Krannert School of Management
Economics Master of Science (MS) Degree for Purdue PhD Students
The Department of Economics at Purdue University's Krannert Graduate School of Management offers a non-thesis Master of Science degree in Economics to students who have been admitted into a Ph.D. program at Purdue University. For Economics Ph.D. students, the requirements for this degree are typically met after the third semester in residence. However, the MS in Economics degree has also been awarded to Ph.D. students in the Management Ph.D. program, as well as to Purdue students in other doctoral programs, such as Political Science, Mathematics, and Statistics.Degree Requirements
A student who is enrolled in a Purdue Ph.D. program is eligible to apply for, and receive, a non-thesis Master of Science degree in Economics upon completion of a minimum of 30 credit hours of courses in the doctoral program. Departmental and University requirements for receiving the Master of Science degree include:
- The student must declare his/her intention to earn the M.S. degree and file a formal M.S. plan of study in the Purdue University Graduate School prior to the start of the semester or summer session in which the degree is to be conferred.
- The student's M.S. plan of study must include a minimum of 30 credit hours of courses in the approved Ph.D. program in Economics. The standard list of courses is the following: Econ 606, Econ 608, Econ 615, Econ 607, Econ 611, Econ 670, Econ 609, Econ 612, Econ 671, Econ 610, Econ 614, and Econ 672. These 12, 2-credit first-year courses provide 24 of the 30 required credit hours. The remaining 6 credit hour requirement can be met by taking any Ph.D. level Economics or Management courses. The plan typically cannot include courses offered by the Krannert Graduate School with a number below 600 (one exception noted for Ph.D. students outside Krannert is Econ 511). It may include approved 500-numbered courses taken in another department of the University. Courses taken to fulfill another Master's degree program at any school may not be included.
- A student's M.S. plan of study in Economics must include an advisory committee consisting of three members of the Economics faculty. (A separate plan of study/advisory committee will be filed for the Ph.D. degree.)
- Only grades of "A", "B", or "C" (including minuses) are acceptable in the courses listed on the student's plan of study; "Pass/No Pass" grades are not acceptable. The student must achieve a graduation index of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in all courses taken in his/her graduate program.
- Exceptions to the above M.S. plan of study must be approved by the Economics Policy Committee. For Purdue University PhD students other than those in Management, admission into the MS program is determined by ad hoc MS admissions committee consisting of the instructors of Econ 615, 606, 607, 670 and 671. This committee decides admission based on whether the background of the student is suitable for the program. The student may request the addition to this committee of a professor from their Department to provide additional insight into the student's ability and training, as well as to identify specific courses outside Economics that could be counted toward the degree. Exceptions to the standard requirements previously approved by the Economics Policy Committee allow one to replace up to 10 required credit hours from the set of courses Econ 607, 608, 609, 611, and 612 with the same number of credit hours from other Ph.D. courses in Economics, with at least 2 credit hours of the replacement courses involving an Econometrics course (e.g., Econ 673 or Econ 674). The 6 credit hours of electives can be satisfied by taking appropriate graduate level courses in Economics as well as in fields outside Economics, including Management, Political Science, Mathematics, or Statistics. Such a plan allows the student to focus on microeconomics, econometrics, and topics in a discipline related to Economics. An example of such a plan of study is the following:
a) 8 credit hours of Economics courses in microeconomic theory: Econ 606, Econ 615, Econ 610, and Econ 614;
b) 8 credit hours of Economics courses in statistics/econometrics: Econ 670, Econ 671, Econ 672, and Econ 673 or Econ 674 (or approved substitutes);
c) 7-8 credit hours of courses other than ones taken to fulfill requirements A and B drawn from the set of Ph.D. level courses offered by the Economics faculty. Courses could include the 3-credit microeconomic course Econ 511 taken as preparation for Econ 606 and advanced Economics PhD field course sequence (in part or the entire sequence), such as Econ 620/621/631 (Industrial Organization), Econ 634/635/636 (International), Econ 676/677/650 (Information and Uncertainty and Labor), or Econ 685/686 (Experimental);
d) 6-7 credit hours drawn from approved graduate level courses outside Economics, including Management (e.g., PhD level courses in Finance), Political Science (e.g., PhD level courses in Political Economy), Mathematics, or Statistics.
Approved by Economics Policy Committee, October 16, 2009