Advising - Undergraduate

Who is my advisor?

• First-year freshmen, sophomores, and students without a declared major are assigned a counselor in the Undergraduate Advising Center (UAC).

How do I get in touch with my advisor?

• UAC counselors regularly contact their advisees to schedule an appointment. Invitations are sent to SF State email addresses.
• Students can also initiate a meeting with a UAC advisor by scheduling an appointment or taking advantage of drop-in advising hours. For advising options, see the UAC website.

What if I have questions about economics major or minor?

• UAC counselors can walk you through the First-Time Student (4 Year) Roadmap that outlines a typical sequence of courses that economics majors who enter SF State as freshmen are expected to follow.
• UAC counselors can also answer basic questions about economics major or minor degree requirements.
• For questions related to deviations from standard roadmaps, economic elective course selection, career advice, etc., students should contact economics faculty advisors.

Who is my advisor?

• Juniors, Seniors, transfer students, and declared majors are assigned to the advising team from their respective colleges.
• College advising teams can help students navigate not only general education requirements but also the requirements of their major or minor.
• Economics students are advised by the Lam Family College of Business advising team located in the Undergraduate Advising Center (UAC).
• For questions related to deviations from standard roadmaps, economic elective course selection, career advice, etc., students should contact economics faculty advisors.

New transfer students

• New transfer students are encouraged to meet with an economics faculty advisor at the beginning of their first semester at SF State to ensure they have fulfilled or have a plan to fulfill pre-requisite course requirements for the major.
• Transfer Student (2 Year) Roadmap outlines a typical sequence of courses that economics majors who transfer to SF State from community colleges are expected to follow.

Graduation application

• Graduating seniors should submit their graduation application in the Fall or Spring semester prior to their last semester at SF State:
  • Students planning to graduate in Spring should submit the application during the preceding Fall semester.
  • Students planning to graduate in Summer or Fall should submit the application during the preceding Spring semester.
• For exact dates of the priority graduation application period, see the Dates & Deadlines page of the Registrar's Office.
• Detailed steps of the graduation application process are listed on the Undergraduate Graduation page of the Registrar's Office.

Graduation advising

• An important part of the graduation process is for students to review their Degree Progress Report (DPR) to identify any unmet requirements.
• Resolving any gaps (🟥 red squares in the DPR) may require a consultation with a UAC advisor/College Graduation Specialist or an economics faculty advisor.
• Graduating students are encouraged to schedule an appointment with a UAC advisor/College Graduation Specialist (for general education and university requirements) or an economics faculty advisor (for major requirements) to review their DPR, assess their readiness for graduation, and plan out their last semester.

Graduation workshops

• The Department of Economics typically conducts workshops for graduating students as a one-stop opportunity for learning about the process and consulting an advisor regarding their graduation application and DPR.

Prospective students can obtain general information about the university and the economics program by submitting a request for information. They are also encouraged to visit the Future Students page.

For more specific questions, prospective students are welcome to contact the Economics Department directly at econ@sfsu.edu.

Finding courses

Students can find all economics courses offered in upcoming semesters by searching the Class Schedule.

Enrolling in courses

For detailed information on how to enroll in courses, see How to Enroll: Registration Guide.

Here are some tips for enrolling in courses you need to stay on track:

• Meet with an advisor beforehand to plan what courses to take, including alternatives, in case some courses are full or not available.
• Keep in mind the start of the priority registration periods for different student groups to maximize your chances of enrolling in the courses you need.
• If a class is full, you may still be able to join:
  • Get on the official waitlist, if available. You may be waitlisted for up to 12 units at a time. There is a significant turnover in the first few weeks of the semester as students finalize their schedules and drop some classes.
  • Contact the instructor to inquire about the chances of getting into the course and get on an unofficial waitlist, if available. When trying to add an economics course, make sure to mention that you are an economics major. In some courses, a number of seats are reserved specifically for majors.
  • Attending the first few class meetings ("crashing" the course) can help secure a seat when one opens up due to drops or other reasons.
• Check that you meet the course's prerequisites. At the start of the semester, instructors may drop students who do not meet pre-requisites to make room for those who do.

Dropping a course

• Students can drop courses with no consequence at any time before the semester's Add/Drop deadline (see Dates & Deadlines), usually in the first three weeks of the semester.

Withdrawing from a course

• After the semester's Add/Drop deadline, course withdrawals will result in a W grade. To request a course withdrawal, students need to complete a Request to Withdraw.
• Keep in mind:
  • During weeks 4-12 of instruction, no documentation is required to accompany the request.
  • Starting with week 13, documentation supporting a serious and compelling reason to withdraw must be attached to the request.
• For more information, visit the Dropping and Withdrawing page at the Registrar's Office.

