All of this means that the subject areas contained in the Department of Housing and Consumer Economics are more important than ever. There is an increasing need for individuals who understand these changes and can relate them to situations in education, the business world and the public sector. It is the objective of this program to prepare specialists to meet that need. The Master of Science Graduate students enrolled in the MS program select a concentration in either Consumer and Family Economics or Housing as a focus of their course work and research. The MS requires a thesis and is good preparation for those who wish to pursue doctoral studies as well as those who will be in positions requiring them to understand and transmit research findings.
Most students complete the program in four semesters.
Although it is important to make continued progress toward the degree, it is not advisable to make one's program too intense. It takes time to develop a real facility with complex material. Beyond that, much of the benefit of graduate study comes through shared experiences with other students and faculty. Those experiences are important as students define their professional identities. The Ph.D. program provides students with the opportunity to pursue scholarly activities by providing a thorough acquaintance with consumer economics or housing policy, quantitative methods in applied economics, research methods and statistics.