Economics at Aquinas College

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4 +1 Masters of Arts in Applied Economics Aquinas College/Western Michigan University

Aquinas College students may transfer up to six credits earned at Aquinas College toward an MA in Applied Economics at WMU.  WMU will accept six transfer credits (two courses) from the following group of courses taken at Aquinas College: ES342, ES/PS376, ES435, ES465, and ES492.  For credits to apply toward the MA at WMU, a grade of “B” or higher must be obtained in a course.

Aquinas College students may also obtain from WMU a maximum of three graduate credits with credit by examination based on their capstone project at Aquinas.  To receive up to three credits at WMU as ECON 7100 (Independent Research), students from Aquinas College will be required to submit their final writing projects from a senior capstone project course (ES499) for evaluation by the WMU Department of Economics Faculty.  The work will be graded "Credit" or "No Credit." "Credit" will be posted on the transcript as "credit earned by examination" without letter grade or honor points.  Examination fees are assessed on a credit hour basis and are the same for all students. 

WMU’s MA in Applied Economics is 30 hours (10 courses).  Twenty-one hours (seven courses) are required; nine hours (three courses) are electives.  

Elective courses for the MA in Applied Economics:

• Up to six credit hours transferred from Aquinas College can be treated as elective courses for WMU’s MA.
• Students may take additional elective courses at WMU.
• Elective courses taken at WMU can be taken from the Department of Economics or from other departments.  
• Courses taken from other departments must be approved by the Director of Graduate Programs in WMU’s Department of Economics.

Based on current scheduling the required courses in the fall semester are:

• Economics 5040:  Mathematics for Economists
• Economics 6290:  Research Methods (pre-req - Economics 6190 or ES465)
• Economics 6620:  National Income Analysis (Advanced  Macroeconomics)

Based on current scheduling the required courses in spring semester are:

• Economics 6030:  Advanced Price Theory (Microeconomic Theory)
• Economics 6070:  Uncertainty and Health
• Economics 6220:  Economic Statistics

Based on current scheduling the required course in the Summer Session 1 is:

• Economics 6190:  Introduction to Econometrics

In addition to courses offered by the Department of Economics, courses in Political Science and Statistics are popular with MA students in Economics.

• Electives taken outside of Economics are not limited to Political Science and Statistics.
  • Acceptable electives in Political Science include:
  • PSCI 5320: Administration in Developing Countries
  • PSCI 6300: Seminar: Public Administration
  • PSCI 6330: The Political Environment of Public Administration
  • PSCI 6440: Seminar: Comparative Strategies of Development
• Acceptable courses in Statistics include:
  • STAT 5630: Survey Sample Methods
  • STAT 5650: Design of Experiments of Quality Improvement
  • STAT 5660: Nonparametric Statistical Methods
  • STAT 5850:  Applied Data Mining
  • STAT 6800: SAS Programming
  • STAT 6820: Time Series Analysis

Aquinas students apply to the 4 +  1 program using the same process as other students applying to WMU's MA program.  The link to begin the application process is http://www.wmich.edu/economics/academics/masters.  WMU will waive the application fee for Aquinas students applying to the 4 + 1 program in Economics until April 1, 2021.

International students can possibly have their student visa transferred to WMU (contact WMU’s International Admissions Office).