Our online courses have weekly synchronous Zoom meetings – they are not asynchronous or self-paced courses. For a given course, the weekly synchronous Zoom sessions will usually be on the same night each week, sometime between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. (Washington, DC time zone). To avoid Zoom fatigue, the synchronous Zoom sessions are shorter than the dual 75-minute sessions in our in-person courses. Typically the synchronous Zoom meetings are two 60-minute Zooms somewhere within the 3-hour window. To make up for the shorter weekly class meetings, the online courses typically also have 2 or 3 asynchronous videos per week, of 10-to-15 minutes each. While all the courses do have some asynchronous content, none of our courses are fully asynchronous or self-paced. Students are expected to attend the weekly synchronous class meetings, and to engage with the instructors and their fellow students during those meetings. Students seeking fully asynchronous self-paced courses should not enroll in our program.
Students in our online program are able to take some of their courses in person if they like. Our Washington, DC program offers in-person courses on the same 12-week quarter-based calendar. It is not possible for students in our 12-week quarter based programs to take courses in the semester-based College Park program. But it is possible for students in our online program to take some courses in our Washington, DC location (and vice versa).
The online version of our program can be completed by students almost entirely remotely. However: Proctored in-person final exams are required in each of the first 4 core courses (ECON 641, 642, 643, and 644). All other requirements in these four courses can be satisfied remotely. All other courses in the program are fully online and do not have any in-person requirements. So students in the online version of our program are required to come to Washington, DC or College Park for the final exams in 4 of the 10 courses they take with us.
Many students take 2 courses per quarter and complete the entire 10-course program in 15 months (5 quarters). Students who take 2 courses per quarter need to come to College Park or Washington, DC for final exams at the end of their first 2 quarters. But there are no more in-person requirements in the final 3 quarters (9 months).
The academic calendar in our online program has four 12-week quarters per year (as in our Washington, DC program), rather than just two 15-week semesters (as in our College Park program).
A given 12-week course covers the same material at the same level of rigor as a 15-week course in our semester-based program in College Park. Since the 12-week courses compress the same amount of material into 12 weeks instead of 15 weeks, our 12-week courses require about 25% more work per week than the 15-week versions in our College Park program.
Students can begin the online version of our program in the fall (late August) or the spring (late February).
Typical Course Sequence in the Online Program (15-month plan)
| Fall / Spring | Winter / Summer | |
| First Term | ECON 641 – Micro ECON 643 – Empirical Analysis I | |
| Second Term | ECON 642 – Macro ECON 644 – Empirical Analysis II | |
| Third Term | ECON 645 – Empirical Analysis III And one of the following: ECON 670 – Financial Economics ECON 673 – Game Theory/Market Design ECON 674 – Economic Analysis of Law ECON 676 – Development Economics | |
| Fourth Term | Two from the following: ECON 671 – Health Economics (summer) ECON 675 – Environmental Economics (winter) ECON 677 – International Trade ECON 672 – Program Evaluation ECON 684 – Applied Time Series | |
| Fifth Term | Two from the following: ECON 683 – International Macro/Finance ECON 687 – Economic Applications of R Programming or any of the “3rd term” field courses not already completed |
View course descriptions and sample syllabi.
Core Courses (ECON 641-645)
ECON 641, 643, and 645 are offered every fall and every spring. ECON 642 and 644 are offered every winter and every summer.
Elective field courses (670 and higher)
Field courses are not always offered twice per year. Field courses tend to be offered once or twice per year, depending on student demand.
The first four core courses provide the key building blocks for the rest of the program. We want to ensure that students have truly mastered this material before they progress to subsequent courses where the core knowledge will be assumed. We believe the program’s academic integrity requires a significant portion of the grade in these foundational courses to depend on individual student performance in a time-constrained and proctored environment.
Conversations with employers who recruit our students indicate that an emphasis on integrity and core skills can be a valuable selling point for students and graduates on the job market. If our MS in Applied Economics Program’s students and graduates note in their cover letters and job interviews that the student assessments in certain key courses included proctored in-person exams, it will increase employer confidence in the quality of their degree.
Certain course sequences are better than others for students who wish to work in private business settings, rather than in government positions, or in other public policy analysis contexts. Students who do choose their field courses with private business applications in mind will also be well-prepared to earn the National Association of Business Economics‘ (NABE) Certified Business Economist (CBE) credential, in addition to our M.S. degree.
Our program has a partnership with the NABE, which makes it possible for the graduates of our program to sit for the NABE’s CBE exam (with a reduced exam fee) without needing to take the NABE’s own courses. The NABE’s CBE credential is something like a “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” for economists who work in private business settings, as many of our graduates do. A student membership in the NABE also offers many excellent networking opportunities for our students in the Washington, DC area – even before graduating from our MS program, or earning the NABE’s CBE credential.
Students who wish to prepare for the NABE’s CBE exam after they graduate should consider the following field courses: ECON 670 (Financial Economics), ECON 677 (International Trade), ECON 672 (Program Evaluation), ECON 684 (Applied Time Series Analysis), ECON 673 (Game Theory), ECON 683 (International Macroeconomics), ECON 687 (Economic Applications of R Programming). Note that this is 7 of the 11 field courses offered in our program, and students only need to take 5 field courses to earn our degree. Students wishing to sit for the NABE’s CBE exam after graduation should also plan to do some self-study related to some fields of specialization that they did not explicitly study in the courses they took for credit. Graduates of any good graduate program (like ours) will be in a good position to be lifelong learners who can productively study and learn more on their own well after they complete their formal education.
About half the students who graduate from the Washington, D.C. or online versions of our program complete the degree in just 15 months by taking 2 courses per quarter, as laid out above. The other half complete the degree at a slower pace, taking just one course in at least some of the terms. Many students begin by taking just one course per term and then increase their course load to 2 courses per term after they have established mastery of the initial core material. This is especially advisable for newly admitted students with weak or rusty calculus skills.
When a student begins with just one course in the first term, that course should be ECON 641 (Microeconomic Analysis). When a student begins with just ECON 641 in the first term, they can proceed as follows:
1st term: ECON 641
2nd term: ECON 642 (+ ECON 673 or ECON 674 if they wish to add a 2nd course)
3rd term: ECON 643 (+ a field course if they are a strong student)
4th term: ECON 644 (+ a field course if they wish)
5th term: ECON 645 (+ a field course if they wish)
Once a student has completed the 5 core courses (ECON 641-645) they can complete the full M.S. degree by also completing 5 field courses of their choice.
The University of Maryland’s Graduate School requires that students be enrolled in at least one course every term while they are pursuing their degree. Waivers to this policy are routinely granted as necessary. Leaves of absence are also possible under certain circumstances.