Admission Standards

Required:

• A bachelor’s degree.
• Undergraduate grade point average that satisfies the Graduate School requirement of at least 2.75 on a 4.0 scale.
• Test scores (either GRE or GMAT accepted).
• For international students only: if an English Proficiency Exam is needed, a score of at least 80 on TOEFL, 6.5 on IELTS, or 110 on Duolingo.

Suggested (but not required):

• Coding skills (Python, SAS, Stata, R)
• GRE or GMAT quantitative section score above 90th percentile

Admission Procedures

Include the following materials in your online application via the Tiger Tracks portal:

• Transcripts from all institutions of higher learning attended attesting to the courses taken and/or degrees earned, and verifying their successful completion.
• Score on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) or the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).
• Applicant’s resume or CV.
• 3 letters of reference. Only letters from former professors or supervisors of academic research are acceptable.
• A short Personal Statement, explaining why the applicant wants to pursue graduate studies in economics at our institution. Please include an outline of current research interests.
• International students must additionally include:
  • If your highest degree earned is from an international university, a credential evaluation by any credentialling agency listed in www.naces.org or by University of Memphis.
  • If an English Proficiency Exam is needed, TOEFL, IELTS or Duolingo test scores.

Coursework (72 credit hours)

A total of 72 credit hours of graduate coursework must be completed. A minimum of 39 hours must be taken at the University of Memphis.

Comprehensive Exam

Comprehensive exam is typically scheduled in August of the second year the student is in the PhD program.

The deliverables on the date of the comprehensive exam are as follows.

• A complete student’s working paper containing introduction, literature review, methodology, results and conclusion must be emailed to the PhD coordinator before the exam date.
• On the day of the exam, the student must deliver a 45-minute presentation of this paper before the audience of faculty and Ph.D. students.
• The protocol for passing the comprehensive exam is as follows.
• During the week after the student presents a paper, the PhD coordinator will observe whether at least any two tenured/tenure-track FIR faculty will send the following statement to the PhD coordinator’s email:

“In my opinion, the paper and the presentation of ​___(Student NAME)​​___ satisfy the comprehensive exam requirement.”

• • If a PhD coordinator receives at least two such emails from the tenured/tenure-track FIR faculty in the week after the exam date, the PhD student will pass the comprehensive exam.
  • If a PhD coordinator does not receive at least two such emails in the week after the exam date, the PhD student will be given one opportunity to retake the exam at the end of the semester.

The comprehensive exam paper is expected to become an essay in the student’s doctoral dissertation.

Dissertation

Students must write and defend a dissertation. 

• Dissertation Committee:  consists of at least four members, including the student’s main adviser (Chair) and other members of the graduate faculty. One of these four members must come from outside the Department. The student is responsible for identifying the members of the Dissertation Committee with the help of the adviser.
• Dissertation Proposal: when the idea for the dissertation has been approved by the Dissertation Committee, it must be presented to them.
  
• Dissertation Defense: After the Dissertation is approved by the Dissertation Committee, the Dissertation Defense must be scheduled according to the Presentation Guidelines. For style, format and submission guidelines and University deadlines, please visit https://www.memphis.edu/gradschool/current_students/tdguide_preparation.php