Successful MA applicants have qualifications well above our minimum requirements. Most of them have the following characteristics:
average GPA in the last year of undergraduate studies above A-
average undergraduate CGPA above the mid-point between B+ and A-
advanced micro and macro theory courses with at least A-
advanced econometrics course(s) with at least A-
several courses on mathematics (e.g. calculus, linear algebra, real analysis,...) with high marks
high GRE scores (above 162 for the quantitative reasoning test and above 4 for the analytical writing test)
strong and informative letters of recommendation.
Since we receive over 25 foreign MA applications for each available slot, we seldom admit a foreign applicant in our MA program who does not exceed all the items in this profile. (The grades mentioned above are expressed using the grading scheme at the University of Toronto. Grades from other schools will be converted taking into account both their grading scheme and the rigor in which it is applied.)
The MA program offers rigorous courses in microeconomic theory, macroeconomic theory, econometrics, and a wide variety of fields, suitable as preparation both for research work in the private and public sectors and for doctoral study. Virtually all courses, including all core courses, are taught by full-time faculty members.
The Department of Economics at the University of Toronto is one of the top departments in Canada, and is highly ranked among departments across the globe.
The University of Toronto offers outstanding research facilities, including one of the top-rated research libraries in North America.
The university is located close to the center of Toronto, a vibrant city that is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world.
Graduates of the program who take jobs rather than continuing to a PhD program typically take jobs in either government agencies (like the Bank of Canada, Stats Canada, the Competition Bureau, Finance Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Finance), financial corporations (like banks), or consulting firms. You can see a list of recent placement of our MA students at https://www.economics.utoronto.ca/index.php/index/graduate/maPlacement
Our graduates have gone on to PhD programs in Canada, the US, and elsewhere, including many of the very best programs worldwide. A few students each year continue to our own PhD program.
We put most weight on your grades in rigorous courses in economic theory, econometrics (or statistics), and mathematics. You should take advanced (third and fourth year) undergraduate courses in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory and econometrics (or statistics), and as many advanced mathematics courses as you can handle.
Tuition fees for the university are given on this page. Funding in the form of admission awards, TAship or other, is available for competitive applicants. All students admitted to the program are eligible to apply for Teaching Assistantships; in recent years, all students have received such Assistantships.
If you do not have a degree (undergraduate or graduate) from a Canadian university, you must take the GRE. If you do have a degree from a Canadian university, you are strongly encouraged to take the GRE, especially if your undergraduate degree is not from a university from which we get a large number of applications.
No, we do not accept late applications, regardless of the reason for the lateness (and in particular, even if the lateness is due to circumstances outside your control). Given that unexpected events can occur (especially when you are trying to meet a deadline!), please set yourself a personal deadline a week or two before ours.
Students with very strong analytical and quantitative background preparations may be permitted to fulfill core courses requirements by taking the corresponding PhD level core course sequences (ECO2020H and ECO2030H for microeconomics, ECO2021H and ECO2031H for macroeconomics, or ECO2400H and ECO2401H for econometrics). To make this substitution, the student will be required to take the PhD level ECO1011H (mathematics and statistics course), and must obtain written permission from the Associate Chair, Graduate Studies prior to starting the mathematics and statistics course in August.
No. However, within a week of your submitting the university's form you will receive an email message with a link to a supplementary application form. You can indicate there whether you plan to apply to a PhD program after you complete your MA degree.
We can determine whether you will be admitted only after you submit a formal application. We cannot make any assessment based on your transcripts or other partial information.
Yes, we use the same criteria to evaluate all applications. However, the university gives us quotas for the numbers of foreign and Canadian students we can admit, and the quota for the number of foreign students, as a fraction of the number of applications from foreign students, is much lower than the quota for the number of Canadian students as a fraction of the number of applications from Canadian students. As a result, foreign students who do not have very strong qualifications have no chance of admission.
Your decision about whether our program is the right one for you depends on many factors that we cannot assess in a short conversation. The professors writing letters of recommendation for you are in a better position to give you this advice. We are very happy to answer specific questions about our program that are submitted on our contact page. If we believe that a phone conversation or a face-to-face meeting would be helpful, we will let you know.
If, after obtaining a Bachelor's degree for which your grades are below our cutoff, you take advanced economics and math courses and do extremely well in them, we will count those courses when computing your average grade. However, please bear in mind two points. First, most students we admit have grades considerably above our minimum requirements; we reject many students whose average grades are above our cutoff. Second, if the average grade in your Bachelor's courses is below our cutoff, then our program is probably not right for you.
A three-year degree from a university in continental Europe does not satisfy our minimal requirements for admission. However, we encourage applications from students with such degrees. After a student with such a degree applies, we evaluate their academic record with all other applications. If we believe we should offer the student admission, the School of Graduate Studies reviews their academic preparation to determine if they are admissible. (We cannot provide any evaluation before an application is submitted.)
(Please note that the UK is not part of continental Europe; a British three-year degree does satisfy our minimal requirements.)
You would still need to upload an unofficial electronic transcript in your application. If you did your degree at the University of Toronto and began your studies after the year 1998, we are able to retrieve your official transcript and there is no need to send an official copy. If you began your studies at the University of Toronto before 1998, please make arrangements to have your official transcript sent to us directly from your issuing institution.
You cannot change the payment method once you have chosen it. After checking the box, you have 10 days to get your payment to SGS. It should be sent by courier to
Support Services,
School of Graduate Studies,
Room 103,
63 St. George Street,
University of Toronto,
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2Z9,
Canada.
(Tel: 416-946-3420; Fax: 416-946-0992)
Please send an email to: gr.admission.economics@utoronto.ca and submit a message on our contact page and we will reset your application, so that you can upload a new file.
Submit a message on our contact page giving your name and the name and email address of the new referee. Once you have paid the application fee and your application has the status "Documents Pending", we will enter the new referee for you.
The application fee is $125.
It cannot be waived. There are no scholarships for the application fee. The application fee is non-refundable under any circumstances.
We use the same criteria to evaluate applications for both full-time and part-time study. However, we are currently very restricted in the number of part-time students we can admit.
We take into account all your grades. We are especially interested in the grades you obtained in economics courses---especially challenging ones---whenever you took them, but we also take into consideration your grades in other subjects.
As a part-time student, you may take either one or two courses per semester. Thus a part-time student normally takes between four and eight semesters to complete the degree. (The time limit for completing an MA as a part-time student is 6 years.)
Yes. The application deadline is the same as the application deadline for our MA program. A non-degree student who is subsequently admitted to our MA program may ask for up to two semester-courses that s/he has passed as a non-degree student to be credited towards the MA. Such credit is subject to the approval of the both the department and the School of Graduate Studies.
The Admissions Committee normally starts to make first round offers from mid-March through early April and may continue with subsequent rounds of offers until June. All applicants will be notified either with an offer of admission or rejection of their application by the end of June.
