Virtual Open House Masters in Economics Transcript

George Mason Online Admissions: So thank you to everyone for taking the time to join us tonight. We’re really excited to go over some great information.

George Mason Online Admissions: I’m joined by Dr. Coyne, who’s our program director. So thank you. Special. Thank you to Dr. Coyne for for joining us tonight.

George Mason Online Admissions: I’m gonna go ahead and get started here and walk you through the agenda for this evening’s presentation.

George Mason Online Admissions: and so Dr. Coyne will take over in just a moment and introduce himself.

George Mason Online Admissions: We’re gonna walk through the masonomics at tradition, the value of economics. We’re gonna take a really good look at the course, curriculum and the curriculum details.

George Mason Online Admissions: We’ll walk you through some information about our faculty members and exciting projects that are going on there. We’re gonna talk through what the online classroom looks like, how to be successful when you’re pursuing a degree online.

George Mason Online Admissions: and then we’re gonna wrap up by walking you through the admissions, requirements, tips, and tricks there, and we’ll give you some contact information for how to get in touch with us for additional support, and we have a really nice time slot at the end for lots of Q. A’s so please ask us whatever questions that that you have. Take advantage of the both of us here tonight, so we can help answer any questions as you’re you’re making the decisions here

George Mason Online Admissions: perfect. And then, as we get going here. Just so everyone knows how to participate. You can use the chat features like some of you have already started to use

George Mason Online Admissions: to send your questions at the end. There. And you can also update who you send your messages to by hitting a little dropdown next to, and you can send it directly to us or the whole audience, whichever you prefer. You can also raise your hand, and we will be able to take you off mute. If you prefer to ask a question, live, we can do that for you as well.

George Mason Online Admissions: And then the last feature is that QA. Button at the bottom or the sidebar of the zoom panel there, where you can ask a question there, too. So whatever you prefer for your questions, please feel free to send them our way.

George Mason Online Admissions: And then I am gonna pass it over to Dr. Coyne. Do you wanna take it from here?

Chris Coyne: Alright. Thank you so much, Mackenzie, and and let me

Chris Coyne: second in welcoming all of you this evening, and thank you. Thank you for taking the time out of your

Chris Coyne: a day. I know you all have obligations, professional, personal, and otherwise. So I I do appreciate you both showing an interest in our program, but also taking the time to spend a little bit of time with us discussing it, and just to introduce myself. I’m a professor of economics. So I’m a member of the Department of Economics.

Chris Coyne: I am an alumni of Gmu. So I did my masters and Phd. Here from 2,001 to 2,005. I did Joint Masters and Phd.

Chris Coyne: And then, after

Chris Coyne: going elsewhere for I guess 5 years, 2 other academic jobs, I came back and have been a member of the Department of Economics since

Chris Coyne: during that time I have been the director of graduate programs for a decade, meaning I oversaw all aspects of both the Ph. D. And the Masters program. And then, when we introduced the Ma online program a few years ago, I I became exclusively focused on the online program.

Chris Coyne: And so I know the Gmu product inside and out from the Department of Economics, both as a student and a graduate. And now, as a professor, and so wanted to give you that background both to let just let you know a little bit about myself. But hopefully, I’m able to answer any questions you have. And of course, my my goal here

Chris Coyne: is to be as transparent and honest as I can, meaning that my goal is to provide you with the information you need to succeed and flourish in your respective careers. And so

Chris Coyne: let us begin. And so, please, Mackenzie.

Chris Coyne: I want to talk a little bit about what I call the Masonomics tradition, because the Department of Economics at George Mason is a really unique department.

Chris Coyne: and it’s unique for the reason that we have had in our history 2 Nobel Prize winners, one in 1986, James Buchanan, one in 2,002, Vernon Smith. And when I think of the Masonomics tradition, I think, of of 3 kind of key figures and the traditions they represent.

Chris Coyne: So on the one hand, we have FA. Ha! Ha! Ha! Hack, who was a Nobel Prize winner in the mid seventies. He wasn’t a professor here, but he was influential in the kind of establishment and

Chris Coyne: emergence of the Department of Economics, and the way we view and teach economics here. So there was Hayk, and then I mentioned Buchanan, who was who was a professor here for much of his career, and he is one of the founders of field called public choice economics, which is the use of the tools of economics to study politics and all aspects of the political decision making process. And and that’s what he won the Nobel Prize for in

Chris Coyne: 1986, and then Vernon Smith, who is also a professor here for several years, won the Nobel Prize for his work in experimental Economics, which is the use of experiments to both illustrate and illuminate the various insights from economic theory.

Chris Coyne: and I wanted to start with this, both to give you a sense of the rich tradition that underpins our department. But also, if you keep in mind these figures and the traditions they represent. When we come to the curriculum in a moment, especially on the portion that where we’ll discuss the electives you’ll see the influence of these various thinkers in the electives that we offer.

Chris Coyne: So please, Mackenzie.

Chris Coyne: So what do we do here at Gmu? And and and this is for the faculty for our students. And it’s a mix of these things. We we are focused on teaching. And so we have our various programs on the ground. We have an undergraduate program, a master’s program and a Phd program. And then in the online space, we have the program we are discussing together our our online Ma program.

Chris Coyne: But we take teaching and the communication of of economics to our students and interactions between faculty and students extremely. We take it extremely kind of as a main function of what we do.

