All students being advised for the Economics B.A. and Financial Economics B.S. are REQUIRED to complete and submit a Pre-Advising Form to their econ department or assigned faculty advisor prior to receiving clearance. Procedures for submitting your form will be arranged by your advisor.
Knowing the design of your major is important. We believe any student advancing in the economics program at UMBC should have a thorough understanding of their major and how to proceed through it. Even better, by researching your own schedule, you’ll gain a solid understanding of the university’s requirements and GEPs. With that in mind, you’ll be better able to keep track of and prepare for what’s coming next semester and, more importantly, what you need to reach graduation.
Where Do You Get All of this Information?
- The Pre-Advising Form
- Note that your major is already laid out on the pre-advising form itself – the one you just downloaded above. Required classes for your major, required major electives from groups of electives, required electives from outside of the econ department, and other helpful information are right there.
- Your Degree Audit
- Your degree audit is a comprehensive collection of data on your requirements and progress toward your UMBC degree. You can see the university requirements like overall credits and 45-upper level credits, GEP requirements like your Arts & Humanities, Science and LANG 201, to name a few. Your majors and minors are there too – what you’ve taken and what you need to take – all presented in the final sections of your degree audit.
- Here’s how to find your Degree Audit: Click Here
- UMBC Pathways
- A very helpful site that gives you a recommended pathway through your major semester by semester. When you arrive at the website, choose your major from the dropdown. Classes listed by semester are simply a suggestion, but they are good suggestions custom designed by your major department.
- Here’s how to find the UMBC Pathways website: Click Here
- The UMBC Undergraduate Catalogue
- Use this to see full course descriptions and attributes, like which classes have prerequisites (classes you need before you can take certain classes) and other recommended preparations.
- Here’s how to find the UMBC Undergraduate Catalogue: Click Here
- Class Search
- Once the next semester’s catalogue is released, you can search classes and see similar information contained in the Undergraduate Catalogue. More importantly, you can see what particular classes are offered next semester, when and where they take place, and who’s teaching them.
Economics Scheduling Info & Tips
- Information about requirements for the major, such as “Choose One” in a group of requirements, are listed at the top of each category in your degree audit.
- Always check the PREREQUISITES on classes you want to take.
- In the Class Search, click View, prerequisites are listed under Class Attributes.
- Prerequisites can also be found in the course listing in the Undergraduate Catalogue.
- You cannot take a prerequisite concurrently with the class that requires it. For example, you cannot take MATH 155 and ECON 311 at the same time.
- We recommend taking ECON 311 before taking ANY upper-level electives in economics, even if the particular class you want to take does not use 311 as a prerequisite. Don’t wait until your senior year to take ECON 311, it could prove disastrous for your graduation plans.
- Do not schedule ECON 311 and 312 within the same semester.
- Take calculus, either MATH 151 or MATH 155, before taking STAT 351 or ECON 310.
- If you take MATH 106, you are not yet eligible to take MATH 151; you must take MATH 150 first.
- MATH 106, however, does prepare you for MATH 155.
- ECON 320 uses STAT 121 as a prerequisite, but we recommend have upper-level stat, like ECON 320 or STAT 351, before taking it.
- ECON 320 is a separate requirement and, if taken alone, will not count as an upper-level econ elective.
- However, if you take ECON 421 or 423 from the same category, those will count as upper-level electives.
Download the form for your particular economics major at the link/image provided.
<< FIEC BS Pre-Advising Form
<< ECON BA Pre-Advising Form
Check out the example below of what a properly completed pre-advising form for an FIEC major might look like – and a good example of how to mark and complete the form’s required information.
Sample Pre-Advising Form:
COMPLETE AND SUBMIT THE PDF
The PDF forms are designed to be downloaded a completed digitally. If you have basic knowledge working with PDFs, you may complete the form digitally with any number of PDF apps, like Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat or Apple Preview, which will allow you to overlay information in the areas you are required to complete.
Please do not complete the form in writing apps like Word or Google Docs, as this will most likely obliterate the form.
Otherwise, you may download, print and fill out the form manually, then scan and submit the completed document to your assigned advisor.
Your advisor may ask you to print and bring the form in person or email it as a file attachment.