Majors & Minors
- Electives by Interest
- Honors Program
- Minors
- Career Paths
- Program FAQs
- Double Majors
Math 10ABC will fulfill EN30 major requirements. The Department of Economics recommends Math 20ABC for all of its majors, though. Keep in mind that some upper-division Economics elective courses require the Math 20ABC series. The Department strictly enforces all prerequisites, so please check course descriptions and prerequisites using the General Catalog prior to enrolling in Economics courses.
Please contact your College regarding your Quarter Limit. If you have 150+ units, any major change requires Department and College Approval when submitting a Major Change Request in the Major/Minor Tool on TritonLink. You may also reach out to Econ Advising to set up an appointment if you need help creating a new quarter by quarter plan before you consider switching.
Students cannot major in Business Economics and minor in Business. If you are interested in changing your major to Business Economics, you must drop the Business minor. Please see the Business Economics major requirements to see what courses you can use from your minor.
Yes. The Department of Economics has residency requirements for each major.
To receive a bachelor of arts degree in Economics (EN25), no more than four upper-division courses taken externally from UC San Diego can be counted toward the major.
To receive a bachelor of science degree in Management Science (EN26), no more than six upper-division courses taken externally from UC San Diego can be counted toward the major.
To receive a bachelor of science degree in Joint Mathematics-Economics (EN28), no more than three upper-division courses taken externally from UC San Diego can be counted toward the major.
To receive a bachelor of science degree in Business Economics (EN30), no more than one upper division Economics (Econ) course and one upper division Rady School (MGT) course may be taken externally from UC San Diego and be counted toward the major.
The Department of Economics reviews online courses by exception only and will accept an online course only if the content is appropriate and equivalent to a UCSD Economics course.
If the course(s) does not appear in an articulation agreement with the California Community College system, please follow the steps below to petition your course for UCSD major credit.
No. Unless the course was taken during COVID quarters (ie SP20, FA20, WI21, & SP21), all courses taken to meet major requirements must be taken for a letter grade. A course taken for P/NP will not apply towards major requirements. This applies to both upper and lower division requirements, all required Math classes, MGT classes, and ECON classes.
The only exception to this rule is ECON 195, 198, and 199, which are only offered with a P/NP grading option. No more than 12 units total of these classes may be applied towards your major. No more than eight units of ECON 195 may apply towards your major. No more than eight units of ECON 199 may apply towards your major. For EN25 and EN26 majors, these courses will count as standard electives, not advanced.
We do understand that sometimes life happens and there are situations where a P/NP grading option is needed. If this is the case, we will accept a major requirement class taken for P/NP, but you must fill out an undergraduate petition asking for an exception and send it to econugadvisor@ucsd.edu for departmental review. As a consequence, you will need to take an additional class for each class you took for P/NP per the chart below.
Course taken for P/NP | Additional Course student must now take: |
ECON 1, ECON 3, ECON 4, or ECON 5 |
EN25 & EN26: Standard Upper Division Elective EN28: Econ Upper Division elective EN30: either 1 MGT OR 1 Econ Upper Division elective |
ECON 100A or any other Upper Division Econ core course |
EN25 & EN26: Advanced Econ elective EN28 & EN30: Upper Division Econ elective |
MATH 10/20A-C |
EN25 & EN26: Standard Upper Division Elective EN28: Econ Upper Division elective EN30: Either 1 MGT OR 1 Econ upper div elective |
MATH 18 (formerly 20F) |
EN26: Advanced Upper Division elective EN28: Upper Division Econ elective |
Math Upper Division elective (EN28 majors) | Upper Division Math elective |
Yes. Major requirements taken during SP20, FA20, WI21 and SP21 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are accepted for a P/NP grading option (effective FA21). Such courses must be passed with a P in order to apply to major requirements.
Courses taken for P/NP outside of these specified quarters will not count toward major requirements. Outside of these specified quarters, all major requirements must be taken for a letter grade and passed with a C- or better.
All upper division courses, including electives, for our majors must be 4 units in order to apply toward major requirements.
However, students can use 2 one-unit honors classes with 1 two-unit topics course to use as 1 standard Econ elective. Students can also use 2 two-unit topics courses together for 1 standard Econ elective. This applies to all majors within the Economics Department.
For EN25 and EN26 students, please note that the combinations above can count only toward a standard Econ elective, not an advanced Econ elective.
No. Neither Econ 186 nor Econ 190 can be used toward major credit as they are 2 unit courses. Furthermore, they cannot be combined with each other nor with H or T courses to count toward elective credit.
All upper division courses, including electives, for our majors must be 4 units in order to apply toward major requirements.
No. Once you have received your degree, your undergraduate record is officially closed. You can take UC San Diego Summer Session courses, but these appear on a separate record and are not included with your undergraduate work. You can also take UCSD Extension courses because they maintain their own student records.
Students with a bachelor's degree should consider applying to graduate programs. Please contact the Office of Graduate Studies for information on graduate programs offered at UC San Diego.
We strongly recommend that you review the requirements and policies for our minors here before you declare.
You can declare a minor using the Major/Minor tool.
Yes. You are able to take classes for our minors for P/NP.
For minor courses taken for a letter grade, please be aware of the following:
The Department of Economics reviews online courses by exception only. The course syllabus must provide the following details, in order for the course to be reviewed:
1) Exams must be proctored
2) The method for proctoring must be clearly specified (taken on-campus or the proctoring center is identified)
3) The final exam must count for a large fraction of the course grade
View a sample filled out petition (PDF).