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Master of Science Program

The Master of Science curriculum consists of ten core courses, including two mentored research workshops and a policy seminar, and six electives. Students complete most of their required courses in the first year. In their second year, students undertake a year-long research project under the direction of one of the Levy Institute’s core teams, culminating in a thesis. The following is the course of study (core courses are those that are listed by name).

MS Program Courses

  • Year One Courses
    The first year of the program is largely devoted to an intensive set of core courses in economic theory, with one elective in each semester.

    Semester I
    • Advanced Macroeconomics
    • Advanced Microeconomics
    • Research Methods I
    • One Elective
    Semester II
    • Monetary Theory and Policy
    • Research Methods II
    • Two Electives
  • Year Two Courses
    The second year emphasizes research and the application of theory to policy construction and evaluation. 

    Semester III
    • Research Workshop I
    • Macrodynamics and Modeling
    • Public Economics
    • Two Electives
    Semester IV
    • Policy Seminar
    • Research Workshop II
    • Two Electives

Research Training

A crucial component of the Levy MS is the extensive research training in the second year of the program. MS candidates, working under the close supervision of program faculty, apply their course work to an active research project culminating to the MS thesis. The research training is designed to help candidates hone their skills and deepen their substantive knowledge in one of the five concentrations offered by the program.

The MS Thesis

The MS thesis is completed in the second year of the program and must be original work linked to some aspect of the student’s research. 

  • The Thesis Composition
    The intention of the thesis is for the student to pursue a topic intensively, drawing on and integrating knowledge from the course work and research, demonstrating skill in developing and conveying recommended policies and action on a particular issue or problem. Theses typically run a minimum of 60 and maximum of 80 pages in length, depending on the level of quantitative work presented. In the Levy Institute MS program, theses fall into four general categories: original research, critical analysis of literature review, case study analysis, and project-based research and policy implications. Extensive information on the thesis process—including grading, thesis committees, Bard’s Institutional Review Board, the contents of the thesis, citations and formatting, and printing and binding—is included in the Levy Institute MS Thesis Guidelines. The guidelines are updated annually and are available to students at the beginning of the thesis process.
  • Thesis Timeline
    • End of May (Year I): One-sentence description of potential thesis area of interest due—summer adviser assigned following review
    • Beginning of September: Thesis idea due—thesis adviser assigned
    • Mid-October: Exploratory literature review due
    • End of October: Detailed thesis proposal due
    • End of November: Individual 20-minute presentation of thesis contents
    • Mid-December: Draft of literature review and methodology chapters due
    • Late February: Follow-up presentations
    • End of March: Full thesis draft due
    • End of April: Thesis (including abstract/executive summary and adviser’s approval) due and delivered to program director’s office
    • Mid-May: Individual 20–30-minute presentation of thesis
    • Third week of May (Year II): Digital copies due