Chris Coyne: So so it’s a a commitment of our department to provide a sound economic education. And we take it extremely seriously in doing that.

Chris Coyne: In doing that we also

Chris Coyne: don’t just communicate information to our students, but try to empower them to also be effective communicators of economics. And so how do they become effective communicators?

Chris Coyne: Well, one, of course, is to learn the material, but also to have opportunities to express their understanding of that material and apply it in various ways. And again, you’re going to see that in the structure of the program when we move to that in a moment.

Chris Coyne: But the other thing my colleagues and I all do is we engage in research and scholarship, but also we take quite seriously public outreach, and so you may be familiar if you’ve followed our department, that many of my colleagues have, for instance, blogs.

Chris Coyne: They have regular columns, so my colleague, Tyler Cowan, for instance, has is the founder of the blog marginal revolution, which is one of the top economic blogs in the entire world. One of the the most popular in terms of readership.

Chris Coyne: He also has a regular column in Bloomberg, where he writes about whatever kind of the current events are, as it pertains to economics, but many of my colleagues are also involved with policy, and so they’re not involved with economics and academics in a narrow sense of just sticking to the ivory tower if you will, even though we

Chris Coyne: are based, of course, in a major university. But we also do policy, relevant work, and and I’ll provide you with a couple of illustrations of that later in our time together. And so I wanted to mention this to you so that you can understand our mindset. So now we have an understanding of the various traditions which inform our program, but also the mindset

Chris Coyne: both myself and and my colleagues have in the department of economics is kind of traversing these 4 quadrants and trying to to hit the sweet spot. And that sweet spot is a mix of all these different areas which all rely on the economic way of thinking. But direct that economic way of thinking in different directions.

Chris Coyne: Mackenzie, please.

Chris Coyne: So here’s our our curriculum. And before I get into this, let me just step back and say a couple words about the program itself.

Chris Coyne: So the Ma online program is a standard masters in economics, meaning that it is a 30 credit program

Chris Coyne: it has 5 required core classes.

Chris Coyne: 4 electives, and then one required capstone course. And I’ll say more about each of those in a moment.

Chris Coyne: The the structure of the program is meant to maximize flexibility. It’s meant to maximize flexibility because most people that select the online Ma option

Chris Coyne: demand flexibility. They have various obligations in their life

Chris Coyne: that

Chris Coyne: create various constraints whereby they want to pursue an advanced degree, but they don’t have, perhaps, that the

Chris Coyne: time, or because of geographic location, they can’t do a standard on the ground program where you have to be in the classroom a certain number of days, a certain time, and where it has regular kind of semesters that are 14 and 15 weeks. And so what we’ve tried to do with this program is to

Chris Coyne: hold constant, if you will, the academic content. So you’re getting the academic content, but also to maximize flexibility and adaptability to meet the demands of our student body. And I’ll I’ll give you some specific examples of that in in a few moments. Once we get past the the specifics of the structure of the program.

Chris Coyne: And so I I wanna make clear that when you’re in this program, the only thing that differs from our on the ground program is the modality of delivery. What I mean by that is on the ground is here in person in Fairfax, Virginia, where I’m sitting

Chris Coyne: online is online. But once you complete the degree, you have a degree from George Mason University, it is a master’s degree, with all the rights and privileges that are conferred among graduates of that program. In other words, one of the things I I don’t want you to mistake, which is a common question I get is, it’s it’s not like these 2 programs are distinct in terms of how they are viewed by the university

Chris Coyne: and how they are viewed by outsiders, meaning that your transcript is a official George Mason University Transcript.

Chris Coyne: It will have that you received a Master’s degree on it. It will not say that you are online versus on the ground. So this isn’t. you know, some some universities

Chris Coyne: have their on the ground program, and then they almost offer like a certificate program online. And and people know that they’re not analogous, that they’re they’re distinct things. This is a master’s in economics.

Chris Coyne: You are considered a George Mason University student. You have access and privilege all the same privileges as a George Mason student. Of course you’re not here in person.

Chris Coyne: but if you were, of course you could come on campus like anyone else, any other student. But if you’re remote, obviously you can’t go to the library in person, but you can access the George Mason University remotely and like a a lot of R. One research schools.

Chris Coyne: George Mason University has a state of the Art Library with research librarians and a full access to online resources. There’s also career services, for instance, that you can access either in person or remotely, the broader point being that you would have access to the same services of other students. The only limitation would be not being here in person. And that would be the only difference that you would face.

Chris Coyne: And so our to get back to the curriculum. The 5 core classes are standard across most economic programs. And so there are 2 micro theory classes, micro theory, one micro theory, 2. There’s a macro theory class, a Mathi con class and a a econometrics class. And so all students will take those core classes.

Chris Coyne: and we have them laid out in a structure or or a flow whereby they flow logically. So we start with math Econ, so that you get up to speed with the math that is required. Then we move into micro theory one micro theory, 2

Chris Coyne: typically than macro, and then econometrics.

