Registration Guidelines for Graduate Students in Economics

Please contact Professor Balvers (B&E Rm. 418, Phone: 293-7880, E-mail: ronald.balvers@mail.wvu.edu) for specific questions about your Registration not covered below.

Before you register you must clear with Professor Balvers any intended deviations from the regular course sequence. The regular course sequences for the Ph.D. and M.A. programs in Economics are described in the WVU Graduate Catalog or in http://www.be.wvu.edu/phd_economics/studyplans.htm. If you have doubts about which courses to register for, or under which grading option, you must contact Professor Balvers.

You may register on the web (For instructions see http://registrar.wvu.edu/web_registration#web ). You do not need a signature.

Comments on registration for special courses:

Spatial Econometrics (ARE 693L):  You may count spatial econometrics as an elective course. You are allowed to take spatial econometrics ahead of taking time series econometrics (Econ 737), however, you must then still take Econ 737 in the following year.

Registration for Independent Study (Econ 795) requires prior consent of the faculty member you will be working with on this course. You must fill out a "contract" form that outlines the intended outcomes for the independent study.  This form must be signed by you and the supervising faculty member and must be in the hands of Professor Balvers before the start of the semester. The grading option must be Anormal@ (option 2 in STAR) for this course; the number of credits is three. Normally you will sign up for Econ 795 in the fall semester of your third year.

To register for Independent Research (Econ 797) you must have: (a) a dissertation topic, and (b) a dissertation advisor, and (c) you must have passed all comprehensive exams. The grading option is S/U for this course. Note that, you must select the Anormal@ grading option in STAR to enable the S/U option.

Full-time Ph.D. students must sign up for Research Design and Methodology (Econ 709) every semester after the second year. The grading option is S/U (choose the Anormal@ grading option in STAR); the number of credits is one.

A typical full-time Ph.D. student working on the dissertation must sign up for eight credits of Econ 797 and one credit of Econ 709.