Agricultural & Applied Economics

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Graduate Program

The department offers two Master's degrees, and a Ph.D. in agricultural and applied economics. Small classes, careful student mentoring by faculty, and a rich array of campus resources make the student's experience at Wisconsin a rewarding one. Not least, the students themselves bring a wealth of academic, cultural and professional experience which further enriches the educational milieu.

The department's international reputation is reflected in its consistent ranking within the top five departments nationwide. A Wisconsin education is recognized around the world for its rigor, its breadth, and its special commitment to improving the human condition.

Graduate course offerings and faculty interests are structured around five traditional research areas:

The department's disciplinary strengths are augmented by top-ranked programs in economics, environmental studies, life sciences, finance, statistics, math, and public policy. The most recent Times Higher Education survey ranked UW-Madison 12th in the world in social sciences, ahead of Berkeley, Cornell, Minnesota and other peers. The faculty, distinguished by its record of service, research and outreach, excels in obtaining research support from government, foundations, and international agencies. Much of this support goes toward collaborative research with graduate students. Students in the department typically have the opportunity to obtain practical research experience and to publish the results through their participation in faculty-led research projects.

Historically, graduate students in AAE arrive and depart with exceptional qualifications. Our incoming students average 773 on the quantitative GRE. PhD students take 5-8 courses taught by nationally prominent faculty in the Department of Economics. Since 2000, the median time to degree for AAE PhD students was 5 years, in lline with national averages. Over the same ten years, 70% of our PhD graduates went on to academic employment, 15% to government service and another 15% to non-governmental organizations and private research institutes.

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"One of the most positive things about the program is the sense of community among the graduate students and faculty. In my first year, all of us taking the Ph.D. theory sequence approached it like a team sport--we formed tight study groups and helped each other through every problem set, exam and prelim. The faculty members were also extraordinarily friendly and always attended the events put on by the Taylor-Hibbard Club.

"On the academic side, the department offers an excellent sequence of micro and macroeconomic development courses. At the end, you really feel as though you have both a breadth and critical depth of understanding of most of the debates in the literature, and a strong foundation for developing a dissertation topic."

Elizabeth Katz, Class of 1992, Department of Economics, University of San Francisco

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