Chris Coyne: And then you move into your electives and the electives. You’ll see you have an option. I mentioned earlier that you have to take 4 of these, and you can kind of customize your program of study. And and we’ve tried to offer diverse portfolio of classes

Chris Coyne: for you to choose from depending on what you want to get out of it, depending on what your your interests are. And so just looking briefly at them, causal inference is a course that would complement the Econometrics class, and that it is focused on statistics. So some students come into our program and they wanna beef up and focus on their statistics skills. And they would focus on on those type of classes

Chris Coyne: comparative economic systems is a class that covers different economic systems, but also economic development, institutions and development. And so on. And so students that are interested in those issues would benefit from that class.

Chris Coyne: Public choice and public economics. Remember earlier I mentioned James Buchanan, one of the Nobel Prize winners. This class will engage some of the the kind of insights and thoughts that he developed, as well as a broader treatment of issues in public economics.

Chris Coyne: So for those of you who are interested in public policy, who are interested, perhaps, in working in either local government, whether that’s, you know, county or state, or perhaps national government. The this type, of course, might be of interest to you

Chris Coyne: experimental economics. I mentioned that earlier with Vernon Smith, the other Nobel Prize winner.

Chris Coyne: This class covers the foundational insights of experimental economics.

Chris Coyne: gender economics, uses the tools of economics to study a host of of issues related to gender issues. And so it’s interdisciplinary in that it draws upon a variety of insights from different disciplines grounded in economics. Of course it is an economics class.

Chris Coyne: but many students find that interesting because it exposes them to a variety of different insights that perhaps they hadn’t been exposed to in any other economics class before assuming they’ve taken them.

Chris Coyne: Market process theory is focused on in the insights of Fa. Hyac and others that work in that tradition. There’s an emphasis on entrepreneurship, on

Chris Coyne: the nature of competition. And in this class we really delve into differences, for instance, between competition and monopoly and government intervention, and use the tools of economics to think through those various aspects. And so if you’re if you’re interested in things like market process theory, Austrian economics. That class is for you.

Chris Coyne: And then finally, we come to the capstone

Chris Coyne: in the way to think about the capstone again. It’s a required class.

Chris Coyne: but it is a class that ties together everything you’ve learned in the program. So it it’s it’s a class where it’s it’s meant to to kind of link all the things you’ve learned throughout your program of study into a single class. And so here you have various aspects to the, to the class. There’s a opportunity for you to demonstrate your knowledge of the other material in terms of written work.

Chris Coyne: but also in terms of statistical work.

Chris Coyne: And so one of the things that occurs in this class is a replication study, where you find a previous published academic paper that interests you. So it’s open, ended, cause you get to figure out whatever it is that you you that interest you. I can give you some concrete examples of that during the QA. If it interests you from actual students in the program.

Chris Coyne: and then you seek to replicate it. So what might that look like? Let’s say, as a hypothetical. You picked a paper that looked at the relationship between international trade and economic development.

Chris Coyne: and you picked the paper, and it had been published in the year 2,000. So so 2 decades ago.

Chris Coyne: What you would do is you would take that paper if the models already specified the statistical model. But you would collect more data. That’s more recent. And then you would replicate what the study was doing, and it’s in a an attempt, an effort, or a a opportunity, I should say.

Chris Coyne: for you to use the skills that you’ve developed in

Chris Coyne: econometrics, in micro or macro theory.

Chris Coyne: in causal inference. If you took that class as an elective.

Chris Coyne: and to apply them.

Chris Coyne: and to demonstrate your knowledge of those things while gaining additional practice.

Chris Coyne: And so

Chris Coyne: that’s the the capstone course, and what the purpose of that is

Chris Coyne: in terms of the kind of speed through the program. One of the the things you have to understand with this that’s unique to it is we talk about sessions when we talk about the online Ma program. And so at George Mason University.

Chris Coyne: our normal semester, we have a fall semester, a summer. Pardon me, a spring semester, and they’re typically 14 to 15 weeks. So standard semester.

Chris Coyne: the online ma runs in sessions which are 8 weeks each.

Chris Coyne: So it’s a more condensed format again to maximize flexibility so that people can move through the program at a relatively nice pace.

Chris Coyne: And so typically, we recommend that you take one course, a session. And so, for instance, if you started in the fall fall session one, you would take Matthew con one.

Chris Coyne: That would be the first 8 weeks, and you would focus on that course. Then the second session of the fall you’d move into. Micro. Then, of course there’s a short break, and then you move into the spring, and it’s the same 2 sessions, including over the summer as well. There’s summer session one summer session 2. So in principle, if you want to be moving through the program, you can be taking

Chris Coyne: 2 classes every period, fall, spring, and summer moving through the 30 credits at a relatively nice pace. But we have some students that have to take a session off, perhaps because of work obligations, or because of family obligations. And that’s okay, too. Again, we work with you to the best of our ability to maximize flexibility and to meet you where you are.

Chris Coyne: Mackenzie, let us move on to the next slide, please.

Chris Coyne: This is an example of some of the work that my colleagues have done

Chris Coyne: cause our our faculty designed these courses.

Chris Coyne: And I mentioned earlier, if you think back to those quadrants the different things we focus on.

Chris Coyne: And so the top

Chris Coyne: left corner is a screenshot of my colleague, Tyler Cowan’s blog marginal. Revolution that I mentioned.

Chris Coyne: And if you’re not reading this blog, whether you end up

Chris Coyne: going into the online Ma program or not. I suggest you add it to your daily reading list because it is a wonderful resource in general for economic knowledge, and, you know, like any kind of blog post, it’s very concise, but it contains links. And

Chris Coyne: just a great source of information. If you look to towards the bottom of the screen. You’ll see a screenshot about certificate of need laws.

