From: Economic and Political Development Concentration
Date: July 28, 2022
Subject: Urgent Information for Continuing EPD Students Switching to DAQA



Dear continuing EPD students,

This is an important and time-sensitive message for any continuing EPD student who would like to switch into DAQA from another specialization (or to add DAQA as a second specialization).

-- As you know, the DAQA specialization requires that students complete  U6400/Microeconomics and U6401/Macroeconomics, as well as U6500/Quant I and 9 credits of DAQA courses (for continuing students, these include U6501/Quant II and 6 credits from either the Quantitative Analysis or Computational/Data Analysis focus area).  Students in EPD and DAQA also cannot double-count any courses between those programs. For more information, see the DAQA webpage.

-- Continuing EPD students who took U6300/Micro and/or U6301/Macro in their first year will still be able to join DAQA if either (1) they received a final grade of A in those courses, or (2) they pass the placement exam for the corresponding course(s). (For example, if a student received an A- in U6300 and a B+ in U6301 last year, they would need to pass both the micro and macro placement exams in order to join DAQA.  A J-termer who received a B+ in U6301/Macro last spring and hasn’t yet taken their core micro course would need to take U6400/Micro this fall and take the macro placement exam in order to join DAQA.)

-- The Office of Student Affairs recently sent a message to all students about the upcoming proficiency and placement exams.  The micro placement exam will be offered virtually during a 36-hour window from 8 am EDT on August 10 until 8 pm EDT on August 11. The macro exam will be offered virtually only once at 9:30 am EDT on August 10.  These exams will be given again just before the start of the spring semester (most likely in January).

-- Any continuing EPD student who wants to take either the micro or macro placement exam (or both) in August must register on CampusGroups by 11:55 pm EDT on August 5 (no exception).  Please also email Ilona Vinklerova (iv2105) and Jenny McGill (em419) before August 5 to let us know that you are registering for one or both exams, so we can inform the Office of Student Affairs.  

-- If a student has already taken U6300 or U6301, they will not be able to take U6400 or U6401, as the case may be.

Please let us know if you have any questions about this information. If you have questions about the micro/macro placement exams, please contact sipa_osa@columbia.edu. We’ll be sending another message with general information on EPD’s fall courses before fall registration opens in August.

Wishing you a great rest of the summer,

The EPD Team