In some cases, to add a course, students need to submit the Waiver of College Regulations Petition.

After consulting with the course instructor, a student should fill out the petition to:

• Late add a course after the semester's add/drop deadline has passed.
• Repeat a course beyond the maximum number of allowed attempts.
• Change a grading option, e.g., from CR/NC to letter grade.
• And some other cases.

The completed form should be sent to the course instructor.

For the fall and spring semesters, undergraduate students may enroll in courses up to a maximum of 19 units. To request enrollment in 20 or more units, a student must fill out the Exceed Maximum Units Petition.

Students are strongly encouraged to consult an economics faculty advisor before submitting the form to discuss the associated workload and the feasibility of taking a large number of courses.

Completed forms should be forwarded to an economics faculty advisor.

The Economics Department offers a BA Economics degree.

Economics major requirements

The BA Economics degree requires taking 43 units of core and elective economics courses:

• Eight core courses (25 units)
• Six upper-division electives (18 units)

For more information, see:

• BA Economics Degree Requirements
• First-Time Student (4 Year) Roadmap
• Transfer Student (2 Year) Roadmap
• SF State Scholars Roadmap.

Acceptable grades

• Core courses must be taken for a letter grade and completed with a grade of C- or better.
• Elective courses can be taken for the CR/NC option. Electives can be completed with a grade of D- or better (subject to the 2.0 GPA requirement).

Core courses sequence

Due to pre-requisite requirements, economics core courses should be taken in a certain sequence. Core courses can be roughly grouped into four levels:

• Courses in Level 1 (introductory) are prerequisites for courses in Level 2 (intermediate). Therefore, students must complete Level 1 before proceeding to Level 2. In particular, MATH 226 (Calculus 1) is a pre-requisite for courses in Level 2 and Level 3 and should be completed as soon as possible.
• ECON 312 (Level 3) is a pre-requisite for ECON 690 (Level 4), and these courses cannot be taken concurrently. Students should plan to take ECON 690 in their last semester and take ECON 312 in the semester prior to that.

Students often declare the economics major after completing courses in Level 1.

Elective courses

Upper-division electives are generally courses numbered ECON 400 and above. See "Choosing Electives" under "Common Advising Inquiries" for more details.

Many economics electives have intermediate core courses (ECON 301 or ECON 302) as prerequisites. ECON 301 is the most common pre-requisite. Students should take ECON 301 as soon as possible to have the largest selection of electives available to them.

Additional tips for timely graduation

• Take MATH 226 as soon as you can. If you have not yet taken MATH 226, it will take at least four semesters to graduate: MATH 226 → ECON 301 → ECON 312 → ECON 690
• Take ECON 311 (or DS 212 or MATH 124) as soon as you can. If you have not yet taken ECON 311, it will take at least three semesters to graduate: ECON 311 → ECON 312 → ECON 690
• Take ECON 301 as soon as you can. If you have not yet taken ECON 301, it will take at least three semesters to graduate: ECON 301 → ECON 312 → ECON 690
• Some economics electives do not require ECON 301 or ECON 302. Consider taking such electives earlier in your academic career.
• Up to two electives (6 units) can be non-ECON courses from the list of approved outside electives.
• The Economics Department often offers a handful of core and elective courses during summer semesters. Consider taking them to reduce your time to graduation.
• Some economics electives allow students to also satisfy SF State requirements:
  • ECON 540 (Social Justice, Global Perspectives, Am. Ethnic & Racial Minorities)
  • ECON 612 (Global Perspectives)
  • ECON 640 (Social Justice, Global Perspectives).

The Economics Department offers a Minor in Economics. It can be completed by taking 22 units of core and elective economics courses:

• Four core courses (13 units)
• Three upper-division electives (9 units)

Upper-division electives are generally courses ECON 400 and above. See "Choosing Electives" under "Common Advising Inquiries" for more details.

All courses must be completed with a grade of C- or better. In addition, core courses must be taken for a letter grade. Only elective courses can be taken for the CR/NC option.

For additional details, refer to the Minor in Economics page in the Academic Bulletin.

Students who are applying to change to the Economics major or minor are strongly encouraged to see an economics faculty advisor who will walk them through the economics major or minor requirements and answer any questions.

Requests to change your Major or Minor can be submitted online. To do so, follow the steps outlined on the Change of Major or Minor webpage.

In many circumstances, courses taken at other institutions can be transferred and applied toward the completion of your Economics degree at SF State.