Chris Coyne: and let me just say something about what certificate of need laws are. But before I do that

Chris Coyne: this is a policy study by my colleague, Thomas Stratman, Thomas Stratman, developed the causal Inference course and the public economics public choice, course.

Chris Coyne: and certificate of need laws. If you don’t know what they are in order to expand medical facilities in the United States.

Chris Coyne: many States require certificate of need, which is that you have to go through a formal process and demonstrate that you need to expand your medical facilities. It’s the equivalent of regulation or regulations plural.

Chris Coyne: And one of the downsides of this is, it can be costly to open new medical facilities.

Chris Coyne: This has real effects, especially for people in rural areas

Chris Coyne: as it pertains to their healthcare.

Chris Coyne: And so my my colleague, Thomas Stratman, has done academic research on this, where he’s statistically looked at the effects of certificate of need laws on healthcare access. And then he’s taken that academic research

Chris Coyne: written policy pieces on it, but also testified in front of State legislatures on it. And so you can see how the way we think about economics at George Mason. We kind of marry all these different areas together. There’s the academic scholarship. But that flows into policy research. It flows into

Chris Coyne: public communication. In the case of marginal revolution it flows into our teaching.

Chris Coyne: and then the right of the screen is a book by my colleague

Chris Coyne: Pete. Betty Pete designed the Comparative Economics course that I mentioned earlier.

Chris Coyne: and this book is a book in public administration.

Chris Coyne: and so I chose it to highlight.

Chris Coyne: because it reflects the highly interdisciplinary nature of my colleagues and the Department of Economics here at George Mason, which is that most programs most universities have a public administration program, and the Economics Department

Chris Coyne: wouldn’t be part of that. There would be economists in the public Administration school, but they’d be separate.

Chris Coyne: Here’s an example of of one of my colleagues

Chris Coyne: merging or marrying the 2 perspectives. You have the economic way of thinking you have public administration. Well, what happens when we combine those things together and think through what the implications are. That’s what Pete and his Co. Authors are doing in that book. So this just gives you a flavor of the type of work that that comes out of our program.

Chris Coyne: and that students will be exposed to, not necessarily these exact cases. But but this type of work.

Chris Coyne: Mackenzie, please

Chris Coyne: alright. So let me say something about the classes. Now I I’ve gone through the class in terms of the structure of the program. But let me get into a little more detail about the nature of the classes themselves, because this is another

Chris Coyne: question I oftentimes get.

Chris Coyne: So here’s the thing.

Chris Coyne: All of the classes are set up to be asynchronous and and by asynchronous, I’m sure all of you know what this means, but I’ll

Chris Coyne: say it just just to to make sure by a asynchronous class is your kind of traditional class. You show up Tuesday and Thursday from 10 to 1130, you’re face to face with your professor and your colleagues in the class.

Chris Coyne: There could be a lecture or class discussion, or whatever activities are associated with that class. But they’re in person, and they’re delineated by that timeframe. An asynchronous class has time frames on it. You have a session 8 weeks. You have things do each week, let’s say. But within the confines of those broad parameters

Chris Coyne: the flexibility is built in meaning that it’s asynchronous.

Chris Coyne: such that you don’t have to show up at a certain day. At a certain time

Chris Coyne: you’ll have assignments and readings and work that is due within a certain time period. But how you decide to allocate your time in order to accomplish those various required objectives is entirely up to you.

Chris Coyne: the purpose being again to maximize flexibility.

Chris Coyne: So our students in this program, our student body is highly diverse, both in terms of their geographic location in terms of their background in terms of their interests, but also in terms of their professions.

Chris Coyne: So we have some people that are in a profession already, and they’re looking to advance, so they need a a Master’s degree.

Chris Coyne: Other people are looking to make a shift to a new career

Chris Coyne: and and everything in between. We also have had a highly diverse student body in terms of profession. We’ve had people in banking. We’ve had people who are financial analysts. We’ve had high school teachers. So we’ve had high school teachers who, either

Chris Coyne: are teaching or who have been asked to teach Ap economics or introductory economics at the high school level, and they want a Master’s degree in order to beef up their knowledge because they didn’t study economics as an undergraduate.

Chris Coyne: We have people that work in nonprofits so very diverse. We have people straight from undergraduate. We have. We’ve had people that have been out of the the education system for decades because they’ve been working, and they want to come back into that system. And so the the backgrounds are truly unique and and are

Chris Coyne: programming allows the different.

Chris Coyne: a. A kind of diverse backgrounds and obligations facing our students to still pursue a degree largely on their terms. Of course, within the confines of the of the broad parameters of the program.

Chris Coyne: And so the the

Chris Coyne: courses themselves

Chris Coyne: have some similarities. They’re not all the same, but many of them contain the type of screenshots you’re seeing here. So there’ll be videos. That’s me in the upper left hand corner. That’s my colleague, Joanna Mullerstrom, in the bottom right hand corner. She designed the Econometrics course and the gender economics course that I mentioned earlier. So there’s video lectures. In some cases there are

Chris Coyne: lectures that are recorded that are there for you. There is reading materials. There are slides. There are practice problems in some classes, and then from there the various classes vary in how they’re structured in terms of their assessment tools. Some have a discussion form where you get a chance to interact with your colleagues, your your fellow students in the class. Others have homework kind of problems that you complete within a timeframe and submit.

