Admissions FAQ

The annual priority application deadline is Feb. 1.  The last date to submit an admission application for Fall semester admission is May 15 each year. This is for both domestic and international students.

Fall semester is our typical admission term.

We offer some graduate assistantships each admission cycle to eligible students upon the availability of funds and commonly to those admitted in Fall semesters.  We do not provide positions or other financial assistance to newly admitted students in Spring semesters.  If you would like to apply for admission and upon acceptance you would like to attend without the possibility of financial assistance in that first semester, let the graduate coordinator know and we can open the application for your submission.

The Department reviews for admission and graduate assistantships with the same admission application and submitted materials, a separate application is not needed for those seeking departmental funding.  This Department does not accept nor review applicant materials prior to receiving a complete and submitted admission application.  Review our minimum admission application requirements.

The Department's financial support may come in the form of graduate assistantships (GA) and these are competitive positions each cohort.  Not all admitted students are offered GA positions.  GA positions can come with partial or full tuition coverage and a stipend for hours worked, the stipend varies each year.  If one is offered admission and a GA position, the specific position title, tuition amount that may be covered, and the stipend amount are expressed within the GA offer letter, not prior to receiving the offer.

We consider both domestic U.S. students and international students for graduate assistantship (GA) funding.  We offer admission to more students than we offer GA positions, which means not all admitted students are offered GA positions, it is a competitive process and each cohort is different.  See UArizona Graduate College site for additional information regarding funding & financial information.

Read our admission requirements here.

See the Graduate College page for more information regarding English proficiency admission requirements.  The Graduate College does not accept Duolingo scores for demonstration of English Proficiency.

You may review the cost of attendance for graduate students at https://financialaid.arizona.edu/cost/graduate-professional

The Department and the University cannot pay for, defer, waive or in any other way cover the application fee or any fees resulting from the application process.

Effective Fall 2023 & beyond, GRE requirement is changed to optional.  GRE scores are not required for admission nor GA review for AREC MS AEDA and AEPA.  In GradApp where the space is provided for GRE scores, applicants may enter "N/A".

This Department does not accept nor review prospective applicant materials prior to receiving a complete admission application through the Graduate College application portal, GradApp.  We cannot provide preliminary admission decisions nor informally guarantee admission nor review eligibility for graduate assistantships.

We offer two routes to completing a Master's degree one which requires a thesis and is 4 semesters in duration (AEPA) and the other is 3 semesters in duration and an oral final exam is required in lieu of a thesis (AEDA).

Applicants are not required to identify a faculty advisor nor a thesis advisor prior to admission, however, applicants are encouraged to explain if, and why, they are interested in working with one of our faculty members, within the required statement of purpose.  View our Faculty profiles

Although we do not provide specific questions for the statement of purpose, common items to include: 

Introduce yourself, describe your interests and motivation for applying to this program.

Summarize your academic background; provide examples of experiential work, relevant teaching or research work completed; and discuss any unusual circumstance about your application.  This is your time to highlight and explain.

Be concise, this document shouldn't be a research paper.  Going beyond two pages should signal to you that you need to be more concise.

Yes, you can view their profiles and within each profile page is their email address.  Feel free to reach out to them with your specific questions.  Remembering that this Department does not accept nor review prospective applicant materials prior to receiving a complete admission application through the Graduate College application portal, GradApp.  We cannot provide preliminary admission decisions nor informally guarantee admission nor review eligibility for graduate assistantships.

Yes, our master's degree program is officially a STEM approved program. This master's degree is categorized under the Econometrics & Quantitative Economics CIP code category title.

You should not need more than 3 letters of recommendation.  We do not ask for more than 3 and would prefer you be selective in your letter writers to choose the 3 that will provide the strongest support and provide evidence to strengthen your application.

If more than 3 letters of recommendation are provided, the first 3 received will be reviewed, not all will be read if your application has more than 3 letters of recommendation.

The Ph.D. minor we offer is open to admitted Ph.D. students at the University of Arizona.  It is not available to master's degree seeking students.  If you have already been accepted to a Ph.D. program at this institution, you can start this process here.

This program is a master's program specifically, however, we also offer a Ph.D. minor to students admitted to a Ph.D. program at UArizona.  By adding this minor to a Ph.D. in Economics for example, one would add an area of specialization of Agricultural Economics to their degree plan. 

AREC 580, Math for Economists is our 3-week math intensive course we lovingly refer to as "math boot camp".  This course is completed 3 weeks prior to the start of each Fall semester, annually the specific dates vary, as they are dependent on when the Fall semester 1st day of classes is, each year.  All admitted students to this master's program are required to attend this in person course.  There is a required lecture and a required discussion section each day during the 3-week duration.  Enrollment for the course is reflected in the Fall semester schedule along with the other required 1st semester courses. Admitted students in this program should be prepared to attend this essential course and plan their travel to Tucson, AZ accordingly so that they may attend the class and join their respective cohort.  Specific dates and information for AREC 580 are shared via email from the department to the applicant within the admission recommendation email applicants receive once their completed admission application is submitted and reviewed by the department, should the applicant be admissible.

Yes! Click here or see the left side of this page for the "Graduate Handbook" tab.