College Park location
1102 Morrill Hall
Program Coordinator:
Kaitlyn Walker
(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.
Program
Tuition Significantly Lower than at Comparable Programs
Our 10-course program's
tuition is currently $3,500 per course, and will remain below
$4,000 per course in 2023/24. This is well below the
tuition at comparable master's degree programs in applied
economics.
Online Information
Sessions
Our
program will be holding a live online information session
on Thursday, June 8th, at 6:30 pm ET. You can
register for the session by using the link below:
Our
live online Information Sessions feature a detailed
presentation of about 1 hour, and opportunities for
Q&A with our program's Executive Director, Dr.
John Straub, and with other representatives from our
department.
For domestic applicants seeking fall 2023 enrollment: Wednesday
June 14th, 2023
For domestic applicants seeking spring 2024 enrollment at our
Washington, DC location: Wednesday December 13th, 2023
For international F-1 visa applicants: We are no longer
accepting applications for Fall 2023 enrollment. The
application for Fall 2024 enrollment will open later this
year.
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 (ECON 687).
Welcome
to our New Associate Program Director
Amanda Kerr joined us this May as the new
Associate Director of our program. She comes to us from Johns
Hopkins' DC-based MS Program in Applied Economics, where she
was a full-time lecturer and program coordinator. She earned
her PhD from Clemson University in 2017. She has held both
academic and private sector roles: working as an assistant
professor at the University of Evansville, performing people
analytics at Mercer, lecturing in masters programs at both
American University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as
consulting at the World Bank. Her research focuses on
development, labor, and health economics, specifically looking
at gender rights and child outcomes. Please feel free to stop
by her office in Morrill Hall to say hello.
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. 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.
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 its Spring 2023 Commencement Ceremony on
Wednesday, May 24th in the Xfinity Center on our main campus
in College Park.
There were 87 total graduates in our master's program's
combined Summer 2022, Winter 2022, and Spring 2023 graduating
classes. 21 of the 87 graduates were international students
from countries around the globe, including Bangladesh, Burkina
Faso, China, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Israel,
Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Members of our graduating classes 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 hosts career placement events every fall and every
spring. We co-host the events with our department's
undergraduate programs 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 the events every fall in College Park and every
spring in Washington, DC.