Chris Coyne: Some have exams, others have a written component, so it varies from class to class. But everything is housed online, and it’s accessible to you as a student. Once you’re enrolled in the course, and the modules are clearly delineated and laid out, and they’re there for you to complete on your on your own time within the general parameters.

Chris Coyne: I wanna just reiterate that these are asynchronous. So one of the things that means that you need to be comfortable with is that you’re not gonna be forced to be in attendance, for instance, on a Zoom Meeting at a certain period of time each week.

Chris Coyne: There’s instructors in the class.

Chris Coyne: So you’re not completely isolated, either. I don’t want you to think that I want to make sure I’m not communicating that

Chris Coyne: there are instructors who are available to assist you, whether it’s by email or by Zoom Meeting

Chris Coyne: many instructors. Not all, but many have built in optional office hours, where? So some don’t set up office hours because no one comes, so they’ll say, Contact me if you want to meet, others will say.

Chris Coyne: You know.

Chris Coyne: let’s say over an 8 week course they’ll have either every 2 or every 3 weeks. They’ll say I’m going to be on Tuesday evening from

Chris Coyne: 5 to 6

Chris Coyne: in this time Zone. I’ll be on zoom. Come in if you want. I’ll talk to you, and we can talk through things again. Others choose not to do that because of the different time zones and the different difficulty of coordinating. So it varies. But those type of opportunities you’ll see in the program.

Chris Coyne: But the broader point is that there’s an instructor in the course that’s available to aid you as needed, and as a resource.

Chris Coyne: Mackenzie, please.

Chris Coyne: So here’s the application kind of trajectory or workflow, and I won’t go through this step by step. I’m gonna highlight a couple of things, and then I’ll answer any questions, and and Mackenzie will will aid me as needed during the Q. And A, and we can answer any specific questions you might have.

Chris Coyne: But here are the things I want to highlight, purely based on my interaction with students in this program, and what I know many students want to know.

Chris Coyne: Number one.

Chris Coyne: you need a bachelor’s degree, but it does not have to be in economics. You do not need an economics degree to apply.

Chris Coyne: You do not have to have taken any economics to apply. Those courses listed at the bottom are recommended.

Chris Coyne: meaning that it’s certainly helpful to have a a background in micro and macroeconomics, so that you’re at least familiar in a broad sense with the concepts, same with basic calculus and statistics.

Chris Coyne: But those are not requirements.

Chris Coyne: I have a sheet that I’ve put together.

Chris Coyne: Where? For the core classes. I’ve asked each instructor what key concepts they cover as it pertains to math and statistics, because it’s one of the most common questions I get. So if that interests you, please feel free to email me, and I will send you the word document it it it lists out. It’s like a 2 page word document for each of the core classes. It says, here are the main

Chris Coyne: kind of topics. You need to know whether in math or statistics, and you can then kind of judge your knowledge of of math and statistics and say, Okay, I’m I’m comfortable with that, or I might need more work.

Chris Coyne: And and and let me say that that work

Chris Coyne: can be formal. I mean, you’re welcome to take undergraduate classes in those things, but it doesn’t have to be. You can engage in self study. I can recommend books to you. There’s plenty of online resources, free free online to to beef up your knowledge of those topics, if you so choose. But I just want to reiterate to you that those are not required

Chris Coyne: the 2 letters of recommendation. You know, pick people that can speak to your your your skills and knowledge, you know. One of the questions I oftentimes get is, well, look I, I’ve been out of school for sometimes 3 years, sometimes 5, sometimes decades. I don’t know

Chris Coyne: my professors anymore. I haven’t kept in touch with them. What am I gonna do? And I say, don’t worry about it. I I understand, and we fully understand that again, most of our students are in similar, and our applicants are in a similar situation to you.

Chris Coyne: Pick people in your life that whether it’s work related or if it if you’re involved in some kind of community organization, someone that can speak to your skill set, and and that those are good people to recommend you.

Chris Coyne: The final thing I just want to highlight here is the statement of purpose.

Chris Coyne: and the statement of purpose is basically saying to you, tell us why you want to join the program

Chris Coyne: and so use this as an opportunity to to introduce yourself, to say, Here’s who I am. Here’s my background. And here’s why I want to come into the program. And here’s why it will benefit me.

Chris Coyne: It is the one piece of the application where you, as a person, really shines through, because, of course, your your transcript is your transcript from the past. Your letters of recommendation are written by people who are not you.

Chris Coyne: And so your statement of purpose is your opportunity to say, here’s what I’m all about. Here’s what I’m I’m trying to achieve with this degree. And here’s why I think it’s a fit for my goals.

Chris Coyne: you know. It’s usually

Chris Coyne: a page to 2 pages, but spend a little bit of time thinking about that, and it’s also good check on your own thinking to to make sure that you’re comfortable joining the program that you know why you want to do it and what you want to achieve.

