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 to masters-econ@umd.edu to obtain a Zoom link for any of the live online Information Sessions.

You can also view the a series of video presentations about our program at any time.

New Associate Director

    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

Our program's director, Dr. John Straub, was quoted in the Washington Post's Spring Guide to Graduate Education.  "Our STEM-designated MS program has placed hundreds of students in the DC area since 2012."

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

Our program has established a partnership with the National Association for Business Economics (NABE).

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.