Students who are enrolled in the Ph.D. program can also get an M.A. degree en-route to the Ph.D. degree.

Students must complete the forms:

Application for En-route M.A. Degree

Application for Degree: M.Phil

General Requirements

Students must satisfactorily complete the following requirements, which are part of their doctoral training, before being awarded an en-route M.A. degree:

  1. Successful completion (with an average grade of B or better) of 40 credits of course work. This consists of 24 credits in six required courses, 13 credits in four elective courses, and 3 credits in a capstone project. Two of the elective courses must be selected from one of the fields of specialty in economics and must be completed with a minimum grade of B. The required courses and restrictions on the choice of elective courses are listed below; course descriptions are available on the Courses page. Syllabi for all courses are available upon request.
  2. The Capstone Project is a research/writing requirement that can be satisfied with (a) an Independent Research course (ECON 89800) to be supervised by doctoral faculty that yields an acceptable Master's Essay, or (b) a course selected from field specialty courses offered by the Ph.D. Program in Economics at the CUNY Graduate Center that yields an acceptable research paper. In both cases, two members of the doctoral faculty in Economics and the Executive Officer in Economics must approve the paper.
  3. The requirements for this en-route MA degree must be completed within three years unless a delay is approved by the Executive Officer.

Course Outline

Courses Credits
Required courses(i)  
ECON 70100: Microeconomic Theory I 4
ECON 70200: Microeconomic Theory II 4
ECON 71100: Macroeconomic Theory I 4
ECON 71200: Macroeconomic Theory II 4
ECON 82100: Econometrics I 4
ECON 82200: Econometrics II 4
Elective courses  
One applied econometrics course (ii) 4
Two courses in a field of specialty (iii) 3+3
One free elective (iv) 3
Capstone project (v) 3
Total credits: 40

Notes:

i. The required courses overlap fully with the first year of doctoral education in the PhD Program in Economics. These courses lay the foundation of graduate training in economic theory and in econometrics. Detailed course descriptions are available on the Courses page.

ii. The applied econometrics course must be either ECO 82300, Applied Microeconometrics, or ECO 82400, Applied Macroeconometrics. These courses deepen the training in econometrics with an emphasis on the sets of tool that are often used in applied research in either micro- or macroeconomics.

iii. The Economics Program offers the following fields of specialty:

  • Applied Econometrics
  • Economics of Human Resources
  • Financial Economics
  • International Economics (including Development Economics) 
  • Macro and Monetary Economics Theory and Policy
  • Public Economics

Permitted courses in each field are listed on the Courses page. Courses selected for the field specialty must be completed with a minimum grade of B.

iv. The free elective must be selected from field specialty courses offered by the Ph.D. Program in Economics at The Graduate Center.

v. The Capstone Project is a research/writing requirement that can be satisfied with (a) an Independent Research course (ECON 89800) to be supervised by doctoral faculty that yields an acceptable Master's Essay, or (b) a course selected from field specialty courses offered by the Ph.D. Program in Economics at The Graduate Center that yields an acceptable research paper. In both cases, two members of the doctoral faculty in Economics and the Executive Officer in Economics must approve the paper.