New and Current Graduate Student FAQs
Graduate Program Guides
- Graduate Catalog – Office of the Registrar
Additional Important Information
- PhD Program Guidelines NU Department of Economics
- A Guide to the Preparation and Submission of Theses and Dissertations (PDF) – Graduate School, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
- PhD placements
New and Current Graduate Student FAQs
To apply for graduate housing on campus, visit the Residential Life website. There are many rental units available in the immediate neighborhood, and in the Boston area in general. Start your search at Northeastern’s Off-Campus Housing website. There also are private agencies which will help you with your search. If you don’t plan to bring a car (or even if you do), be sure to look for housing near MBTA subway or commuter rail stations. Be aware that rentals in Boston are anything but cheap.
Classes start the beginning of September, depending on the exact date of the Labor Day holiday.
Master’s students should arrive at least the week before classes begin. New Ph.D. students entering doctoral-level coursework should plan to arrive two weeks before classes begin. There are orientation events that new students are expected to attend. International students and new TA’s in particular have mandatory events; please be sure to arrive in enough time to attend them all.
Details of these events will be posted as they become known. You will also receive information from the College of Social Sciences and Humanities Graduate Office about events that are university-wide.
Incoming graduate students are encouraged to reach out to their program Directors who will serve as their first‐year faculty advisors.
- Prof. Silvia Prina 317 LA email@example.com
- Prof. Jun Ma 319 HO firstname.lastname@example.org
Prof. Aysen Tanyeri‐Abur 310B LA a.tanyeri‐email@example.com
Master’s students are also encouraged to reach out to any of our
co‐op advisors to discuss co‐op opportunities.
The university defines a full-time load for graduate students as eight semester hours per semester. Virtually all our courses are four credits, so taking at least two makes you full time. Most graduate students take three courses per semester. All Teaching Assistants are expected to take three courses per semester, except possibly in their last semester of coursework. Students with a CSSH Dean’s Scholarship must maintain full-time status while in the program. International students are required to maintain full-time enrollment (i.e., take at least two courses per semester) throughout the program. The more courses students take each semester, the sooner they graduate.
All students can register online. Go to www.myneu.neu.edu to create your myNEU Account. Below the Login button, click on HOW DO I GET A myNEU USERNAME AND PASSWORD? International students will enter their international ID/PKID number found at the bottom of the admission letter, and use postal code 02115 in lieu of their overseas postal code. If you experience difficulties in creating your myNEU account, contact the Graduate School (firstname.lastname@example.org).
Northeastern is located in the heart of Boston. If you are coming from a long distance, you can travel by plane to Logan Airport. From the airport you can take a taxi to Northeastern. If you are traveling light, you can take the Blue Line subway to State Street, where you change to the Orange line and get off at Ruggles. Both the Orange (Ruggles stop) and Green lines (Northeastern stop) serve Northeastern. You can also travel to Boston by train. Amtrak’s Boston-New-York-Washington service stops at Back Bay Station. From Back Bay, you can then transfer to the Orange Line and travel two stops to Ruggles. There are also several Washington-New York-Boston bus lines, some of which are very cheap, which drop you off in various locations in Boston not far from Northeastern’s campus. There are many ways to reach Northeastern by automobile. Visit the university’s website for campus maps. If you use GPS, enter 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston as your destination.
After you arrive, visit the Department of Economics, whose main office is located at 301 Lake Hall. The economics department faculty and instructor offices, seminar rooms, and other facilities are found on the third floor of Lake and Holmes Halls. These two “Halls” are simply parts of the same building, which has four different names depending on which part you are in. Also, if you are new to Boston, take some time to locate and enjoy the multitude of cultural and recreational opportunities in the area, some of which are within walking distance of Northeastern.
You will be notified of your assignment and faculty supervisor about a month before the fall semester begins. The assignment typically involves working for a faculty member in the department or tutoring in our Principles of Economics Workshop. You should meet with your faculty supervisor as early as possible during the first week of classes.
Mostly, yes. International students and students supported by Teaching Assistantships or Dean’s Scholarships must maintain full-time status. Let us know if you plan to change your status.
For both the MS and PhD programs, there is a minimum required grade point average of 3.000. In addition, MS students are permitted to earn no more than one C in the core courses. Last, PhD students must earn at least a B grade in theory and field courses in order to qualify for the qualifying and comprehensive examinations.
Current MS students are asked to apply to our PhD program if they are interested; transfer is not automatic.
All MS students who may be interested in pursuing a doctoral degree in the future are strongly encouraged to follow the MS Advanced Core course plan. Those who plan to apply for admission
to our PhD program in Fall 2023 must complete the Fall 2022 MS Advanced Core course plan, as performance in those classes will play an important role in the PhD Admissions Committee’s deliberations, as well as the Spring 2023 MS Advanced Core course plan. Accepted students would be transitioned into the PhD program in Fall 2023. Doctoral students who join or transition to the PhD program without the MS will be awarded the MS degree when PhD Candidacy is reached.
