Requirements
This page describes the undergraduate departmental regulations. Please note that all undergraduate course numbers reflect the change that went into effect Fall '04.
Entrance to the Department
Advanced Placement
Mathematics Prerequisites
General Requirements
Core Courses
Other Departmentals
Senior Comprehensive Exam
Cognates
The University's "Max-12" Rule
Advancement to Senior Standing
Departmental Average
Early Concentration
Graduate Study in Economics
Courses Taken Outside the University
Entrance to the Department
To enter the Department, a student must complete, by the end of sophomore year, the prerequisite courses ECO 100, 101, 202 and MAT 103 (or equivalents), earning a letter grade of C- or better in each. ORF 245 can be substituted for 202; PSY 251 and SOC 301 are not acceptable; WWS 303 may be depending on each year's content.
A meeting for sophomores interested in joining the Department will be announced in the spring. Underclass students are welcome to discuss Department requirements with the Departmental Representative. Students considering study abroad are urged to meet with the Departmental Representative at the earliest opportunity in their freshman year.
Students who scored 5 on the AP microeconomics exam are exempted from ECO 100.
Students who scored 5 on the AP macroeconomics exam are exempted from ECO 101.
Students who scored 5 on the AP statistics exam are exempted from ECO 202.
Note: Exemption from 100 and 101 will be accorded to students who pass the British A-levels with a grade of A, and to those who earn a 7 on the higher-level International Baccalaureate.
Students exempted from ECO 100, 101 and 202 may still benefit from taking these courses, which provide important basic materials for the study of economics. However, proficient freshmen, those exempted from ECO 100 and 101 who receive a grade of 4 on the Math AB AP exam or better may wish to consider ECO 200 Advanced Principles of Economics: Concepts and Applications. This course applies the economic ideas and techniques learned in the AP courses to some contemporary economic problems.
The Department will permit freshmen to enroll in ECO 310, 311, or 312, only in very rare instances, subject to the approval of the instructor for the course. The requirements are: [1] completion of, or exemption from, ECO 100, 101, and/or 202, as appropriate in each case, and [2] sufficient knowledge of multivariable calculus and vector and matrix algebra. For the latter, ask the Mathematics Department officer concerned (currently Alireza Salehi Golsefidy - asalehi@Princeton.edu) to certify that they regard your previous knowledge of mathematics as equivalent to completion of MAT 200, or MAT 201-202, or better.
Mathematics Prerequisites Back to Top
MAT 103 (or equivalent) is sufficient preparation for the less mathematical versions of the Department’s core courses, ECO 300, 301, and 302 (see Core Courses). The sequence MAT 101-102 is acceptable as equivalent to MAT 103, but students with this background should consult with the Departmental Representative. The mathematics department regards a score of 4 or better on the AP mathematics AB exam as equivalent to MAT 103.
The more mathematical versions of the Department’s core courses, ECO 310, 311, and 312, and some other electives, require MAT 200 or better.
Students considering graduate work in economics or finance or who wish to continue in mathematics should take MAT 201-202 (or MAT 203-204 or MAT 217-218) rather than MAT 200, which is a terminal course.
Students who are not considering advanced training, and who wish to take only one 200-level mathematics course, are advised to take MAT 200. This one-semester course covers, in less depth but with applications to economics, topics in multivariable calculus and linear algebra that are also covered in the two-semester advanced calculus sequences (MAT 201-202, 203-204 and 217-218). MAT 201 provides most of the sufficient background for the courses for which MAT 200 is a prerequisite, although some matrix algebra covered in MAT 202 is useful in ECO 310 and ECO 312. MAT 201 alone is acceptable, but the Department strongly recommends following it with MAT 202.
(Mathematics courses beyond MAT 201 may be taken on a Pass/D/Fail basis, but the Department strongly recommends that they be taken on a graded basis).
The department requires concentrators to complete, and pass on a graded basis, the following:
Core Courses: Microeconomics (ECO 300 or 310), Macroeconomics (ECO 301 or 311) and Econometrics (ECO 302 or 312), to be completed during or before the junior year.
Elective courses: Five other departmentals (see Other Departmental for details).
Junior independent work.
Senior thesis.
Senior comprehensive exam.
Furthermore, the student must have a departmental average of at least C.
Note: The calculation of the departmental average is described in Departmental Average. The treatment of failed courses is described in Advancement to Senior Standing.
All concentrators must pass, on a graded basis, core courses in microeconomics (ECO 300 or 310), macroeconomics (ECO 301 or 311) and econometrics (ECO 302 or 312). These courses must be completed during or before the junior year. See the section below on Advancement to Senior Standing.
Each of the three core courses is offered in two versions to accommodate different levels of preparation in mathematics: ECO 300, 301 and 302 require MAT 103 or equivalent, ECO 310, 311 and 312 require MAT 200 or MAT 201 plus MAT 202.
Qualified students are encouraged to take the more mathematical versions. It is not necessary to take all three courses in the same version.
In addition to the three core courses, concentrators must pass, on a graded basis, five other departmental courses. Departmentals can be any 300-, 400-, or 500-level Economics courses, or an approved cognate (see Cognates).
Students planning a senior thesis with empirical emphasis are strongly encouraged to take ECO 313; students planning a theoretical senior thesis are strongly encouraged to take ECO 317 and/or ECO 418.
Senior Comprehensive Exam Back to Top
The senior comprehensive examination is a written, multiple-choice examination that emphasizes the Department's required courses through intermediate microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics. Additional questions are drawn from other fields in economics, with students given a liberal choice among fields. The senior comprehensive exam grade will appear on the student’s transcript.
