Major and Course Update

Dear Students,

Re: Fall 2012 Registration

Please read through the following information as you plan your fall course schedule. Note that the registration information in the online CC bulletin often lags several days behind the Registrar’s page. For the latest information on classes you should always check the Registrar’s directory of classes site, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/.  You should also complete a checklist (available on the department website) so that you can determine what courses you need to take in order to complete your major requirements.

Advising

Expanded office hours for econ-advising have been posted on the departmental website. Please direct any questions regarding your major requirements to econ-advising (either via email or during their office hours). The graduate students who staff econ-advising are also knowledgeable about course selection and will be able to help you select courses to meet your personal, professional and academic goals.  Please refer to the summer 2011 mailing (posted at http://econ.columbia.edu/announcements) for more information regarding advising.

Courses

W4370 Political Economy

The political economy class will be offered only in the fall semester.  Seniors in the joint major with Political Science who have not previously taken W4370 Political Economy MUST take W4370 in the fall semester.

Accounting and Finance

After the cancellation of W2261 Intro to accounting and finance by Arts and Sciences a few years ago, a number of divisions of the University have begun to offer accounting courses. We do not accept any of these courses for any major other than Financial Economics. Economics majors and joint majors must select their elective courses from the elective courses offered by the department and the Barnard economics department. Students in the Financial Economics major may take either BUSI W3013 or IEOR E2261 to fulfill the accounting requirement for their major. If you have questions about these accounting courses, then please contact Claudia Fong at the Business School (for BUSI W3013) or Jenny Mak in the IEOR department (for IEOR E2261) directly.  Please note that online registration for E2261 is closed to CC and GS; however, we will again be able to offer some seats in this course to our students. When we know how many seats will be available to our department, we will send out an email announcement via the econ listservs (email) asking for interested students.

College Business Courses

Columbia College is now offering several business oriented classes. The department does not oversee these courses and does not have any information on them. If you have questions about these courses, please contact Claudia Fong (clf2116) in the Business School for information. Finally, note that you may NOT take these courses for elective credit towards any major in economics other than Financial Economics. Financial economics majors should check their major requirements for details on which courses may be taken for elective credit.

Corporate Finance

As in previous semesters, registration for corporate finance during the first registration period will be restricted to financial econ majors only. After this registration period, we will open the remaining seats to all majors. At the later time, the course caps will be raised.

Fall TBA Courses

Three courses are listed in the directory of classes without instructors or day/times (the "TBA" courses) and are closed to pre-registration. The second section of W3412 econometrics may or may not be offered in the fall semester. It is recommended that you try to fit one of the other two sections in your schedule. Both W4400 labor and W4625 economics of the environment are listed but are closed to this registration period. We hope to offer one or both of these classes next year, however suitable instructors have not been identified at this time. 
 

Fall Courses Open for April Registration (for scheduling info, go to the Registrar’s Directory of classes site)

• V3025 Financial Economics
• V3265 Economics of Money and Banking
• W4213 Advanced Macroeconomics
• W4228 Urban Economics
• W4251 Industrial Organization
• W4280 Corporate Finance
• W4325 Economic Organization and Development of Japan
• W4370 Political Economy
• W4412 Advanced Econometrics
• W4415 Game Theory
• W4465 Public Economics
• W4480 Gender and Applied Economics
• W4750 Globalization and its risks

Spring (Tentative)

• W2257 Global Economy
• V3025 Financial Economics
• V3265 Economics of Money and Banking

• W4020 Economics of Uncertainty and Information

• W4211 Advanced Microeconomics
• G4235 Historical Foundations of Modern Economics
• W4280 Corporate Finance
• W4321 Economic Development
• W4413 Econometrics of Time Series and Forecasting
• W4438 Economics of Race
• W4500 International Trade
• G4421 Seminar on problems of emerging market economies
• W4505 International Monetary Theory and Policy
• G4526 Transition Reforms, Globalization and Financial Crisis
• G4527 Economic Organization and Development in China
• W4615 Law and Economics

In addition to the courses tentatively slated for the spring semester, the department is hoping to offer a new 2000 level elective focusing on the American economy. We may also add one or two additional electives depending on instructor availability.  If new courses are added, the department will send out an announcement.

Elective courses for the ECONOMICS-PHILOSOPHY joint major

The department is offering the following courses in the fall semester that may be taken for credit for the economics-philosophy joint major:

• W4213 Advanced Macro
• W4228 Urban Economics
• W4370 Political Economy
• W4415 Game Theory
• W4465 Public Economics
• W4480 Gender and Applied Economics
• W4750 Globalization and its Risks

Barnard is offering the following course that may be taken for credit for the joint major:

• BC3041 Theoretical Foundations of Political Economy
• BC3011 Inequality and Poverty
• BC3029 Development Economics

Please note that electives that are taken outside of the prescribed list from the CC/GS bulletin for the economics-philosophy joint major will not count towards the economics elective requirement.

Elective courses for the FINANCIAL ECONOMICS major

This is a list of the economics courses that may be taken for elective credit. For information about the offerings of non-economics you should consult the directory of classes.