Chris Coyne: And we seek to turn around applications once they’re processed relatively quickly. So we pride ourselves on our speed. So this is it. Once an application is submitted, it’s it’s not a drawn out process of months. It’s it’s a very quick turnaround

Chris Coyne: and we are available to assist you, not just through the application process, but answering any other questions about the program that you might have. And so, Mackenzie, I think our our next slides, our last one, where we transition to QA.

Chris Coyne: So let me pause there after going for about 35 min. Thank you for your patience, but also open it up and invite you to ask any question you want again. I will do my best to answer it. Nothing’s off limits as it pertains to the program. So

Chris Coyne: is there anyone that has any questions.

George Mason Online Admissions: As, and then again, as a reminder, please feel free to utilize either the chat, the QA. Or if you raise your hand, we can see it and what we can take you off mute, to ask any questions that you have

George Mason Online Admissions: and then just a quick note about this slide so everyone can jot down this information on the left. You’ll see our phone number email and our website. This will help you get connected with an enrollment counselor. So if you have questions that come up later, and you want to review some program, details or admissions, requirements, anything of that nature. Please reach out to us. We are happy to review your situation.

George Mason Online Admissions: one on one give you some tips and tricks for the application process. And just help support you all the way until you start the program and then that the link on the right side is the link to the application where you can get started.

George Mason Online Admissions: Alright, we’ve got one question coming in here. What is the graduation rate for this program?

Chris Coyne: That’s a great question. And and and in full transparency, I don’t know. I don’t know the percentage off the top of my head. I I it is. It is high.

Chris Coyne: It is high. Meaning that.

Chris Coyne: certainly above 75%. But I I don’t wanna say anything higher than that, because I’m not 100% sure I don’t wanna mislead you.

Chris Coyne: The the main reason students do not graduate is through

Chris Coyne: external factors. So. So I don’t know if we’ve had. We’ve had a few students who who fail out of the program, but that is like 2 or 3 out of the entire number of students that have joined

Chris Coyne: the the main reason

Chris Coyne: people end up leaving the program and don’t graduate is because of some exogenous factor, usually personal or professional.

Chris Coyne: So so we’ve had numerous examples, because when a student leaves, we, we reach out to them because we try to help them as much as they can and and offer them. You know we want to see students succeed.

Chris Coyne: so we’ll often reach out to them, or they’ll reach out to us and say, Hey, I’m facing XY. And Z. And we say, Here are your options, you know. You can take a session off or 2 sessions off.

Chris Coyne: And in some cases they do that and come back into the program. In other cases, they say, this isn’t working for me anymore. So what are some examples of course, without naming any names or getting too specific for privacy reasons. We’ve had several people who have left because they have switched jobs.

Chris Coyne: So so they switched jobs and either had to move geographically, took on additional responsibilities or faced other constraints which they just said, I can’t continue in this program anymore. I literally can’t do the classes and do my new job.

Chris Coyne: That’s fair enough. I mean, I I understand life changes. Other people have had unfortunate illnesses, either themselves or family member, where they’ve had to leave the program because the of their personal obligations. We’ve had several people who have had kids, and because of childcare issues.

Chris Coyne: they’ve had to step aside from the program. And so those are the typical cases. We’ve also had a a small number of students who join the program take a couple classes and then say it’s not for them.

Chris Coyne: They they several of them have switched programs internal to Gmu. So they’ve gone to other online programs because they said, I started in this. But I switched into the online Mba, for instance. And again, that’s just a personal.

Chris Coyne: you know, issue, it’s nothing to do with the program or no fault of theirs. It’s just what what suits them in their career goals.

Chris Coyne: And so those are kind of our our standard cases.

Chris Coyne: the the students who struggle the most in the program, even though this wasn’t your your question per se. I’m I’m trying to offer you as much information as I can are the ones who are are 2 categories of people.

Chris Coyne: One are people that

Chris Coyne: don’t have the time for the classes.

Chris Coyne: So so you know, from our end, when we’re looking at an applicant, we’re looking at that application, those materials that was on the pre prior slide.

Chris Coyne: and of course, applicants who get in have a strong background. We think they can succeed.

Chris Coyne: But let’s say you’re in a job. That is an 80 HA week job. We don’t know that. And so sometimes students come into the program and they get a little overwhelmed with having to take the class. That is 8 weeks and the work, and they just can’t strike the right balance. Unfortunately.

Chris Coyne: we have had some students that come in who underestimate, or or perhaps overestimate, depending on which perspective you look at it, their knowledge of math.

Chris Coyne: and they struggle in that aspect of the program which is why, for instance, I work to put this sheet together of what concepts you need to know, and why. Oftentimes, if people reach out with questions about what background is kind of

Chris Coyne: important to have coming in. We we try our best to answer that.

Chris Coyne: so I hope I’ve answered your question, Travis. If not, please feel free to

Chris Coyne: follow up.

George Mason Online Admissions: One common question that I get, that I’d love to to get your thoughts on for students who are coming in with a lower Gpa. Then they they would have liked to have an undergrad.

George Mason Online Admissions: What’s your recommendation there for what applicants do in this situation?

Chris Coyne: Yep, great question. And so

Chris Coyne: again, I was director of graduate studies

Chris Coyne: before I was online. I’m a director. So I have read literally thousands of graduate applications.

Chris Coyne: And here’s something that I have come to the conclusion

Chris Coyne: about since doing that. Gpa. Tells you something for graduate education. But it doesn’t tell you a lot.