Transfer process

The process consists of two distinct steps:

1. Transferring courses to SF State:

First, courses taken at other institutions need to be officially transferred to SF State. This is a standard part of the onboarding process for students transferring to SF State. For more information, visit Transfer Credit Central.

2. Course substitutions and equivalencies:

Second, to count towards the economics major or minor, the transferred courses need to be substituted for their equivalents at SF State. The substitution may happen automatically for some transferred courses that have been verified in the past as equivalent. For example, this is typically the case with lower-division courses taken at other CSU campuses and California Community Colleges. Such courses will appear in the Economics Major/Minor sections of the Degree Progress Report. Properly substituted courses can also be identified in the Transfer Credit Report, where they appear alongside the non-generic name of the equivalent course at SF State.

Some courses, such as upper division courses and courses taken at certain institutions, need to be manually verified and substituted. They appear as generic lower division (ECON100TR) or upper division (ECON300TR) courses in the Credit Transfer Report. To establish equivalency of a course, students should contact the Chair of the Economics Department, who will direct them to the appropriate economics faculty advisor. The advisor will commonly request to see the syllabus of the course. Upon verification, the advisor will take steps to substitute the course so that it appears in the Economics Major/Minor sections of the DPR.

Faculty contacts for course substitution and equivalency requests

For course substitution and equivalency requests, a student should contact the Chair of the Economics Department. The student will be directed to the appropriate advisor who can establish equivalency of the course.

To establish equivalency of an outside course to the following core economics courses, a student can directly use these contacts:

• For MATH 226, contact the Math Department.
• For ECON 311 or ECON 312, contact Professor Bar.

Transferring upper-division economics courses

Students considering taking an economics course at another institution with the goal of transferring it as an equivalent to an upper-division (300+) economics course at SF State are strongly encouraged to obtain prior approval from an economics faculty advisor.

Advanced Placement (AP) courses

Some high-school AP courses can count towards your degree. The Economics Department accepts Econ 101 and Econ 102 AP equivalents completed with a grade of 3 or better.

Transfers from the quarter system

Transferring units from an institution on the quarter system may result in a shortfall in units required for the economics major or minor. An economics faculty advisor will typically recommend an additional economic elective course to make up for the shortfall to meet the unit requirement for the economics major or minor.

Economics majors must take six upper-division elective courses (18 units), while economics minors must take three upper-division elective courses (9 units).

What counts as an upper-division elective?

To satisfy the electives requirement, students can take:

• ECON courses numbered 400 and above (excluding ECON 690). Keep in mind that courses numbered 700 and above are graduate courses and generally not available for undergraduate students.
• Courses in other departments cross-listed with ECON. There is a handful of such courses, including:
  • LABR/ECON 511
  • HIST/ECON 474
  • ECON/FIN/ENVS 651
• [majors only] Up to two elective courses (6 units) can be taken outside of ECON if they appear on the list of approved outside electives. This option is not available for students minoring in economics. After taking such a course, a student may need to contact an economics faculty advisor who will make an adjustment so that the course appears in the economics major section of the DPR.
• [minors only] In addition, economics minors may use ECON 301 or ECON 302 as an elective if it was not used as a core course. They can also take ECON 312 as an elective.

What electives are offered?

The Economics Department offers a varying selection of elective courses every semester. To find electives that are offered in the upcoming semesters, students can search the Class Schedule. If the schedule is not yet available, students may get a rough idea about what electives will be offered by searching the same semester of the previous year.

Elective prerequisites

To take economics electives, students must satisfy certain prerequisites. Course listing in the Class Schedule is a quick way to find information about prerequisites. To do so, click on the course number to see course details.

Students can also use the Auto Advisor Excel Spreadsheet to identify what economics electives they can take based on the courses they have already completed.

Electives outside of SF State

An upper-division economics elective course taken at another institution may or may not satisfy the economics elective requirement at SF State. Students are encouraged to seek pre-approval from an economics faculty advisor before taking an economics elective course outside of SF State.

