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. All students in the MS program must successfully complete the following core courses:
| Prefix | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| M.S. CORE (16-18 credits) | ||
| AEEC 501 | Microeconomic Theory | 3 |
| AEEC 502 | Macroeconomic Theory | 3 |
| AEEC 540 | Econometrics I | 3 |
| AEEC 585 | Production Economics | 3 |
| AEEC 599 | Master's Thesis 1 | 6 |
| Choose 3 Classes from AEAB Block (9 hrs) 2 | 9 | |
| Advanced Derivative Markets | ||
| International Agricultural Trade Theory and Policy | 3 | |
| Global Food Supply Chain Management | 3 | |
| Advanced Microcomputer Applications in Agriculture | 3 | |
| Advanced Agribusiness Marketing | 3 | |
| Advanced Agribusiness Management | 3 | |
| Advanced Agricultural Policy 2 | 3 | |
| Economics of Water Resource Management and Policy | 3 | |
| Special Topics | 3 | |
| Individual Study | 3 | |
| Additional Graduate Courses (~6 hs) 3 | 6 | |
| Total Credits | 33 | |
- 1
AEEC 599 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 545 must be taken as part of this AEAB Block if not previously completed as an undergraduate under AEEC 445V.
- 3
One of these two choices may include three (3) additional hours of AEEC 596. 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 599 Master's Thesis (4-6 credits). Non-thesis options that include a non-thesis research project (AEEC 597 Non-Thesis Research Project, 3 credits) or an internship (AEEC 595 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 545 Advanced Agricultural Policy must be taken in the graduate program if an agricultural policy course was not taken as an undergraduate. Individual study (AEEC 596 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.