Chris Coyne: meaning that I have known personally numerous students that have had a relatively low undergraduate Gpa. That have flourished in graduate school. I’ve also known personally

Chris Coyne: many applicants and students who had near perfect

Chris Coyne: Gpa. Is an undergraduate who have struggled and

Chris Coyne: left graduate programs.

Chris Coyne: None of us are the same people or person. I should say that we were when we were an undergraduate.

Chris Coyne: And

Chris Coyne: we’ve changed, we’ve matured.

Chris Coyne: And so what does that mean in terms of how do you deal with that? Well, of course, if you’re here, if you’re thinking about this, you have some interest in pursuing a master’s in economics, you wouldn’t be taking time out of your data to talk about it. So you already have that intellectual maturity in place that you’re at least thinking about the pursuit of a higher degree.

Chris Coyne: But my advice to you, if you’re in this situation, of course, is to use the statement of purpose to openly discuss it.

Chris Coyne: and and you know that I I under, I could see why people would think, well, if I don’t talk about it, maybe they’ll kind of overlook it. We’re going to see your transcript. We’re going to see your Gpa.

Chris Coyne: And so the most common kind of explanation is which, which again, I fully understand, and we don’t hold it against. I actually appreciate when people kind of are self aware. And they say, here’s what happened. So what type of things happened? Well, one of the most common things you will see is, if you look at an again. This is not for everyone, but for a segment of people who’ve low Gpas.

Chris Coyne: You look at their transcript semester, one semester, 2, sometimes semester, 3 terrible, and then you start to see kind of almost a linear increase through time throughout the rest of their program of study as an undergraduate. When you see that, what does that tell you? Either the student had a difficult time adjusting to

Chris Coyne: college.

Chris Coyne: Perhaps they were goofy. They they weren’t serious students, right? They were kids.

Chris Coyne: And

Chris Coyne: I was a kid, too. Everyone was. We were young and did goofy things. That’s what young people do sometimes. And so explaining that and just saying like, here’s what happened. And here’s why things are different. Now.

Chris Coyne: I I value that we’ve had other instances where people took really hard classes. So they started out like wanting to be like, I remember one application. The applicant wanted to be like a pharmacist. So when you want to be a pharmacist, what class are you taking? Organic chemistry? You know not

Chris Coyne: basic classes. And the student had a very low Gpa, they switched out of that into something else. And and what? They basically send their statement of purposes. Like, Look, I thought I wanted to do this. I struggled mightily. I realized it wasn’t for me, so I had a transition into I forget whatever other degree they transitioned into, and that is not reflective, that that those poor grades are not reflective of me as a student or my potential

Chris Coyne: to me that’s sounds like a good

Chris Coyne: level of self-awareness and and a legitimate explanation. And so again, if you are in that situation.

Chris Coyne: just discuss it and discuss what’s changed and how you’ve changed as a person. So I appreciate the question because it’s one of the most common ones that that is is brought up.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, and and thank you for that. I can. I can certainly attest that. I think it all takes. Take some pride that we’re not the same students we were when we were 17 and 18 years old.

Chris Coyne: Right, right.

George Mason Online Admissions: Use to shine and then just address it in that essay. Absolutely, and keep some questions coming for anything that you have about the curriculum program. Details, admissions, process.

George Mason Online Admissions: I’m Dr. Coyne. Do you have some of the capstone projects that you wanted to do?

Chris Coyne: I was just gonna turn to that.

George Mason Online Admissions: Really exciting to hear every year, too. Yeah.

Chris Coyne: Yeah, yeah. So so I I I mentioned that there’s a capstone replication project. And I I I pulled 2 that I think are interesting in themselves, but they’re interesting also because they demonstrate the uniqueness of the exercise. And so a lot of people think about economics as kind of being very narrow. You have money, you have stock markets, you have

Chris Coyne: finance, and all those things are important.

Chris Coyne: but there’s lots of other aspects to it. So here are 2 projects that that these are projects that graduates of the program have worked on

Chris Coyne: one of them. One of our students worked in prisons.

Chris Coyne: He worked in a he he! I forget his exact role, but it was in prison rehabilitation programs. That was his career, and he was pursuing a master’s in economics. So for his replication study he picked a paper that had looked at the quality of prisons and the likelihood of recidivism, of returning to prison, the idea being that the question being, if you invest, if a

Chris Coyne: county or State, or if it’s a Federal penitentiary, if they, if they invest more resources in the quality of the prison. And by that I mean programs that are available training that’s available to prisoners.

Chris Coyne: Do you get a higher or lower recidivism? But rate.

Chris Coyne: all right. And and and the 2 cutting kind of competing hypotheses for that would go. Something like this

Chris Coyne: one argument would be, if we can act. If we can offer

Chris Coyne: prisoners better training.

Chris Coyne: better counseling, and so on. They’ll be more successful when they leave prison and be less likely to return the counter to that is that well, bad people do bad stuff.

Chris Coyne: you can’t, you know, no matter how much you counsel them or do whatever they’re they’re not gonna change, and they are supposed to be being punished. So why are we giving them all these services? In any case, this student

Chris Coyne: updated the data and ran this and found that investments in the quality of prison lowered the recidivism rate.

Chris Coyne: A second student

Chris Coyne: was interested in international relations and and foreign policy, and for this student they chose a paper in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, which is actually a journal, and international relations that looked at the relationship between trade and war.

