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Apply to UVic

Fill out the application including information for all post-secondary institutions you attended, and upload, as applicable, all required documents. See Required Application Documents.

The Graduate ³Ô¹ÏÍø and Records Office (GARO) will accept unofficial documents to complete a preliminary evaluation, but require official documents to confirm the information received, if offered admission to the Economics graduate program.

CANCELLATION of your admission and registration will occur for failure to disclose previous ³Ô¹ÏÍø.

Once you have completed your application and have uploaded your documents, pay your application fee. You must pay online with a credit card or INTERAC online.

This fee is a requirement of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and as such, our department cannot waive it. Students may find it helpful to know that it is possible to transition directly from the MA program into the PhD program. This makes the one-time application fee more worthwhile.

After submitting your online application, please review the list of received and outstanding documents via the My UVic Application page.

You may upload/submit any outstanding unofficial documents to Graduate ³Ô¹ÏÍø and Records after submission of your application. Simply log back into your MY UVic Application, go to your application checklist, and click on the "upload" link next to the outstanding document. The uploaded item will post in the uploaded documents section of the application.

If offered provisional admission, you must mail all official documents to the Graduate ³Ô¹ÏÍø and Records Office. Please include your full legal name with your document package. Delays may occur without this information.

Do not send official documents until all of your course work is completed and your degree conferred.

Official documents are not returned and will become the property of the ³Ô¹ÏÍø. If your originals are irreplaceable, you should submit copies for evaluation purposes and be able to provide the originals for comparison.

The Graduate ³Ô¹ÏÍø & Records Office (GARO) can begin an initial evaluation with uploaded unofficial transcripts.
Unofficial transcripts are:

• Non-official photocopies
• Transcripts which have been opened or arrive without a sealed envelope
• Transcripts not endorsed by the issuing institution (signature, seal or chop over the closure)
• Transcripts received electronically
• Transcripts which arrive without the official seal of the university

If you have incomplete courses not listed on your official transcript, please provide a list of courses in progress and their credit weight in your application.

Official transcripts and degree certificates are:

• Sealed in envelopes endorsed by the granting university, and include
• Signature, seal or chop over the envelop closure

Students that have previously attended UVic are required to submit unofficial transcripts. They DO NOT require official transcripts to be submitted.

Unless the documents are only available in English, the official original language document accompanied by a certified literal English translation is required.

Certified photocopies endorsed by the issuing university and sent in a sealed, endorsed envelope are acceptable.

Documents not received in this manner, are unofficial and if accepted to the program, GARO will require official documents to confirm your information.

Graduate ³Ô¹ÏÍø and Records Office mailing information:

Mailing address:
Graduate ³Ô¹ÏÍø and Records
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PO Box 3025 STN CSC
Victoria BC V8W 3P2
Canada

Courier address:
Graduate ³Ô¹ÏÍø and Records
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University Centre A206
3800 Finnerty Road (Ring Road)
Victoria, BC V8P 5C2

All applicants must have assessment reports submitted from two professors or other academic authorities familiar with their work. The names and professional email addresses (not personal email addresses) of your chosen assessors/referees are required when you submit your application.

Once you have submitted your online application and have paid the application fee, your referees will receive notification by email, stating that they have been identified by you to provide an academic assessment.

In this email, your referees are given your name, the program/degree, the term to which you are applying, and will be asked to submit their assessment using a secure, online reporting system. An encrypted link in the email will allow them to populate the assessment report online and submit it directly to the Graduate ³Ô¹ÏÍø and Records Office (GARO) electronically.

We recommend that you contact each of your referees to confirm their willingness to complete an assessment on your behalf.

We strongly encourage your referees to complete the online assessment report provided in their automated email, however, should your referee not wish to complete the electronic version, letters of reference may be supplied in lieu of assessment reports and should be submitted in ONLY one of the following two ways in order to be considered official:

• Mailed in a sealed envelope signed by the assessor across the back seal.
  OR
• Sent by the assessor as a PDF by email to gradrefs@uvic.ca

Please note, applicants are not be permitted to see these documents.

The Graduate Record Examination () is REQUIRED for applicants coming from a University outside of Canada or the United States. If you hold a degree from a recognized Canadian or U.S. post-secondary institution, you are NOT required to take the GRE. The department code for GRE is 1801.

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) CANNOT substitute for the GRE.

GRE scores entered as part of your online application are unofficial.

If offered admission, you are required to have your official GRE scores sent directly from the testing agency to the ³Ô¹ÏÍø, so that GARO can verify the information received for admission purposes.

You need to demonstrate English language proficiency to attend the ³Ô¹ÏÍø if English is not your first language. You may do so by completing one of three English language proficiency tests below:

(IELTS)

• We only accept Academic IELTS
• Minimum overall band score: 6.5
• No individual component can have a score lower than 6.0

(MET)

• A minimum score of 64 will be accepted as proof of English proficiency

(TOEFL)

• A minimum score of 90 from the internet-based TOEFL (iBT) (with at least 20 points in each section) is required
• TOEFL iBT test taken at a test centre or the iBT home edition will be accepted
• ³Ô¹ÏÍø's TOEFL institution code is 0989
• Department code for TOEFL is 84

Official test score reports must be sent directly to the ³Ô¹ÏÍø by the testing agency. Scores older than two years are not acceptable.

