Admission

1. Applicants must have earned a four-year undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited institution or a recognized institution in another country whose requirements for the bachelor's degree are substantially equivalent to an American four-year bachelor's degree.
2. Admission to the program is based primarily on the applicant's grade point average (GPA) and background in economics.
3. For admission to full standing, applicants must have a GPA of at least 2.750 on a 4.000 scale overall and for all courses in economics and required mathematics.
4. Applicants must have completed principles of macro- and microeconomics, plus one course in statistics and one in calculus. Additionally, students must have completed (or complete within one year of admission) intermediate level macro- and microeconomics. (An approved course in money and banking may be substituted for intermediate macroeconomics.) A minimum grade of C+ (2.300 grade points) is required for the two intermediate level classes as well as statistics and calculus.
5. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is not required.
6. Non-native speakers of English must have received a minimum score of 550 on the paper-based, or 79 on the internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), or a minimum overall band score of 6.5 on the IELTS, or have a score of 58 on the PTE-Academic, or have attended another U.S. university as a full-time student enrolled in academic courses for a minimum of one year, or have earned a bachelor’s degree (or higher) from a U.S. university within two years of their proposed semester of admission.

Program Requirements

The program consists of 30 credit hours. This includes a 3-credit-hour independent research project. The graduate coordinator or the department chairperson must approve the candidate’s plan of study. Courses identified as background fundamentals of the MBA program and other courses designated by the economics department may not be included in the hours required for the degree.

At least 70 percent of total program credit hours must be at the 700–800 level. (The remaining hours may be at the 500–600 level.)

Applied Learning 

Students in the MA in economics and quantitative analysis program are required to complete an applied learning or research experience to graduate from the program. The requirement can be met by successful completion of ECON 893 Research Project.

The project requires students to demonstrate their ability to successfully apply the tools of economics to a research problem of their choosing and submit a paper to their project advisor.