Prerequisites for declaring the Major (B.A.)

1. Two UVA Economics Classes

You must complete at least two graded economics courses at UVA.

2. Economics GPA

You must earn a GPA of 2.3 or higher on all Economics courses taken at UVA. 

This GPA calculation includes all 2000+ level Economics courses taken at UVA with the following exceptions:

• Your grades earned in courses taken outside the UVA Economics Department, such as transfer courses or direct credit courses offered through study abroad programs, are not included in the economics GPA.
• If you earn Economics elective credit for a course in another school or department at UVA, that grade is not included in your UVA Economics GPA.
• HIUS 2061 is cross-listed as ECON 2060. This course is the same whether taught under the History or Economics numbers.  Therefore, any grade you earn in this class is included in the Economics GPA.
• If you fail a class and retake it, both grades enter are included in your Economics GPA. If you take a class and pass it, grades earned on subsequent retake(s) are not included in your Economics GPA.

3. Three Prerequisite Courses

• You must earn a C+ (or higher) on each of the three courses listed below.  You can retake the class one time to try to earn a C+. If you do not earn a C+ in two attempts, you are not eligible to declare the Economics major.
• You cannot use transfer credit for these three classes after you matriculate to UVA. To use transfer credit for these three courses, you must have completed the classes (with a C+ or higher) before you matriculated to UVA.

A. Calculus I

Note: Calculus I is also a prerequisite for Intermediate Microeconomics (ECON 3010) and so you must complete Calculus I before you take ECON 3010.

• Most use MATH 1210 to satisfy this requirement, but you can also satisfy this requirement with: MATH 1190, MATH 1310, or APMA 1090.
• If you fail twice to obtain a grade of at least C+ in Calculus I (whether in the same or different courses), you are ineligible to declare the Economics major.
• Students considering a Financial Economics concentration or graduate work in economics should take MATH 1310 (or APMA 1110) instead of MATH 1210.
• If you fail to earn a C+ in Calculus I and then opt to take Calculus II instead of repeating Calculus I, you are exhausting your second chance for this prerequisite. If you earn a grade below C+ in Calculus II you are then ineligible to declare the Economics major.
• If you matriculate to UVA with AP or transfer credit for the Calculus I courses listed above or Calculus II (MATH 1220, MATH 1320, or APMA 1110) or Calculus III (MATH 2310, MATH 2315, or APMA 2120), you have satisfied this prerequisite.

B. Intermediate Microeconomics

Most use ECON 3010 to satisfy this requirement but you can also use ECON 3110 (Mathematical Microeconomics).  Note that you cannot earn credit for both ECON 3010 and ECON 3110, and these are considered the same course for the purposes of this requirement.

C. Statistics

Most use STAT 2120 at UVA to satisfy this prerequisite.  However, you can also use STAT 3120, APMA 3110, or APMA 3120.

Note regarding Econometrics: 

One Economics major requirement is the completion of Econometrics (ECON 3720 or 4720) by the end of your sixth semester. Thus, if you declare an Economics major in your 6th semester you must have already completed (or be currently enrolled in) Econometrics. If you declare after your sixth semester, you must have already completed Econometrics.

Major Requirements

Required Courses

Complete five required courses—ECON 2010, ECON 2020, ECON 3010 (or ECON 3110), ECON 3720 (or ECON 4720), and ECON 3020.

• Students entering the University with transfer credit for ECON 3010 (or 3020) on their transcript, but do not have credit for ECON 2010 (or 2020), are exempt from ECON 2010 or 2020, respectively. However, they will be required to complete one additional ECON elective; in other words a total of 5 ECON electives must be completed for the major.
• Declared majors must complete ECON 2010, ECON 2020, ECON 3010 (or 3110), and ECON 3720 (or 4720) by the end of the sixth semester or they will be dropped from the major. Students wishing to declare an Economics major later than the end of their sixth semester must have already completed all of these courses.

Elective Courses

• Students must complete 4 elective economics courses, each of which must be at least 3 credit hours.  At least 2 courses must be numbered 4000 or above and no more than one 2000 level elective.  No Economics courses numbered 1000-1999 may be used towards the Economics major.

GPA

• Students must achieve at least a 2.0 economics GPA in order to graduate.
• Students who finish their sixth semester with an economics GPA below 2.0 will be dropped from the major.

Declaring the Major

• Review your student record to make sure you have completed all the prerequisites- the grades must be posted on SIS.  If any prerequisites are in progress, you are not yet eligible to declare.
• Prospective majors and minors should submit the declaration form independently. The economics declaration guide will help students with this process.

Important Policies

• Certain courses can be transferred towards the major after a student starts at UVA (post-matriculation), however, certain restrictions apply. For more details please see the Transfer Credit section on the Department's website.
• Transfer students must meet all prerequisites.  They cannot automatically declare in the major.  Third-year transfer students considering the economics major are strongly advised to contact the Undergraduate Program Coordinator or schedule an appointment before selecting courses.
• No course taken credit/no credit may be used to satisfy major and concentration requirements.
• Students who declare their Economics major after Fall 2011 must complete at least four courses in Economics at the University of Virginia to graduate as Economics majors, whatever transfer credit they may have received for work done elsewhere.  For purposes of this rule, any class taught at the University of Virginia in another school or department of the University that is routinely accepted for major credit can be counted towards the total of four courses.
• Students who took prerequisite and other economics courses during the COVID grading semesters (Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Summer 2021) should refer to the Economics Grade Policies for COVID Semesters.