GRADUATE PROGRAM - REQUIREMENTS FOR THE M.A. DEGREE
Effective January 2008
The MA program offers 3 options:
- Under the Thesis Option, a student completes 30 credits including up to 6 credits for thesis research. The option therefore involves completion of 8 courses (24 credits) plus the major research project that constitutes the thesis. The Thesis Option is known as Plan A.
- Under the Technical Paper Option, a student completes 33 credits including up to 3 credits for research. This option therefore involves completion of 10 courses (30 credits) plus the more modest research project that constitutes the Technical Paper. This option is known as Plan B - Technical Paper.
- The Exam Option is intended for students wishing to proceed quickly through the Master’s degree and proceed to the PhD program. Under this option the student completes 33 credits of course work (11 courses) without a separate research project, but must successfully pass the PhD Qualifying Exam covering macroeconomic and microeconomic theory. This option is called Plan B - Exam Option.
At normal pace, the Master’s program requires 3 or 4 semesters of work. The detailed description of requirements follows.
Credit Requirements. Plan A and Plan B are available to students pursuing the MA degree.
Plan A (thesis) requires 30 semester credits including no more than 6 thesis (Econ 699) credits. Two Plan B (non-thesis) options are available. The Plan B/Technical Paper Option requires 33 credits including a technical paper and no more than 3 credits of Econ 699. The student presents and defends the Technical Paper before his/her advisory committee and this fulfills the Master’s degree final examination requirement. The Plan B/Exam Option requires passing the PhD Qualifying Examination covering macroeconomics and microeconomics. This fulfills the university requirement for the master’s degree final examination. Under this option, no Econ 699 credits are counted toward the 33 required credits. See below for a discussion of a thesis versus a technical paper and for information on the PhD examination in macroeconomic and microeconomic theory.
Students pursuing the MA degree under any of the three options must complete at least 21 of the semester credits required beyond the bachelor’s degree in regular Economics graduate courses numbered 500 and above. Regular economics graduate courses are those other than independent studies and research. An MA student may include a limited number of 400- level economics courses in his/her formal program of study (GS Form 6), but no 300-level courses may be included.
Core Courses. All students are required to complete Econ 504 (Macroeconomic Analysis I), Econ 505 (Political Economy I), Econ 506 (Microeconomic Analysis I), and Econ 535 (Applied Econometrics). Econ 501 (Quantitative Economics) is a prerequisite for the theory courses, and some students may already have its equivalent in their background.
Supervised College Teaching. Graduate Teaching Assistants are required to enroll in 3 credits of Econ 784 during their first semester. The credits of Econ784 can be applied to the GS Form 6 credit requirements for the M.A. or the Ph.D., but not toward both degrees. Non-GTAs can enroll in Econ 784 by arrangement with a faculty member. An agreement should be made with the faculty member prior to registration for that semester.
Electives. Beyond the core courses (and Econ 784 if applicable) and credits for Thesis or Technical Paper research, the student fills out the remaining credits with elective courses of interest. For Exam Option students, these include the PhD core courses.
Thesis or Technical Paper. The master’s thesis is a scholarly inquiry into an economic problem where the student performs independent, original research which contributes to knowledge and generally represents the application of existing theory to an empirical problem. The technical paper is a theoretical, applied, or descriptive scholarly inquiry into an economic problem. The technical paper is generally shorter than a thesis and involves less emphasis on original research than the thesis. A hard-bound copy of the thesis or a bound copy of the technical paper must be submitted to the department chair. It is customary that a copy of the thesis or technical paper is presented to the student’s committee chairperson. The thesis or technical paper format must comply with the standard specified in the Graduate School’s Thesis Manual and be approved by the department prior to binding.
Final M.A. Examination. For thesis and technical paper students, the final M.A. exam is their oral defense of the thesis or technical paper. When the student and his/her adviser and committee believe a satisfactory written draft of an M.A. thesis or technical paper has been completed, they will schedule a final oral examination. The Graduate Secretary must be notified at least one week before the desired date. The Graduate Secretary will arrange for a room and announce the date, time, and topic of the thesis/technical paper to all faculty and graduate students in the department. All committee members must be present at and participate in the examination. All graduate students and faculty are invited to attend the oral examination, however, the adviser chairs the exam and controls the extent to which those in attendance who are not on the student’s committee may participate in the examination. The results of the oral examination are reported to the Graduate School on form GS Form 24. Only members of the committee may vote on the success or failure of the candidate. This vote will be indicated on the GS Form 24 by the signature of committee members. All committee members must sign the examination form.
For Plan B / Exam Option students, the PhD Qualifying Examination serves as a common written Final MA Examination. When the exam committee has determined the results, the Coordinator of Graduate Studies will sign the GS Form 24 as chair of the examining committee.
Time Limits. Graduate School regulations require that courses to be applied toward fulfilling the requirements for a master’s degree must have been completed within the ten years immediately preceding the date of completion of requirements for the master’s degree. Of course, as indicated above, the Department has its own standards for satisfactory academic.
3 January, 2008
