Under normal circumstances a student is permitted to take the examinations twice, and must pass both by the end of the second year of study. Study groups work together on courses and in preparing for Qualifying examinations. This cooperative environment starts early and continues through the program. In the second year students normally take either three or four courses for credit each semester in major and minor subjects or related courses. To establish subjects for majors or minors, or to establish expertise in an area of study generally requires two semesters of a 700-level course sequence.
Some subjects require more than two courses of work.
Again, students are generally working together, rather than competing with each other. The third year typically is used to supplement knowledge in the major subject, to expand into other fields of interest, to broaden tools such as mathematics, to search for a dissertation topic, and to start dissertation research. By their third year students are expected to become active in at least one of our numerous research workshops. Numerous other closely related workshops are available, such as those in Applied Mathematics, Behavioral Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Law and Economics, and Statistics. Most of the workshops meet at least twice a month, often weekly.