Pre-enrollment Requirements for the MPA Program
The University of Texas requires certain prerequisites for admission into the MPA program. The following undergraduate courses are prerequisites for the MPA program and should be completed, with a passing grade, prior to enrollment:
- Principles of Macroeconomics
Analysis of the economy as a whole (its organization and the basic forces influencing its growth and development); money and banking, national income, public finance, and international linkages. - Principles of Microeconomics
Analysis of the economic behavior of individual consumers, firms, and workers; special attention to the role of markets. - Introduction to Statistics
Training in the use of data to gain insight into business problems; describing distributions (center, spread, change, and relationships), producing data (experiments and sampling), probability and inference (means, proportions, differences, regression and correlation). (Although a business statistics course is preferred, this pre-enrollment requirement can be fulfilled with an equivalent statistics course from a discipline outside of business.) - Introduction to Financial Accounting
Concepts and their application in transaction analysis and financial statement preparation; analysis of financial statements.
NOTE: Students must complete Introduction to Financial Accounting or the equivalent prior to the start of the MPA program. Students who have not completed this course at another institution will be required to enroll in ACC 311-Fundamentals of Financial Accounting in the first 6-week summer session. ACC 311 (or the equivalent) is a prerequisite to ACC 381-Financial Accounting, which is offered in the second summer session.
These courses may be completed at any degree-granting, accredited 4-year
university or community college either via a traditional classroom or online
course. Although a letter grade is preferred, a class for which credit was
granted is sufficient to fulfill a pre-enrollment requirement. Advanced
Placement or CLEP credit which appears on a transcript can fulfill a
pre-enrollment requirement, as well.
Prerequisites that have not been met prior to enrolling in the MPA program
(other than Intro to Financial Accounting) can be taken at the University of
Texas at Austin at the graduate tuition rate. Please note that these courses
will not count toward the MPA degree, and completing this coursework after
enrolling in the MPA program can extend a student's graduation date.
Introduction to Financial Accounting must be completed prior to the start of the
MPA program. All other pre-enrollment requirements need to be completed no later
than the end of the students first semester in the MPA Program.
Other pre-enrollment requirements include the following:
- Computer spreadsheet proficiency (e.g., Excel)
- Proficiency in English (if English is not your native language)
- Understanding of the basic tools of business calculus (e.g., how to take the first derivative of a function, how to calculate the maximum and minimum of a function)
Applicants concerned with their competency in spreadsheet proficiency should consider enhancing their spreadsheet skills prior to admission. Applicants who have not completed a business calculus course should be prepared to pick up a basic business calculus book and review that material when necessary. Certain business courses may require an intuitive understanding of basic calculus tools. If an international student's verbal score on the GMAT, TOEFL, or other evaluation measure is below an acceptable level, her or she may be required to enroll in English language development classes during the first semester of his/her academic program.
