Dual Degree Program
Students begin to take graduate courses at UCSC in their senior year while maintaining undergraduate status at their home campus, thus simultaneously earning both undergraduate and graduate credit. Because students in the pathway take two graduate level courses per quarter for a total of 10 units a quarter, they must plan ahead to ensure they will have the adequate number of units to graduate with a B.A. from their home campus by the end of their fourth year. In the fifth year, while officially enrolled as graduate students, they take the remaining graduate level courses of the program. The program has been very successful for many years in preparing students for careers in business, government or consulting.
Advance planning for the program is essential. Students must complete all of the core courses for their specific economics major, including Introductory Microeconomics, Introductory Macroeconomics, and Introductory Econometrics, as well as their upper-division electives and general education requirements by the end of the junior year. Students are also advised to take a course in linear algebra. In addition, students find that previous experience with working with spreadsheets and statistical software (ie. TSP, SAS) is helpful.
Applications are available in the UCSC Economics office. Please contact the Economics Graduate Programs Coordinator to request an application be sent to you. Applications are returned directly to the Economics office no later than February 15 of your junior year. Students may enter the pathway program in the fall quarter only. Applicants must demonstrate an ability to do graduate level work by having an excellent academic record (the minimum for admission to any UC graduate program is a B or 3.0 GPA), three letters of recommendation, and strong quantitative GRE scores (between 600-700).
Students interested in the program should take the General GRE test no later than one month prior to the deadline for applications. For information about the exam and how to register, visit ETS.