Electives by areas of interest

To help choose what electives to take, the list below groups them by areas of interest:

A career in financial and economic analysis

• FIN 350 Business Finance
• ECON 500 Money and Banking
• ECON 501 Money and Capital Markets
• ECON 520 Industrial Organization
• ECON 618 Economic Inference
• ECON 651 Student Managed Fund in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investments
• ECON 680 Applied Economics and Data Analysis with R
• ECON 731 Econometric Theory

Graduate school in economics

• MATH 226, 227, 228, 245, 340: Calculus, Linear Algebra/Differential Equations, and Math Stats
• ECON 616 Experimental Economics and Game Theory
• ECON 618 Economic Inference
• ECON 715 Mathematical Economics
• ECON 731 Econometric Theory

International trade, finance, and development

• ECON 400 Economic and Social History of the United States
• ECON 560 Economics of Growth
• ECON 611 International Trade Theory and Policy
• ECON 612 International Finance and Macroeconomics
• ECON 620 Economic Development, [GE]
• ECON 635 Economics of Globalization, [GE]

Money and banking

• FIN 350 Business Finance
• ECON 500 Money and Banking
• ECON 501 Money and Capital Markets
• ECON 505 Public Economics
• ECON 651 Student Managed Fund in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investments

Urban and environmental issues

• ECON 505 Public Economics
• ECON 535 Urban Economics, [GE]
• ECON 550 Environmental Economics

Economics of labor and discrimination

• ECON 450 Health Economics, [GE]
• ECON/HIST/LABR 474 History of Labor in the United States
• ECON/LABR 510 Labor Economics
• ECON/LABR 511 Collective Bargaining
• ECON 512 Economics of Poverty and Discrimination
• ECON 540 Economics of Gender
• ECON 541 Economics of LGBTQ Issues
• ECON 640 Health Economics Analysis and Research

Law and economics

• ECON 515 Economics of Crime and Justice
• ECON 516 Law and Economics
• ECON 520 Industrial Organization

Economics majors can satisfy SF State's 12-unit complementary studies requirement by taking 12 units of courses outside of ECON. In addition, such courses cannot be cross-listed with ECON. Beyond that, the Economics Department does not place any restrictions on complementary studies courses. As a result, students will normally fulfill the requirement by completing the 120 units required for graduation.

Although not required, economics majors can consider pursuing a minor (or a second major) in a field related to economics, including but not limited to:

• Any business program
• Political Science
• International Relations
• Math
• Computer Science
• Geography
• Environmental Studies
• Criminal Justice
• Philosophy

Spring 2020 exception: Core courses completed with a CR grade during the Spring 2020 semester do count towards an economics degree.

Core course policy

• Economics majors and minors are required to take economics core courses for a letter grade. CR/NC option is not allowed for core courses.
• A core course completed with a letter grade of C- or better counts towards an economics degree.
• A student who completed a core course with a CR grade may be able to retroactively change it to a letter grade. After consulting the instructor of the course, the student needs to fill out the Waiver of College Regulations Petition.

Elective course policy

• Economics elective courses may be taken for the CR/NC option. An elective course completed with a CR grade counts towards the economics major or minor.
• Note that an elective course completed with a letter grade of D- or better counts towards the economics major degree but not the economics minor degree.

Other restrictions

• Students should be aware of the SF State restriction that a maximum of 24 units with a CR grade can count towards a baccalaureate degree.
• Furthermore, to avoid probation, students must maintain a GPA of 2.0 (C letter grade average) or better. The requirement applies to both the GPA in courses taken at SF State and the overall cumulative GPA that includes courses transferred from other institutions.

Careers in economics

Economics is a versatile field. Economics graduates find jobs in the corporate world and beyond. American Economic Association has an informative webpage on career paths available for economics majors.

To learn more about economic careers, watch the webinar series on the topic:

• Exploring Careers in Economics Webinars (organized by Federal Reserve)
• Certified Business Economist (CBE) Careers in Economics Webinar Series (organized by the National Association of Business Economists)

Some economics majors choose to pursue graduate studies. Learn more about Graduate degrees in economics.

How much do economics majors earn relative to other majors? Take a look at the Hamilton Project website.

Jobs and internships

Getting an internship can give a jump start to your career. Explore internship opportunities:

• CSU Chico's List of Internships for Economics Majors
• Search for Economics Internships on ZipRecruiter

For additional job and internship resources, visit Prof. Venoo Kakar's website.

Visit LFCOB Career Services & Professional Development Center for additional job and internship listings and a variety of career resources.

Tutoring

Students are encouraged to explore the services of the Tutoring and Academic Support Center (TASC). The center offers tutoring for introductory economics courses: ECON 101 and ECON 102.

The Economics Department sponsors in-house tutoring for selected upper-division core economics courses. Currently, tutoring for ECON 301 and ECON 302 is available.

Student lounge

The Economics Department maintains a student lounge, the home to the Economics Student Association. Economics students are free to use it as a space for studying and meeting their colleagues.

Scholarships

Several scholarships are available for economics majors. For more information, visit the Economics Department’s Scholarship page.

Students on academic probation should see an advisor at the UAC to develop a plan for future success. For more information, visit the Academic Probation page.