To be eligible for Departmental Distinction (DD) in Economics, students must have, at the end of their junior year, a GPA of 3.75 in the Economics major and 3.5 overall in University course work.
Students pursuing this Distinction will write an Economics Honors Thesis of between 30 and 50 pages during their senior year. The subject of the Thesis must concern some important topic in Economics, the precise nature of which will be determined by the student and an advisor chosen from among the Economics faculty. A student wanting to try for this Distinction must first meet with the Department Chair to discuss which Professor s/he will request to supervise her/his Thesis. The Professor who agrees to supervise an Honors Thesis is responsible for certifying that the work is of sufficient quality for DD in Economics.
The Thesis will replace the need to write a Senior Paper, which is a requirement for those majors who are not pursuing DD. Nevertheless, students pursuing this Distinction would, when they register for the Economics Honors Thesis, still register under the same number as those who are writing Senior Papers, i.e. ECON 3996. The difference is that the Thesis will count for four credit hours while the Senior Paper will count for two.
Students pursuing DD in Economics are also required to take one more course beyond what a non-DD ECON-major would have to take. Given that a non-DD ECON-major has to take a total of 41 credit hours in Economics, that means a student who is pursuing DD in Economics will be taking a total of 48 credit hours. The difference of seven is due to the two extra hours in ECON 3996 when the student registers for the Honors Thesis and the additional five hours associated with an extra course.
The selection of courses by students pursuing DD in Economics will be more structured. Given that at the intermediate level ECON-majors can follow one of two tracks when it comes to the pair of required courses, table 1 shows how the selection will be structured in accordance with each track. In each case, the relatively loose structure applicable to the non-DD ECON-majors are also shown for comparisons.
What is common between the two tracks for DD are the following courses: ECON 1020, ECON 1030, two ECON 2xxx (i.e. electives), one ECON 3xxx (i.e. elective), either ECON 3670 (Econometrics) or ECON 3850 (Mathematics for Economists), and ECON 3996.
For the track where students take ECON 2020 and ECON 2030 to satisfy their intermediate-level required courses (labeled as track (A) in table 1), we now require them to take ECON 2050.
For the track where students take ECON 2000 and ECON 2050 to satisfy their intermediate-level required courses (labeled as track (B) in table 1), we now require them to take either ECON 3050 or another ECON 3xxx.
Those taking ECON 2020 & ECON 2030 Those taking ECON 2000 & ECON 2050
Non-DD ECON-Majors (A) DD ECON-Majors (A) Non-DD ECON-Majors (B) DD ECON-Majors (B)
ECON 1020 ECON 1020 ECON 1020 ECON 1020
ECON 1030 ECON 1030 ECON 1030 ECON 1030
ECON 2020 ECON 2020 ECON 2000 ECON 2000
ECON 2030 ECON 2030 ECON 2050 ECON 2050
ECON 2xxx ECON 2xxx ECON 2xxx ECON 2xxx
ECON 2xxx ECON 2xxx ECON 2xxx ECON 2xxx
ECON 2xxx ECON 2050 ECON 2xxx
ECON 3xxx ECON 3xxx ECON 3xxx ECON 3xxx
ECON 3050 or 3xxx
ECON 3670 or 3850 ECON 3670 or 3850
ECON 3996(2 hrs.) ECON 3996(4 hrs.) ECON 3996(2 hrs.) ECON 3996(4 hrs.)
41 hrs. 48 hrs. 41 hrs. 48 hrs.