• V3265 Economics of Money and Banking
• W4213 Advanced Macro
• W4251 Industrial Organization
• W4412 Advanced Econometrics
• W4415 Game Theory
• W4465 Public Economics
• BC3038 International Money and Finance

Course Pre-Requisites

You must complete the pre-requisite courses before you can take an economics course. Students who take courses out of sequence (before or concurrently with its prerequisites) will be subject to the penalty of taking additional courses to be assessed by the department’s director of undergraduate studies. The prerequisites for courses are as follows:

Note that a prerequisite of STAT W1211 means STAT W1211 or a higher level statistics course. Neither STAT W1111, nor POLS W4910 may be taken in place of STAT W1211 to fulfill the pre-requisite requirements listed above.

Senior Thesis

Students interested in writing a senior thesis must come to see me during my spring advising hours in April (listed below) to discuss their thesis topic (so you must have a topic of interest).  At that time we will discuss your proposed topic and possible thesis advisors. I will also try to suggest some general readings on your topic or recommend that you speak with someone to get recommendations for summer reading. You will not formally be admitted to the honors seminar until the beginning of the fall semester. At that time I will ask all interested students to write a very brief (1 page) proposal describing their topic, the research question they will hope to address in their thesis and their particular qualifications to write on their topic. Qualifications include relevant coursework and work experience. I will try to send you suggested readings on your topic.

If you are studying abroad and cannot come to speak with me this semester, then you must send to me an email with your proposed topic and your qualifications to write on that topic.

Students must have a 3.7 or higher GPA in their major (including math and stats courses) to be considered for departmental honors. General information about thesis topics and advisors can be found on the website: http://econ.columbia.edu/honors-and-prizes.

Please read the information online before you come to speak with me. Finally, note that although you will not be able to pre-register for the honors thesis seminar, you must be sure to leave the honors seminar time free in your schedule. The honors seminar will meet on Thursdays from 9-10:50.

Advising hours to discuss senior thesis will be:

Tuesday, 10 April, 2 PM - 4 PM

Wednesday, 11 April 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Thursday, 19 April 2 PM - 4 PM

All of the above advising hours are in my office 1006 IAB.

Senior Seminars

Registration (sign-up) for senior seminars is on the first day of the fall semester at 9 AM in the department office. The topics for the senior seminars are not yet available. However the names of the instructors and the days and times of most of the seminars are posted online. An announcement will be sent to all seniors and posted on the department’s website as soon as the instructors finalize their topics (mid-late summer). Rules for seminar registration will also be sent to all students and posted on the website.

NEW RULES for Transfer Credits, AP Credits and Barnard Electives for students who declared Starting in Spring 2011

The department has recently revised the rules governing the number of courses that students may take outside of the Columbia economics department. Previously, there were separate rules regarding transfer credits (including AP credits) and the number of allowable Barnard courses.

• Going forward, we will have a single rule requiring a minimum number of lecture courses in economics that must be taken in the Columbia department of economics. Briefly, all majors and joint majors (with the exception of philosophy) must take a minimum of 5 lecture courses in the Columbia department of economics; concentrators and joint majors with philosophy must take a minimum of 4. V3025 financial econ and V3265 money and banking will be considered Columbia department electives regardless of the instructor (and so will not be counted as classes taken outside the department).
• The remaining credits for economics lecture courses may come from AP, Barnard elective courses (2000 or 3000 level), and transfer credits (either taken before registering at Columbia or study abroad). 
• Students must continue to take their senior seminar in the Columbia department of economics.
• The department will no longer have restrictions on the number of non-economics courses taken outside Columbia to fulfill major requirements. For example a student who has AP or transfer credit for Calculus I will be able to take the same number of economics courses outside the department as a student who does not have such credits.
• Note that in the case of joint majors, courses taken to fulfill the requirements of the affiliated department are subject to the rules of that department. For example a joint major with political science must check with political science whether or not a particular class taken outside of Columbia is acceptable for the joint major.

The following table summarizes the new rules in terms of course counts:

Notes

1. The count of lecture courses represents the minimum number of economics lecture courses required of the program. The count does not include seminars, nor courses in other departments such as Math and Statistics.

Research Credit

Students interested in working with a faculty member should read the section of the FAQ page at http://econ.columbia.edu/frequently-asked-questions-0 that addresses the differences between research credit and independent study. In late August the department will post the names of faculty members that are looking for research assistants and descriptions of their projects on the wikispace and send out the list on the listserv. There is no pre-registration during the spring registration period for these research positions.

The department occasionally has a few research positions for the summer session for work study eligible students. If these positions become available the department will send out an announcement as well as post them on the bulletin boards in the department.

Wikispace

When the department receives announcements and advertisements for other institutions, we post those announcements on the undergraduate wikispace at http://econinfoforstudents.wikispaces.columbia.edu/.  You will use your Columbia UNI and password to access the site.  We post job and internship information on this site as well as information from Career Services and the Fellowships office.

Study Abroad and Transfer Credits

All students who are planning on studying abroad in the fall must see Sunil Gulati during the spring advising period to get preliminary approval for any economics courses that they are planning on taking abroad. All students who are planning on taking classes this summer outside of Columbia University must also see Sunil Gulati now to get preliminary approval for any economics courses that they are considering taking. Please review the material posted on the departmental website regarding transfer credit at

http://econ.columbia.edu/transfer-credit-information.

Undergraduate TA positions

The department expects to hire undergraduate TAs again next year. Undergraduate TAs receive $1800 per semester. Undergraduate TAs have many of the same responsibilities as the graduate TAs in the department. In August you will receive an email listing the TA positions and their requirements. Please do not apply for a position before you receive this email.

Good Luck with Finals.

Susan Elmes

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Department of Economics

Columbia University