Admissions
Doctoral Program Application Information
The Department of Economics at UCLA does not offer a terminal master’s degree. We only accept applications for the doctoral program. Students who are accepted into our doctoral program earn their master’s degrees on their way to earning their doctorates, but we do not admit students whose final goal is to earn a master’s degree in economics.
Please be advised that we only admit students once a year in the fall; we do not have spring or winter admissions. Applications for the 2010-2011 academic year must be postmarked no later than Tuesday, December 1, 2009.
All applicants must apply online (click here). The Economics Department at UCLA does not have a supplemental application. However, we do require the Supplementary Information Form and the Statement of Purpose, which can be found on our Graduate Division Web site. We also do not require a writing sample.
Please mail all required application materials, including official transcripts/degree certifications, statement of purpose, the Supplementary Information Form, and three letters of recommendation, to our graduate program office:
UCLA Department of Economics
8292 Bunche Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1477
Tel: (310) 206-1413
ALL APPLICATION MATERIALS MUST BE MAILED TOGETHER IN ONE MAIL PACKAGE.
The following materials can be sent separately and directly to the department: official GRE/TOEFL/IELTS scores and official transcripts.
Letters of recommendation can also be sent directly to the Department if you and the letter writer(s) live in different countries, but we prefer that you collect them first and mail them to us along with your other application materials.
We do not accept email letters of recommandation.
Please do not submit application materials by email or by fax, and please do not email us to inquire about your qualifications. All prospective applicants are eligible to apply, as long as they meet the 3.0 minimum GPA requirement. For requirements of international applicants click here.
International Applicants: The Confidential Financial Statement could be submitted if and when you are admitted.
GRE and TOEFL/IELTS
GRE and TOEFL scores must be official scores sent directly by the ETS (Educational Testing Service). Photocopies of these reports are not considered official documents and cannot be used for admission evaluation. Please provide the ETS with the following codes when requesting your scores:
- GRE - UCLA: 4837 / Econ: 1801
- TOEFL - UCLA: 4837 / Econ: 84
Please be advised that all applicants—regardless of their degree or major backgrounds—must submit their GRE scores. There are no substitutes for the GRE.
If you have previously taken the GRE and/or the TOEFL exam before, your GRE score is good for 5 years and your TOEFL score is good for 2 years. If your scores have expired, you must re-take the exam(s).
A TOEFL score of at least 560 on the paper and pencil test or 220 on the computer based test is the minimum required for applicants to graduate programs at UCLA. For the internet-based TOEFL (TOEFL iBT), applicants must have the minimum total passing score of 87. You do not need to meet the minimum passing scores for each section as long as this minimum total score is met.
An IELTS overall band score of at least 7.0 is the minimum required.
Applicants who hold a bachelor’s or higher degree from a university located in the United States or in another country in which English is both the spoken language and the medium of instruction, or who have completed at least two years of full-time study at such an institution, are exempted from both the TOEFL/IELTS requirement and the ESLPE. Please be sure to include such information in your application.
There is no minimum score requirement for the GRE.
Notification of Application Status
Due to the heavy volume of applications we receive, we are unable to notify applicants of their application status. This means that the "Application Status" section on the Graduate Division web page will most likely not reflect the documents that have actually been received by the Department. We ask that you assume all documents have been received approximately two weeks from the date you posted them. If any documents are missing or incomplete before an applicant’s file is reviewed by the admission committee, we will notify you by email.
Preparation
A bachelor's degree in economics is recommended, but not required. However, a strong background in economics is essential. An applicant should have formal coursework in intermediate micro- and macro-economic theory and econometrics. Mathematical preparation is also essential. This should include a minimum of one year of probability and statistics, and two years of calculus. Additional coursework in mathematics and statistics, especially linear algebra, matrix algebra, advanced probability theory, mathematical statistics and real analysis, is highly recommended.
Entering Class
Our entering class is anywhere from 20 to 25 students. Some of the students are admitted with first-year funding and others are not. However, we try our best to fully fund all of our students in years two through four, subject to their satisfactory progress in the program.
Our admitted students have strong academic records and outstanding letters of recommendation. They also have, on average, GRE scores that average in the 80th percentile in verbal, 95 percentile in quantitative, and 5.0 or above in analytical. However, there is no minimum score requirement for the GRE in order to apply.