College Park location
1102 Morrill Hall
Program Coordinator:
Currently vacant
(301) 405-3557 CPmasters-econ@umd.edu
Washington, DC location
1400 16th Street, NW
Suite 140
Washington, DC 20036
Program Coordinator:
Herman Byrd
(202) 525-4308 DCmasters-econ@umd.edu
Program Highlights
Our
Program Ranked #1 in the US
For the 3rd year in a row, our program has been
ranked #1 in the US according to the TFE
Times' 2022 ranking of Top Master of Economics Programs.
The annual ranking of economics master's degree programs is
based on several factors, including graduate salaries, the
undergraduate grades of students in the program, and graduate
employment rates. Our program has been ranked in their
top 5 every year since 2016.
Congratulations to our students and faculty for the
well-deserved recognition.
Online Information
Sessions
Our
program will be hosting live online information sessions on
the following dates:
Thursday
December 1st, 2022 at 6:30 PM Sunday
January 29th, 2023 at 9:00 AM Thursday
April 27th, 2023 at 6:30 PM
All
times are US East Coast time. Please note that 9:00 AM
in the Washington, DC area is 10:00 PM in China, and 7:30 PM
in India, for example.
The
live online Information Sessions will feature a detailed
presentation of about 1 hour, and opportunities for Q&A
with our program's Executive Director, Dr. John Straub, our
Associate Director, Dr. Aaditya Dar, and with other
representatives from our department.
Please
RSVP tomasters-econ@umd.eduto
obtain a Zoom link for any of the live online Information
Sessions.
The University of Maryland is pleased to
announce Dr. Aaditya Dar
as the new Associate Director of our Master of Sciences
Program in Applied Economics. Dr. Dar is a development
economist. His research examines the social, political and
historical factors that cause and accentuate poverty, and how
individuals and communities can break away from these
constraints. One strand of his work focuses on state capacity,
governance and conflict, while another engages with issues in
agriculture like technology adoption and structural
transformation. Aaditya has a PhD from George Washington
University, MA from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
and BA from the University of Delhi.
Ramy
Oraby's Econ 644 term project published in JCRE
Ramy Oraby's paper The
Possible Unemployment Cost of Average Inflation Below a
Credible Target. A Replication Study of Svensson (American
Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2015) was just
published in the Journal of Comments and Replications in
Economics. The paper is an extension of his term project for
Econ 644 (Spring 2021). Ramy's replication study confirms the
existence of a nonvertical long-run Phillips curve for both
the US and Sweden during the sample period. Ramy says, "In
class, Professor Abbassi encouraged us to go the extra mile by
setting our objective to publish our paper in a replication
journal. I thought it would be a good opportunity to go
through the academic research publication process. So, I took
on the challenge and worked on the paper during the summer
break." Ramy worked in the monetary policy division at the
Central Bank of Egypt for 3 years before starting at UMD. As a
student, Ramy says that he likes "...the extensive hands-on
work applying various econometric techniques. It [the MS
program in applied economics] provides me with practical tools
that helps improve my economic analysis and policies
evaluation."
Mode of Instruction
The University of
Maryland is committed to the health and safety of our
students, staff and faculty. Our Covid-19 policies are
consistent with those of the relevant state and local
authorities, and are subject to change as the public health
situation evolves. Up-to-date information on policies
related to vaccination and masking requirements, as well as
contact tracing and other matters is posted at https://umd.edu/4Maryland.
Mostly in person with only limited online offerings
Our program is fundamentally an
in-person program, and will remain so. We do sometimes
offer "mostly online" sections of certain courses.
However, students should not assume that online or "mostly
online" sections will be available.
We will communicate with our students
appropriately if it becomes necessary to adjust our
plans. Adjustments could become necessary because of
student preferences, the public health situation, and/or
policy decisions made by the university, and by federal,
state, and local authorities. We will continue to
prioritize the health and safety of our students, instructors,
and staff.
Program
Tuition Significantly Lower than at Comparable Programs
Our 10-course program's
tuition is currently $3,500 per course, which remains well
below the tuition at comparable master's degree programs in
applied economics.
STEM-designated
Master of Science Program
Not all master's degree
programs in applied economics are recognized by the federal
government as STEM-designated programs. The STEM
designation applies to programs with emphasis in Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Our program's
emphasis on mathematical and statistical rigor is the basis
for our STEM designation.
One practical implication of the STEM
designation is that international graduates of our program are
now eligible for a 2-year extension to the standard 1-year
Optional Practical Training in the U.S. Being eligible
to stay in the US for up to 3 years after graduation makes our
graduates even more attractive to potential OPT sponsors.
