Economics to Master in Professional Accounting: 
The ECO-MPA Path

Through the Graduate Select Admission Program, students in the ECO-MPA Path earn a B.A. degree in Economics and a Master in Professional Accounting (MPA) degree from The University of Texas at Austin (U.T.).  Graduate Select Admission is a U.T. program that enables outstanding undergraduates to complete twelve hours of graduate accounting courses in their senior year toward obtaining a masters degree.  Benefits of the ECO-MPA Path include, but are not limited to:

• Waiver of the GMAT score requirement,
• Waiver of the application and transcript fees associated with graduate school admissions,
• Reduction in the length of time to the MPA degree through the reservation of graduate courses for graduate credit,
• Payment of the reserved graduate credit at undergraduate tuition rates.

Economics majors are admitted to the ECO-MPA Path through Graduate Select Admission in a two-stage process:

1. Application for Graduate Select Admission.  In the spring of their junior year, B.A. economics majors may submit to the MPA Program Office in the McCombs School of Business an application to be nominated for Graduate Select Admission to the ECO-MPA Path, accompanied by an essay, resume, and 3 recommendation letters (in sealed envelopes with the recommender's signature across the seal).  Please note that only those letters of recommendation that come from tenure-track faculty at the university will be accepted. The application deadline is April 1.  From the applicant pool, the MPA Admissions Committee will select qualified candidates for nomination for Graduate Select Admission.  Upon being nominated, those candidates  must be approved by UT's Graduate School. There is no fee associated with applying to be nominated for Graduate Select Admission to the ECO-MPA Path.  Admission to the ECO-MPA Path is for the summer semester only, and applicants must complete at least 90 undergraduate hours before the summer of admission.
    
2. Graduate standing.  In the spring semester of their senior year, ECO-MPA Path participants initiate a change in status from undergraduate to graduate standing by completing an application provided by Graduate Studies to the Graduate and International Admissions Center (GIAC).  Form deadlines will conform to graduate application deadlines set by GIAC, which are typically one month prior to the start of full-time graduate studies.  There is no application fee, transcript fee, or standardized test score requirement associated with acquiring graduate standing in the ECO-MPA Path.

ECO-MPA Path admissions (like other admissions leading to an MPA degree) are competitive and limited to program capacity. Be advised that even though ECO-MPA Path participants are accepted into the Graduate School Select Admission  Program, they are not guaranteed automatic admission to graduate school.  All participants must maintain the outstanding academic record that they have established as they progress through the rest of their bachelor's degree program.  Participants may be denied admission to graduate school upon completion of their bachelor's degree if their academic record falls below the standards set by the MPA program or the Office of Graduate Studies.