Agricultural Economics - Master of Science

Students entering the MS program are required to have completed

• intermediate microeconomics and intermediate macroeconomics (completed with a B grade or better),
• a college-level calculus class, and
• a course in statistics that included linear regression analysis.

Students that have not completed these courses may be admitted with the requirement that they take them as deficiencies at the beginning of their graduate program. Prospective graduate students must have at least a 3.0 undergraduate GPA.  Students with a GPA less than 3.25 must complete the GRE or the GMAT exam.

Completion of the Master of Science degree in agricultural economics requires completion of a minimum of 33 graduate credit hours. Twenty-one of the credits must have one of the following three prefixes: AEEC, ECON, or ECDV. Twenty- four of the credits must be associated with course numbers greater than 500/5000. All students in the MS program must successfully complete the following core courses:

¹

AEEC 5999 minimum hours required by the Graduate School are 4 with a maximum of 6 toward the degree.  If a students elects to complete the minimum of 4 hours, they will need to take an additional course to meet the 33 hours required for the degree.

²

 AEEC 5140 must be taken as part of this AEAB Block if not previously completed as an undergraduate under AEEC 3140V.

³

One of these two choices may include three (3) additional hours of AEEC 5997. In lieu of these 2 additional graduate courses, a student may select a justifiable minor (9+ hours) per Graduate School policy and only 2 courses (6 hours) from the AEAB Block.

MS students are generally required to write a thesis (AEEC 5999 Master's Thesis (4-6 credits). Non-thesis options that include a non-thesis research project (AEEC 5991 Non-Thesis Research Project, 3 credits) or an internship (AEEC 5998 Internship, 3 credits) must have approval from the student's committee and the graduate chairman. Students pursuing the MS degree may not complete the graduate program with more than one C grade in the core courses. If a student receives C grades in two of these core classes one of the classes must be repeated with a grade of at least B. In addition to core courses, nine additional credits must be completed from an agricultural economics and agricultural business (AEAB) course block. AEEC 5140 Agricultural Policy must be taken in the graduate program if an agricultural policy course was not taken as an undergraduate. Individual study (AEEC 5997 Individual Study) is limited to 6 credits hours toward a the degree.  An oral defense is required of all master's candidates and will be scheduled and completed according to the guidelines of the Graduate School. The oral defense must be preceded by an open seminar to present major research findings to faculty, fellow students and the interested public.

New Mexico State University master’s accelerated program provides the opportunity for academically qualified undergraduate students to begin working on a master’s degree during their junior and senior years while completing a bachelor’s degree. Typically, a bachelor’s degree requires four years to complete, and a master’s degree requires an additional two years. The master’s accelerated programs allow students the opportunity to complete a graduate program in an accelerated manner. You can also check NMSU’s catalog for additional information about our programs. 

Please talk to a faculty advisor about your MAP plan and develop a course plan in consultation with the advisor.

Up to 12 hours of coursework can be applied toward the completion of the master’s degree. To receive graduate credit for the 12 credit hours, students must receive a grade of B- or higher.

Students’ Qualifications
The student must be classified as a Junior or Senior (a minimum of 25 semester credit hours must be completed at NMSU).
The cumulative grade point average must be a minimum of 3.0.

Accepted MAP Courses
Upon approved enrollment to the AEAB MAP Program, the following courses may be taken in the undergraduate program of study. Any other courses may be considered after a consultation with an advisor and the department head.