Undergraduate Honors

Departmental Scholar

The Departmental Scholar Program (DSP) for Economics allows exceptional juniors and seniors to pursue their bachelor’s and master’s degrees simultaneously.

Nomination to be a Department Scholar is an honor that carries practical benefits – the graduate school application process is simplified, access is opened to graduate level classes as well as the opportunity to do graduate level research under direct supervision of UCLA’s distinguished Economics faculty.

Graduate Advising

If interested in this program – please consult with the staff in the Economics Graduate Advising Office for further information. The Department of Economics Graduate Advisors are located in Room 8292 Bunche Hall. The office phone number is 310-206-1413.

Faculty Liaison

The Faculty Liaison for the Departmental Scholar Program is Professor Natalie Bau. Students that are interested in DSP, or in graduate school in general may contact Professor Bau at nbau@g.ucla.edu, however, for logistics of the program or to learn about the application process, please email the Graduate Advising Office at grad-office@grad.ucla.edu.

Eligibility For Admission

Students seeking nomination to the Departmental Scholar Program must meet the following minimum criteria:

Completion of 24 courses (96 quarter units) at UCLA or a similar institution
A 3.5 UCLA GPA
A 3.5 GPA in the upper division classes of the major
Officially declared in a major
Three letters of recommendation from tenure-track faculty and an additional reference from an Economics Department faculty who can attest to your academic abilities are strongly preferred. Two of the three tenure-track faculty must be from Economics Department. While tenure-track faculty are preferred for the third letter, students may use a letter from non-tenure track faculty if necessary. It is strongly recommended that the third come from another department, preferably Math.
For transfer students, completion of at least a year of undergraduate coursework at UCLA
Completion of the Writing II requirement

Please Note: There is no major restriction to participate in the Departmental Scholar Program.

In addition, you must complete the following courses with a minimum 3.6 GPA before applying:

Economics
Econ 1, 2, 11, 41, 101, 102 and 103/103L

Mathematics
Math 31A, 31B, 32A, 32B, 33A, 33B, 115A and 131A

*For Math/Econ Majors: Math 170E&S and Stats 100A&B may be taken to satisfy the Econ 41 prerequisite.

Application

Apply here.

The application period is from May 27th to June 27th. Late submissions after June 27th will not be accepted.

Complete the form and instruct your letter writers to send LORs to grad-office@econ.ucla.edu

Apply here

Program Requirements

DSP requires that students complete a total of 9 courses for a letter grade. Students must earn at least a B average in all courses applied toward the degree.

Three courses from Field #1 [Field choices: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Econometrics]
Three courses from Field #2 [Field choices: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Econometrics]
One Economic History Course [Econ 241 OR Econ 242]
Two upper division Economics electives that are not used toward undergraduate degree requirements

Graduate Course Sequence

Two-week Math Camp in September:
Econ 200
– Mathematical Methods in Economics (S/U grading)

Econ 201A – Microeconomics: Theory of Firm and Consumer

Econ 201B – Microeconomics: Basic Concepts and Techniques of Noncooperative Game Theory and Information Economics

Econ 201C – Microeconomics: Game Theory with Asymmetric Information and Applications

Econ 202A – Macroeconomics: Dynamics and Growth Theory

Econ 202B – Macroeconomics: Business Cycles

Econ 202C – Macroeconomics: Topics in Macroeconomics

Econ 203A – Introduction to Econometrics I

Econ 203B – Introduction to Econometrics II

Econ 203C – Introduction to Econometrics III

Econ 241 – Economic History of Western Europe

Econ 242 – Economic History of U.S.

In addition to the course requirements, candidates for the Master of Arts degree must satisfactorily complete a written comprehensive examination requirement for each of their two chosen fields with a grade of “Master’s Pass” or better.

Please note: Upper division Economics elective courses taken prior to admission to the program may not be used to satisfy program requirements. This rule also applies to graduate level courses. Additionally, comprehensive exams must be taken after completion of a graduate course sequence (e.g. Econ 201A, 201B, and 201C).

Additional Information

Latin Honors
Latin Honors are calculated on the basis of all University of California coursework. Because courses applied on the Master’s will be posted on the undergraduate transcript, these grade points and units are included when calculating Latin Honors upon graduation.

Time Commitment
Generally, graduate courses meet for four hours a week, with two hours of tutorial. Courses usually require problem sets, midterms and finals. Because this is approximately double the amount of undergraduate work, recommend that you take no more than one graduate course per quarter in the first year of the program.

Individual graduate programs are created for each student in counseling sessions with the Department’s graduate and undergraduate advisors.

Enrollment in Graduate Level Courses
Because all graduate level courses are restricted to graduate students, Departmental Scholars will need to obtain enrollment permission from the Economics Academic Coordinator.

Library Privileges
Departmental Scholars are eligible for graduate library borrowing privileges at the Young Research Library. Students should retain the acceptance letter from Graduate Admission as verification of Departmental Scholar status.

Graduate Record Exam
Departmental Scholars are not required to take the GRE. However, students planning to apply to other programs or universities or the PhD program are required to take the GRE general test.

Master’s Degree Requirements

Areas of Study

Economics Theory; econometrics; information and uncertainty; mathematical economics; monetary theory; economic history; public finance; labor economics; industrial organization; international economics; development economics and asset pricing.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

In addition to the course requirements, candidates for the Masters of Arts degree must satisfactorily complete a written comprehensive examination requirement that involves passing two examinations. Time to Degree: It normally takes six quarters to earn the degree.

Consult with the staff in the Economics Graduate Advising Office for further information. The Graduate Advisors are located in Room 8292 Bunche Hall. The office phone number is 310-206-1413.

Unit requirements for both degrees must be completed (e.g., 180 units for the bachelor’s degree and 36 units for the master’s degree for a total of 216 units).

To exceed the maximum unit limit to fulfill the master’s degree, a blue petition may be filed with the Honors Program.

No course may be used to fulfill requirements for both degrees.

Summer session course enrollment: Since the comprehensive examinations are administered in June/July after the conclusion of spring quarter, DSP students who are slated to graduate must enroll in 4 units of summer coursework in order to be conferred the Master of Arts degree in the summer. These 4 units could be an independent study course.

Prior to the second week of the quarter of graduation, students must file a “Petition for Advancement to Candidacy” for the M.A. with the Economics Graduate Advisors.