“We have hired students from the University of Maryland’s
Applied Economics master’s program since its inception. The
STEM designation gives Optimal and other potential employers a
viable opportunity to hire highly qualified international
graduates with scarce skill sets.” -- Mark
Turner, CEO of Optimal Solutions Group.
The program’s curriculum continues to
evolve in this direction. In the fall of 2021 we began
offering a new course on economic applications of R
programming.
Our
Program's Career Placement Discussed in Washington Post
Dr. Straub was quoted in a feature about connecting students
and graduates with jobs. In addition to the career fairs
that our program organizes for students and alumni, Dr. Straub
also noted the valuable networking opportunities. Many
of the students and PhD instructors already work at exactly
the same kinds of places that recruit our students.
These include government agencies, as well as private
consulting firms, and international organizations like the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Dr. Straub was also interviewed for the Post's Fall
Guide to Graduate Education, with a focus on the
program's transition to online instruction since March of
2020. "All of our courses feature a combination of real
time synchronous instruction, as well as some asynchronous
instruction like pre-recorded videos and online discussion
boards. The students almost universally prefer a
combination. They want some live interaction with the
instructor and fellow students. But they also like the
videos and other asynchronous material that they can work with
on their own schedule."
Guest
Lecture from IMF Board Member
On November
21st, Dr. Liviu Voinea gave a guest lecture in our
program's International Macroeconomics and Finance course
(ECON 683). Dr. Voinea is the Romanian Board Member of
the IMF, and a former Deputy Governor of the Romanian National
Bank.
Dr. Voinea's areas of expertise dovetail nicely with the
content of ECON 683, including the global crisis and policy
responses in Central and Eastern Europe; trade-offs in modern
central banking (in particular financial stability vs. price
stability); issues related to global financial stability;
euro-area and US subdued inflation; and the weaker link
between wages and inflation (post-crisis Phillips Curve).
Dr. Voinea's recently published e-book, “One Hundred Years of
Honesty: Recovering the Lost Memory of the Romanian Economy”
has relevance for all economies in the Euro Zone.
We look forward to many more guest lectures from the Maryland
economics department faculty, and from other distinguished
economists.
Partnership
with the National Association for Business Economics
The NABE is a professional organization for people who apply
economics in business settings. The NABE offers a Certified Business
Economist (CBE) credential for professional economists.
Economists can take CBE prep courses from the NABE to prepare
for their CBE exam. But the NABE also partners with
academic programs that offer relevant curricula.
The NABE's academic partners now include our program!
Students who have completed certain courses in our program's
curriculum are now able to take the NABE's CBE exam without
taking NABE's own courses, and with a discounted exam fee).
"Our program has long encouraged our students to become
members of the NABE and to participate in the many excellent
events that they sponsor in the Washington, DC area. The
networking opportunities that come with NABE membership have
already been valuable to many of our students. Now
graduates who also earn the CBE certification in addition to
our master's degree will have even more advantages on the job
market." -- Dr. John Straub, Director of the M.S.
Program in Applied Economics at the University of Maryland.
Congratulations
to our Graduates
Our
department held it's Spring 2019 Commencement Ceremony on
Friday, May 24th in the Xfinity Center on our main campus in
College Park.
The commencement speaker was David Schaeffer, an alumnus of
our department, and the founder and CEO of Cogent
Communications—one of the world’s largest internet
providers. At the heart of his remarks for our
graduates: "There is nothing more rewarding than learning new
things and the key to anyone’s success is continued
curiosity."
There were 23 graduates in our master's program's spring 2019
graduating class. Ten of the 23 graduates were
international students from countries around the globe,
including China, The Bahamas, Costa Rica, India, and
Taiwan.
Members of this spring's graduating class will be working as
economic analysts in private industry as well as government
agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and
non-governmental organizations like the World Bank, and the
American Institute for Research.
Placement
Events
Our program has begun preparing for our next career placement
event. As with previous events, we will co-host the event with
our department's undergraduate program in cooperation with the
University
of Maryland's Career Center.
Participating employers at previous events have included:
Bipartisan Policy Center; Econometrica, Inc.; Fannie Mae;
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Federal Housing Finance
Agency; Federal Reserve Board of Governors; Northwestern
Mutual; Office of Inspector General, Office of Evaluation and
Inspections; Optimal Solutions Group; Resolution Economics;
Summit Consulting; The Urban Institute; U.S. Bureau of the
Census; U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; U.S.
Department of the Treasury; U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission; U.S. Department of Homeland Security/FEMA.
We usually host similar events every fall in College Park
and every spring in Washington, DC.