Complete the MU Online Graduate Application for Admission any time; continuous admissions for both spring and fall semesters.

In addition to this in-person MA program, we have an online MA program.

To prepare to submit the application linked above, you will need:

• Your transcript from every college/university you have attended
• Your resume
• Your personal statement
• Two letters of recommendation
• Your official GRE scores (sent directly from the Educational Testing Service)
• For international applicants: your official English proficiency scores, submitted directly to the Graduate Admission Office

Educational Testing Service Institutional Code: use  6875  for both GRE and TOEFL

Most successful applicants score at least 155 on the GRE quantitative section and maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

For English, native speakers generally score at least 146 on the GRE verbal section; non-native speakers must score at minimum TOEFL iBT 80, IELTS 6.5, Pearson Test of English 59, or Cambridge C1 Advanced 180.

Complete the MU Online Graduate Application for Admission by January 15 for priority funding consideration.  After January 15, please email the PhD Director to ensure we fully consider your application.  You are also welcome to email after the April 15 deadline to ask about admission opportunities, including the possibility of joining the cohort starting in August.

If you have logistical questions, please contact the Admissions Advisor assigned to you according to the first letter of your family name, listed on this web page.

If the cost stops you from applying, please email the PhD Director to ask about possible ways to reduce application costs.

In February, the top applicants are sent offers of admission and funding, while other top applicants are put on a waitlist and possibly made offers later; other applicants are declined. The deadline for you to accept our offer is April 15, the same as for all economics PhD programs signed to the April 15 Resolution, although it is helpful to other students (especially those on waitlists) if you decide sooner.

To prepare to submit the application linked above, you will need:

• Your transcript from every college/university you have attended
  • Besides economics courses (including intermediate microeconomics and intermediate macroeconomics, at minimum), this should include multivariate calculus, linear algebra (or "matrix theory"), probability/statistics, and possibly other math classes (real analysis, discrete mathematics, differential equations, etc.)
• Your resume/CV
• Your personal statement
  • Tell us something we can't learn from the rest of your application; for example, what have you enjoyed about economics so far, why do you want to study economics at the PhD level, and what do you envision for your post-PhD career?
• Optional (but strongly suggested): a writing sample of which you are the only author, like a thesis or research paper for a class
• Three letters of recommendation
  • Most helpful from a supervisor/advisor of your research, or your supervisor/boss at a job; we can already see your transcript, so letters from course instructors are usually not insightful
• Your GRE scores (our institution code is 6875)
  • For Fall 2025, we are still accepting home tests, but strongly recommend using a test center to increase confidence in your score's validity
• For international applicants: your English proficiency scores (see "Sending Test Scores" on this linked page for instructions; for TOEFL, our institution code is 6875)
  • Even if you are exempt from the Graduate School requirement due to having studied in the US, it will greatly help your probability of acceptance if you provide a (good) TOEFL/IELTS score with your application.  You can see in this table which score ranges correspond to which levels of TA/instructor opportunity.  (These are University rules that our department must follow.)

Educational Testing Service institutional code: use  6875  for both GRE and TOEFL.

These are not binding, but meant to help you self-assess your chances of admission.  Most successful applicants:

• score at least 160 on the GRE quantitative section;
• have good grades, with at least B average (3.0/4.0 GPA) or equivalent on other scales;
• score at least 3.5 on the GRE analytic writing section;
• if applicable (see Required Items above), score at least 100 on TOEFL (7.5 IELTS), ideally with a speaking score of 26-30 (TOEFL) or 8-9 (IELTS); see in this table which TOEFL/IELTS speaking score ranges correspond to which levels of TA/instructor opportunity.