College of Business and Economics

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MA / PhD in Economics: photo of the globe and numbers.

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Advice from Economics Faculty - Return to list

Thanks for your interest in the Economics Graduate Program at West Virginia University. Although we have not yet had a chance to look over your application, it is not too early for you to take a serious look at the skills and knowledge that you've acquired as an undergraduate, and make sure that they are adequate for graduate school in Economics. Many students find the period of transition into graduate school, with its sudden increase in mathematical rigor and sophistication, to be the hardest part of the whole experience. You still have time to smooth that transition by filling in any gaps that may exist in your preparation.

To assist you with your transition, and to help you take an inventory of your intellectual tools, we have assembled the following list of topics that you should know something about before starting graduate school. Some of you will undoubtedly find every item on the list to be well within your scope; some of you will find nearly the whole list to be daunting; most of you will find many familiar items and a few that are unfamiliar.

We suggest that you look the list over carefully and take some time to look up the items that you are unfamiliar with. Exercise the tools on the list that may have fallen into disuse. You will find your linear algebra and calculus tools to be especially useful, so work some problems and sharpen them up.

A word about the level of economic knowledge we expect: this should be equal to that of a typical student who has done well in undergraduate intermediate micro and macro theory courses. The textbooks named in the list should give you a feel for the level of knowledge and skill you will need. Of course, we plan to take you considerably higher, and at a speed and level of rigor that you will find challenging.

You should consider the list to be more illustrative than exhaustive. Although the faculty who will be teaching your first-year and second-year courses compiled it carefully, there may be some important topics that are left out. We made every effort, however, to include the basic tools and concepts that come up over and over again.

We hope that you find this list of topics useful in preparing yourself for the challenge and stimulation of graduate school.