You need to fill out the online application, and get three letters of recommendation from our faculty. You do not need to retake the GRE exam, and we already have your college transcript(s).
The Master’s program requires completion of a minimum of eight courses, or 32 semester hours, of graduate credit. These courses must include the four MS core courses. The PhD coursework entails completion of the four MS core courses, the three PhD core courses, two field courses, and a minimum of three elective courses, for a total of twelve courses or 48 semester hours. Students entering the doctoral program with an advanced degree or graduate economics credit may require fewer courses. Doctoral students of course have other requirements besides courses — qualifying examinations in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, the field/econometrics examination, and a dissertation.
It takes an average of 1-1/3 years (three semesters) for the Master’s if the student does not choose the co-op option, and an average of five years for the PhD (beyond the Bachelor’s level).
If you are interested in potentially pursuing co-op, please click here!
This course is designed for the student who wants to pursue a subject that is not currently offered in any of our listed courses. The student should choose the topic of the readings course. It is the student’s responsibility to find a faculty member who will serve as advisor for the course. The advisor, in consultation with the student, will then determine the content of the course, its requirements, the number of credits to be awarded, and how a final grade is to be determined.
There is an internship course (ECON 8550). To qualify, a student has to locate an unpaid internship and a faculty supervisor, and arrange for the internship director to report his/her performance to the faculty member who will be responsible for giving the grade. Students who have completed a co-op experience are not eligible for an internship.
Yes, you can. Students may transfer up to nine semester hours toward the degree. Courses submitted for transfer credit must be graduate-level, must not have been applied toward another degree, and must have earned a grade of at least a B. All transfer credit applications must be approved by the Graduate Coordinator and the Graduate School.
Doctoral students are required to take their theory qualifying exams at the next available offering after all theory courses have been completed. They are required to take their field/econometrics comprehensive exams at the next available offering after both field courses have been completed.
Degree candidacy is attained when a doctoral student has completed all coursework, and passed both theory qualifying examinations, and the field comprehensive examination.
The university requires continuous enrollment for doctoral students until they graduate. In the fall of the second year (for those students who entered with a master’s degree) or third year (for those students who entered with a bachelor’s degree), doctoral students register for their final field class and ECON 8960, Exam Prep, while they prepare for the field comprehensive examination given in early January. In Spring of the second (or third) year, students register for ECON 9986, Research. This is the term students begin attending the doctoral field meetings and begin the process of developing dissertation topics and forming dissertation committees. Beginning in the third (or fourth) year, students register for ECON 9990, Dissertation, for two consecutive semesters. Then, for every semester thereafter until graduation, students enroll in ECON 9996, Dissertation Continuation. Throughout the dissertation-writing stage, students are expected to participate in the weekly PhD workshops.
In the PhD workshops, students who have attained ABD status will select topics, develop their dissertation proposals, and form dissertation committees. Students will be given numerous opportunities to present their work and gain valuable feedback throughout the dissertation writing process. Despite there being no formal registration, all doctoral students who have attained ABD status are required to attend until graduation.
Once you have selected your field of study, you should begin thinking about possible dissertation topics, and which faculty member would be best suited to serve as your principal dissertation advisor. Interactions with faculty teaching field courses should help you sharpen your thinking about topics. This process is continued in the PhD Workshops. The main purpose of the workshops are to support the dissertation writing process. Another important input into finding a workable topic is attendance at department seminars and other workshops to learn what your peers inside and outside the department are working on.
Each doctoral student must complete a dissertation that embodies the results of extended research and makes an original contribution to the field. This work should give evidence of the candidate’s ability to carry out independent investigation and interpret in a logical manner the results of the research. The dissertation must consist of original research. It consists of three separate (but usually related) essays. In a multiple-essay dissertation, no more than one of these essays may be co-authored. If an essay is co-authored, the co-authors will generally be members of the Northeastern University community. However, exceptions to both of the above restrictions will be considered by the Graduate Curriculum Committee.
Northeastern master’s theses and doctoral dissertations are searchable in Scholar OneSearch.
Prior to 2008: Located in print in the Archives and Special Collections.
Associate Professor and PhD Graduate Program Director
317 Lake Hall
Professor and MS Graduate Program Director
324 Lake Hall
Teaching Professor Aysen Tanyeri‐Abur
MS Graduate Program Associate Director
310B Lake Hall
Cheryl Fonville, Administrative Officer
301 Lake Hall, 617.373.2872
Please direct email inquiries to email@example.com.