Chris Coyne: So one of the main kind of one of the main theories in international relations is what’s called the capitalist piece hypothesis, which is, do countries that trade more engage in war more or less. And there’s 2 views of this one is that when you trade more with someone.

Chris Coyne: you’re less likely to engage in violent conflict or war because you have a trading relationship with them. You have economic benefits, but you also have shared norms and values the flip side of that is that it can increase conflict because

Chris Coyne: the 2 sides start looking at the other as competition.

Chris Coyne: So think about right now in the world. How many people, rightly or wrongly.

Chris Coyne: view the Us. And China almost at being at odds with each other like they win, or we win kind of thing. So that’s a 0 sum view. And this student updated data on this paper tested it and found that that trade led to reductions in in war.

Chris Coyne: So those are just 2 examples, and demonstrate the breadth of the type of projects that you might undertake.

Chris Coyne: One of the questions from Travis, which I’m

Chris Coyne: seeing in the chat is about the statistical package which I appreciate.

Chris Coyne: the programs that are used in the or the program part of me that is used in

Chris Coyne: econometrics is data.

Chris Coyne: That is the package that is used.

Chris Coyne: And you know, once you got to the

Chris Coyne: Capstone, for instance, you could use a different program if you wanted to. You’re not required to use that. I don’t believe at the capstone level.

Chris Coyne: But all the students use data in the Econometrics class.

Chris Coyne: Any other thoughts, questions, comments, or anything else I can

Chris Coyne: discuss.

George Mason Online Admissions: One last question that I’ll throw out from from some students that I’m working with you. We get a lot of questions about networking opportunities. And what students can take advantage of, especially in the online format.

Chris Coyne: Sure.

Chris Coyne: So I mentioned that that for certain things you have access to Gmu resources, like career services and whatnot for networking purposes. And of course

Chris Coyne: you know how how valuable you find that will depend on your situation. What I mean by that is is, if you are.

Chris Coyne: If you are in a career where you’re happy and you’re not looking to switch careers or look for a new job, then career services might be less valuable to you still could have them help you with your resume or whatnot, if you need that assistance.

Chris Coyne: But you know, for that type of student it’s gonna matter less than others in terms of networking with faculty. For instance.

Chris Coyne: you know one of the things, and and and

Chris Coyne: again it it it. And I understand why there’s a tendency to think about the online Ma as being kind of almost its distinct category separate from the department. But you have to understand how the on the on the ground program is as well, which is, students come to campus a couple of nights a week for classes, and then there. The master students usually aren’t on campus. They’re out in Washington, DC. Which is

Chris Coyne: 20 min from where I’m sitting right now, or in Northern Virginia, at their jobs. They’re with their families. They’re not hanging out with us on campus.

Chris Coyne: And for those who want to build those relationships with faculty, they have to reach out to faculty and build those relationships, and it will be the same for you.

Chris Coyne: So you know there’s no

Chris Coyne: direct networking from the standpoint that you will interact with me, for instance, on a daily basis. But I have online ma students who email me.

Chris Coyne: even if they’re not in a class, I’m teaching them. And they might ask me a question about something I’ve written, or something that interests them.

Chris Coyne: And that would be the same for our on the ground master students and and our Phd students, by the way. And so, like life in general.

Chris Coyne: a a lot of networking is being proactive on the person’s part, and those opportunities certainly exist. And and and being part of the

Chris Coyne: kind of Gmu masonomics family.

Chris Coyne: just like our other graduate students. You’ll have those opportunities to reach out. I mean, you’ll have a Gmu email. You can email faculty if you want, you know

Chris Coyne: and interact with them. And so that’s that’s up to you. But those opportunities certainly exist.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you.

Chris Coyne: Yeah, I don’t. I? I don’t. Travis, I see your message. I don’t have my I’m on. I have. Don’t have it on this computer, that document. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna put my email here for you and for others.

Chris Coyne: If you email me with your preferred email after this, whatever it works for you, I will respond to your note and attach that document.

Chris Coyne: And I can answer that, and then you’ll also have my email. If you have any other questions after you look at the document.

Chris Coyne: any other thoughts, questions, if not, or while while you’re gathering your thoughts.

Chris Coyne: think about the material we covered this evening. Look at the website for the program, but also get a feel. If you know, another piece of advice is to just look around at the faculty who are here. All of us have web pages with our work.

Chris Coyne: and many of my colleagues won’t be teaching you in class just because they don’t teach an online and may program. But you’ll get a feel for the type of research they do for the things that interest them.

Chris Coyne: And and if you have shared interests again, that’s an opportunity for you to reach out to them if you do join the program. And so getting. And that that goes for any program you’re considering. Try to get a feel for the department what it’s about. I’ve tried to give you some sense of that with the Masonomics tradition. But by looking at at at individual faculty websites as well as the main department website and the ma online program website. It’ll give you more detail and a sense of what this all involves.

Chris Coyne: Are there any final questions before we part ways

Chris Coyne: doesn’t look like it.

Chris Coyne: So I want to thank you all again for taking the time out of your schedule to meet with us

Chris Coyne: for your interest in the program, and feel free to reach out with any questions.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you, Dr. Quinn. Thank you. Everyone have a good evening.