You are exempt from this requirement if:

• You hold a recognized degree from a designated English-speaking country
• You have spent the last three years prior to coming to the ³Ô¹ÏÍø in an English-speaking country
• You have a degree from a recognized institution at which the language of instruction is English

MA and PhD applicants are required to supply a current résumé and/or Curriculum Vitae (CV) providing an overview of experiences and other qualifications.

A PhD applicant must provide a personal statement of research interests that

• Explains your motivations for pursuing a doctorate degree in economics
• Provides a detailed description of your research interests
• Identifies up to three faculty members from the Department of Economics with whom you share close research interests that would serve as potential supervisors. Please refer to the list of faculty who are currently willing to supervise PhD students

PhD applicants that do not include all of the above in their statement of research interests WILL NOT be reviewed.

This personal statement is much more important for admission at UVic than at most other universities. Faculty members that you identify as potential supervisors will review your application and play a central role in its evaluation.

To be admitted to the PhD program, it is essential that you demonstrate with conviction that you have thought seriously about your chosen field of research and the reasons why you are interested in working with the professors you identify.

PhD applicants are required to supply a writing sample in the form of one recent research paper.

Phillips, Hager, and North Graduate Scholarship for Research in Environmental and Resource Economics
Application to the Phillips, Hager, and North Graduate Scholarship requires a one-page research proposal. For more information, please see the "Will I be considered for financial assistance" heading under the Financial Matters FAQ tab.

Women in Economics  Graduate Scholarship
Application to the Women in Economics Graduate Scholarship requires a one-page report. For more information, please see the "Will I be considered for financial assistance" heading under the Financial Matters FAQ tab.

No, we do not have the resources to do pre-evaluations. You must apply and go through the formal admissions process. Please be advised that it will not give you an advantage to email your education history and other credentials to the department, as it will not be taken into consideration unless you apply for admission.

Our typical successful applicant has completed an economics major (preferably BSc, but often BA). Their grades are mostly As and they have shown strong performance in mathematics and statistics courses.

We look mostly at grades in core technical courses such as intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics, advanced microeconomics and macroeconomics, mathematics for economics, probability and statistics, econometrics, calculus (including multivariate) and linear algebra.

You do not need all these courses to be considered for admission. We do expect an ideal candidate to have taken most. You should have received mostly A grades in most of these courses for us to seriously consider your application.

You may find it helpful to compare your background with our recommended course list for undergraduate students wishing to proceed to graduate school:

MATH 100 Calculus I
MATH 101 Calculus II
ECON 203 Intermediate Microeconomics I
ECON 204 Intermediate Macroeconomics
MATH 211Linear Algebra
ECON 245 Descriptive Statistics and Probability
ECON 246 Statistical Inference
ECON 313 Intermediate Microeconomics II
ECON 345 Econometrics
ECON 350 Mathematical Economics I: An Introduction to Static Methods
ECON 351Mathematical Economics II: An Introduction to Dynamic Methods
ECON 365 Econometrics: Part I
ECON 366 Econometrics: Part II
ECON 400 Advanced Topics in Microeconomic Theory
ECON 401 Advanced Topics in Macroeconomic Theory

Visit the Academic Calendar for detailed information about these courses.

We will consider your application if your training includes intermediate microeconomics (comparable with ECON 313), intermediate macroeconomics (comparable with ECON 204) and an applied econometrics course (comparable with ECON 345).

A degree in business or accounting does not prepare you to do a graduate degree in economics. We only consider applicants with those degrees (or majors other than economics) if they have A grades in several key economics and mathematics/statistics courses (see above) on their transcript.

If you lack sufficient background in economics and mathematics/statistics you can boost your chances of acceptance by completing related courses before you apply.

Mathematics/statistics or engineering students with little economics background should successfully complete intermediate microeconomics to demonstrate an ability to think like an economist. In such cases, you need to ensure that you have adequate mathematics training (e.g. one or more courses comparable with UVic’s MATH 208).

We do not examine whether your transcript meets this recommended background. You should carefully compare your undergraduate background with the above recommended courses.

Admission into the graduate program is highly competitive, and places are limited. 

Normally, a student should have completed a B.A. in Economics before entering the M.A. Program and an M.A. in Economics before entering the PhD program. Yet Bachelors or Master's students who have undertaken a significant amount of work in Economics, but have graduated with another degree are highly considered. In order to be competitive in the admission process for a spot in the program generally requires the following:

Being competitive in the admission process for a spot in the program generally requires the following:

Competitive MA requirements

• An undergraduate degree in economics, with a first-class A- (7.0) average in the last 2 years leading to the degree
• A solid background in upper-level economic theory and econometrics
• Training in mathematics and statistics
• Excellent written and verbal communication in the English language

Competitive PhD requirements

• A master’s degree in economics, with a first-class A- (7.0) average in the last 2 years leading to the degree
• A solid background in upper-level economic theory and econometrics
• Training in mathematics and statistics
• Excellent written and verbal communication in the English language
• A strong statement of research interests
• An available supervisor matching your research interests