The John Munro Godfrey, Sr. Department of Economics offers a Bachelor’s/Master’s (AB/MA) degree for UGA undergraduates through the Double Dawgs Program. Undergraduate students must have a 3.6 GPA to be considered. The AB/MA program is designed for students who plan to pursue a PhD program in economics, finance, public policy or statistics or who are looking for private- or public-sector positions that require significant technical research skills.
The MA degree is not offered as a terminal or stand-alone graduate degree in economics. Only PhD students who discontinue work toward their doctorate are eligible to terminate their studies with the MA degree.
A combined bachelor’s/master’s degree calls for a carefully coordinated four-year or five-year plan of study and close cooperation among several academic advisors. This is especially true in economics where a joint degree student must take many math and statistics courses in his or her first few years at UGA. Therefore, students interested in the combined degree program should discuss the opportunity with a departmental advisor while they are first-year students, and these advisors will help each student develop a plan of study.
There are two tracks to obtaining the MA degree, a thesis track and a non-thesis track. For those students interested in attending graduate school, the thesis track is strongly recommended. The non-thesis track is more appropriate for students seeking a career in the private sector. The plan of study listed below provides details on the two-degree tracks.
