probably a fundamentally wrong way of going about things. Research is hard, and if you don't have a pretty big boner for whatever it is you're going to be studying it's going to be very hard (and usually discouraging) to swing. So going in deciding you want to do research without a clue as to what it's going to be in seems like it's asking for trouble. My recommendation would be to try some other jobs before you go back to grad school.

[Subfallen]

Yeah, that was a poorly constructed OP. To make it clearer...

I am very certain I want to do research in the hard sciences. I am just not certain precisely which. Biotech, nanotech, genetics, neuroscience, etc...in the end I'm sure I would be happy tackling problems in any such field. But no one area really stands out for me.

The only thing clearly in common among all these fields is that they demand waayy more math than I have. So it seems that I can't go wrong by attacking that root deficiency as quickly as possible, right?

Meh, maybe this belongs in psych. Probably most of my schoolgirlish confusion comes from the first tastes of daring to imagine I could possibly do something worthwhile. Most of my life I have had self-esteem problems, to put it very mildly.

[Jcrew]

Are you planning to get your Phd in another field?

Edit: I'm not sure if I would spend your time getting an MS in Applied Math unless it is your direct interest. Maybe spend some time taking one or two math classes(maybe universal applicable classes like linear algebra, probability and statistics) and take the time to research particular fields you are interested in. Also many of these quanty graduate programs have courses built into them that teaches the particular maths you need.