Concentrators may, with the written approval of the Departmental Representative before the semester’s deadline for the grading option chance (usually in week 8 or 9 of each term), designate as Economics departmentals up to two upper-level courses from other departments. The cognate approval form, which is submitted to the Departmental Representative, is available in the “Forms” section of the Department’s web site. Cognates are not approved retroactively, but sophomores when signing up for the economics major in their Spring term can request approval of one of the courses they have already taken or are currently taking as a cognate. Cognates automatically enter the student’s Departmental grade average; see the section Departmental Average.
Cognates that will be routinely approved for spring '10 are:
COS 444 Internet Auctions: Theory and Practice
ORF 311 Optimization Under Uncertainty
ORF 405 Regression and Applied Time Series
SOC 345 Money, Work and Social Life
WWS 312/PSY321 Psychology of Decision-Making
WWS 524 The Political Economy of Central Banking
If you want to use one of the routinely-approved courses as a cognate, you will need to fill out a form and get it signed, but need not complete the section on your reasons for wanting to make this a cognate.
Requests for cognates outside this list will be considered on a case by case basis. The main criteria are economics content and goodness of fit with the student’s program of study in economics. The burden of proof will be greater for two cognates than for one.
A course with an Economics cross-listing (indicated by an ECO 3xx, ECO 4xx, or ECO 5xx number in its first or second listing) counts as a regular departmental, not as a cognate.
The University's "Max-12" Rule
The University restricts students to taking no more than 12 one-term courses (plus up to two prerequisites and independent work) in a given department within the basic A.B. program of 31 courses. This excludes up to two prerequisites, but includes other courses that are not departmentals, such as ECO 108, 200, and 207. If you take all three of our prerequisites ECO 100, 101 and 202, you can take at most 11 other ECO courses within the major. Thus, if you anticipate the constraint of the “max-12” rule to be binding, you should take ORF 245 instead of ECO 202.
Additional courses in the department may be taken, however, above the normal course load required for graduation. So if you take more than 31 Princeton credit courses over your four years, all the additional ones can be ECO courses. For this rule, courses that are cross-listed count as within Economics if the ECO number comes first in the dual listing (as in ECO 370 / HIS 378 American Economic History) but not if the ECO number is listed second (as in WWS 307 / ECO 349 Economics and Public Policy). Of course both count as Departmentals for the department’s requirements for the major. If you anticipate the constraint of the "max-12" rule to be binding, you should take ORF 245 instead of ECO 202. If in the slighest doubt, consult the Dep Rep.
This rule is more confusing than the infield fly rule, so if in doubt, consult the Dep Rep.
Advancement to Senior Standing
The department will recommend to the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing that a concentrator not be permitted to advance to senior standing in any of the following circumstances: (1) the student has not completed, with grades of D or above, the three core courses of the major: micro-economics (ECO 300 or 310), macroeconomics (ECO 301 or 311) and econometrics (ECO 302 or 312) or (2) the student has failed two or more departmental courses, including approved cognates, or (3) the student has an average below C on his/her departmental courses through the junior year, or (4) the student has not completed, or has received a failing grade in, his/her junior independent work. If the student has completed but received the grade of F in a single core course, the departmental representative may exercise discretion and recommend advancement to senior standing and allow the student to take that course again in the senior year if the student's overall performance in departmental courses is otherwise acceptable.
Departmental Average Back to Top
Passing grades on all general requirements, as well as a departmental average of C, are required for graduation. The departmental average is a weighted average of the grades for all general requirements, as follows:
Departmentals: 55% to the average of the grades in eight departmentals. The three core courses and any cognates are always included, followed by the highest departmental course grades necessary to total eight courses. For the purpose of computing this average, one-third grade point is added to grades received in graduate (500-level) economics courses. (Preapproved departmentals taken during study abroad count towards the requirement of eight departmentals but do not figure in calculation of the departmental average, so that the departmental average of a student who has studied abroad may be calculated with fewer than eight departmentals).
15% to the grade from the junior independent work.
25% to the grade from the senior thesis.
5% to the grade from the senior comprehensive exam.
Sophomores wishing to enter a program of early concentration in the department should consult the Departmental Representative at least two weeks before the filing of course cards for the spring term. Early concentration normally involves taking one departmental course and independent work. To enter this program, the student must demonstrate good reason for beginning independent work as a sophomore (for example, if one term of the junior year will be spent abroad).
Graduate study in economics requires special preparation and advanced planning, starting as early as the freshman year. Students contemplating graduate study in economics should see the Departmental Representative as early as possible. Preparation for graduate school should include the following: the more mathematical versions of the core courses (310, 311, and 312), two years of calculus (up through MAT 202, 204, or 218), two or more upper level mathematics courses such as MAT 301, 305, 309, 310, 314, or 325, and an advanced econometrics or theory course such as ECO 313 or 317. Students may find the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics or the Program in Engineering and Management Systems an interesting option. It is not necessary to be an Economics concentrator to enter a graduate economics program, but the Economics courses listed above are highly recommended. The graduate courses in Economics (500 level) are open to qualified undergraduates. These courses are very demanding and must be started in the fall term. Taking one of these courses can be useful for students who intend to enter an economics graduate program, because it begins the student's advanced training, gives the student a flavor of graduate school, and provides evidence during the admissions process of the ability to do advanced work in economics.
Send comments to deprep@princeton.edu Back to Top