FAQ for Undergraduates

Students must first be admitted to Stanford University. Visit the Stanford Admissions website to find out more.  The student may declare Economics as the major by following the steps in the How To Declare page.

While many Economics majors ultimately seek a postgraduate degree in business, law, medicine, or economics, some enter the labor market immediately after graduation.  Our students tend to be very successful and in great demand.  The ECON BA and BS degrees are STEM-designated majors, and the training they offer in systematic analysis of costs and benefits and in rational decision-making by individuals and organizations provides good preparation for careers in law, education, business, and government. Check out the majors page for more information about which degree path may be right for you.

You can watch a video provided by the American Economics Association to find out about careers in economics -  "A career in Economics . . . it's much more than you think."

Contact Career Education for specific career information or employment opportunities. Handshake is a job search resource available to all Stanford Students, and jobs and internships are posted here. The American Economics Association also provides a wonderful resource for students deciding what to pursue with their Economics Degree.

The Economics Bachelor of Arts requires 80 units of approved economics coursework and the Bachelor of Science requires 85. For details and a breakdown of the degree requirements, see the Undergraduate Major page.

Students scoring a 5 on both the advanced placement (AP) microeconomics and macroeconomics tests or a score of 7 on International Baccalaureate (IB) higher level economics test may petition the Director of Undergraduate Studies to have the ECON 1 course requirement waived by submitting the ECON 1 Waiver Petition. Students do not receive unit credit for placing out of ECON 1, and ECON majors/minors must make up the unit credit elsewhere in their degree. Contact the Undergraduate Student Services Officer for mor information.

ALL courses completed for the Economics major or minor requirements must be taken for a letter grade. Core courses must earn a C or better to be accepted, and a cumulative GPA of 2.0 (C) must be met by the time of degree conferral. 

While it is strongly encouraged to take prerequisite courses (such at MATH 20 and MATH 51) for a letter grade, students may still enroll in ECON core courses (such as ECON 102A and ECON 50) with a grade of 'CR' as these courses are not counted towards the units required for the major.

Yes, Econ 1 is a popular course for freshmen and sophomores offered each quarter. Econ 43, 46 and 47 are "frosh friendly" courses. There are many Intro Seminars covering interesting economic topics that are 3 units that do not have prerequisites (Econ 11N,  17N,  22N, 23N, 25N).  Go to Stanford Navigator for more information.

You can declare the Econ major anytime, but are strongly encouraged to do so before your junior year. We strongly recommend that you complete Econ 1 before declaring because it's a good way for students to find out if Econ is the right major for them. 

Major Declarations will NOT be reviewed over the summer, so students should plan to submit their declaration before the 8th week of the Fall and Winter Quarter, and before the 5th week of the Spring Quarter.

No, the prerequisite course must be taken in a quarter prior to taking the course requiring the prerequisite.

No. All field courses and Econ 101 must be taken at Stanford. No Transfer Credit for a field course or Econ 101 will ever be approved.

Our Department aims to maintain the highest possible educational standards. Hence, approval of Transfer Credit from other institutions may be granted only if it can be demonstrated that the course taken away from Stanford was taught at a high level which is compatible with the corresponding course offered at Stanford.

• Transfer credit for Economics core courses will depend on whether the course at another institution was taught at high enough analytical level. Credit will never be granted for non-calculus-based courses. 
• If a student seeks transfer credit for an elective course the student must specify the Stanford course it most closely resembles. This includes using courses listed as field courses as elective. No course will be approved as an elective course if there is no Stanford course which it proposes to replace. 
• All field courses must be taken at Stanford in California. No transfer credit for a field course will ever be approved.

The Stanford Economics Department will accept transfer credit for ECON 1 if the course (or courses) taken meet the same educational standards as the course taught at Stanford. Community college Transfer credit for any other ECON course will not be reviewed.

You may apply for degree conferral through Axess by the deadline specified by the University Calendar. Your coursework must be approved by the Undergraduate Student Services Officer and should be done at least one quarter before graduation. All graduating students must also submit the Econ commencement RSVP form (available on the Economics Department Website in February).

Yes. You must receive departmental approval and have at least 160 units toward graduation to participate. ALL students planning to walk at commencement MUST submit the Econ commencement RSVP form (available on the Economics Department Website in February). For more information on participation in the University-Wide Commencement Ceremony, please see the Stanford Commencement Page.