Since 2017, John Jay College of the City Univeristy of New York (CUNY) has offered a MA program in economics. (The site for the program is here.) If you’re thinking about beginning a graduate program in economics, here is what you should know about the John Jay MA program.
We are currently accepting applications for admission in Fall 2021. You can apply here.
Why study economics at John Jay?
John Jay is one of a handful of economics graduate programs that is focused on heterodox, or non-mainstream, approaches to economics. Unlike most economics programs, we are unapologetically committed to a progressive, policy-oriented approach, and to a diversity of schools of thought. While the John Jay program offers the same core economics training you’d receive in other graduate programs, it is one of the few places where Marx, Keynes and other geat radical thinkers in economics are also a central part of the curriculum, At John Jay, you’ll take rigorous courses on Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Statistics, but you’ll also be able to study Economic History, Political Economy of Race and Gender, Marxist Political Economy, Feminist Economics, Post Keynesian Macroeconomics, and Community Economic Development.
We are also one of the most diverse economics programs in the country. Economics is one of the least diverse social sciences — nationally, only 1 percent of all Economics M.A. students are Black, only 3 percent are Latinx, and most are men. But two thirds of the graduates of the John Jay M.A. in Economics program have been Black and Latinx, and over half have been women. Our students come from Africa, Latin America and Asia as well as from the US.
We’re a new department, only four years old, but we already have a strong culture track record and culture. Our students and faculty see the study of economics not as an end in itself, but as a way of taking on the most pressing issues in our society. In our first class of graduates, the topics of capstone essays included: the causes of the 2018 rice inflation in the Philippines; the economics of private service contracts in public prisons; the case against the West African CFA franc; the resource curse and oil exploration in Guyana; the nineteenth century gold standard as tool of ruling class power; and the economics of redlining in post-war US housing markets.
Who will you study with at John Jay?
Our faculty include:
Michelle Holder (labor, politicial economy of race). Professor Holder is an assistant professor of economics at John Jay, and a Roosevelt Institute fellow. She is the author of African American Men and the Labor Market during the Great Recession, among other publications. She has also worked professionally as an economist for over a decade in the non-profit and government sectors.
Jessica Gordon-Nembhard (community economic development). Professor Gordon-Nemhard is Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay. She is a political economist specializing in community economics, Black Political Economy and popular economic literacy. Her research and publications explore problematics and alternative solutions in cooperative economic development and worker ownership, community economic development, wealth inequality and community-based asset building, and community-based approaches to justice. She has recently completed a book on Black cooperatives: Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice.
David Laibman (mathematics, Marxist economics). Professor Laibman is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the editor of Science and Society, a leading journal of Marxist thought, and the author of five books, most recently Passion and Patience: Society, History, and Revolutionary Vision.
J. W. Mason (macroeconomics, econometrics). Professor Mason is Associate Professor of economics at John Jay College and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. His work focuses on macroeconomic policy, corporate and public finance, and debt. His recent publications includes articles on debates over financialization; the interaction of monetary and fiscal policy; state and local government assets and debt; and the evolution of household debt in the United States. In addition to his scholarly work, he has done policy work for the New York Working Families Party, the New York City Independent Budget Office, and the AFL-CIO, and has published popular articles in The Nation, In These Times, The American Prospect, Jacobin, Dissent and Boston Review, among other venues. You can find his scholarly and popular writing here.
Christian Parenti (economic history, environmental economics). Professor Parenti is Assistant Professor of Economics at John Jay and the author of many articles and books about criminal justice and about climate change, including Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in an Age of Crisis and Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. In addition to his scholarly work, he has reported extensively from Afghanistan, Iraq, and various parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America for The Nation, Fortune, The London Review Books, The New York Times, and other publications.
Ian Seda-Irizarry (development, political economy). Professor Seda-Irizarry is Associate Professor of Economics at John Jay. He is a member of the editorial board of Rethinking Marxism and founding member of the Asociación Puertorriqueña de Economía Política. Apart from his academic work, he has written for popular outlets like New Politics, Claridad, El Nuevo Día, Diálogo, 80grados, Jacobin, AbrePaso, Revista Amauta, and teleSUR. Some of these writings can be accesed here.
Geert Dhondt (economic history, economics of crime and policing).
Julio Huato (econometrics).
Zhun Xu (economic history, political economy, economics of China). Professor Xu formerly was assistant professor of eocnomics at Howard University; as of fall 2020, he is assistant professor economics at John Jay. He is the author of many articles on agriculture, the family, and the Chinese economy. His book From Commune to Capitalism: How China’s Peasants Lost Collective Farming and Gained Urban Poverty, was recently published by Monthly Review Press.
Our faculty have diverse interests, but all share a belief that not only is it possible to combine rigorous scholarship with political activism, each benefits from the other.
What do you need to do to apply?
The link to apply is here. While the official deadline for admissions for students entering the program in Fall 2021 is May 31, in practice we will be admitting students on a rolling basis through July.
Important: We have changed our admissions rules. We do not require GREs and we are waiving the math requirements. (The online form may be out of date on this point.).We are less interested in what classes you’ve taken than in your intellectual curiosity, your willingness to work hard, and your commitment to using your training to help change the world.
What about the basics – where, when, how?
John Jay College is part of the City University of New York, one of the country’s great public university systems. The campus is located in midtown Manhattan, on 59th St. near Columbus Circle, a short walk from a dozen subway lines. It is easily accessible from all five boroughs, as well as from New Jersey and the northern suburbs.
To accomodate students with fulltime jobs, all classes meet in the evening, for one two-hour session per week. Twelve courses are required for graduation. Fulltime students take three classes per semester, so finish in two years. (We do not currently offer summer classes.) Some students with heavier professional or personal obligations choose to attend part-time, taking fewer than three classes per semester and taking correspondingly longer to graduate. The total cost is the same.
As of Fall 2021, almost all classes will be in person. Apart from one or two specific classes, we do not anticipate offering online classes for the foreseeable future.
How much does it cost?
The City University of New York remains one of the most affordable university systems in the country. As a result, the John Jay Economics MA program is far less expensive than most other graduate programs. Total in-state tuition over two years is $16,920. Many students enroll part-time, taking fewer classes per semester and taking more than two years to complete the program. We encourage students to pick whatever pace and course load best fits their situation. The total cost of the MA is the same regardless of how many years it is completed over. Comparable M.A. programs elsewhere typically cost $60,000 or more.
In-state tuition requires one year of residency in New York State. Out-of-state tuition is $855 per credit. So if you do not currently live in New York, your total tuition over two years will be $23,850, assuming you establish residency in your first year.
For comparison, total tuition for the New School’s two-year M.A. program is $67,950 — more than four times than John Jay.
What do students think about the program?
Here is some of what our students and alumni have said about the John Jay Masters of Arts in Economics:
“This program has been transformative for me.”
“This program has been incredible and has completely shifted the course of my life.”
“It has profoundly impacted my life. I am honored to have been a part of the first graduating cohort.”
“This program has been transformational for me personally and professionally.”
“One class alone changed my perspective on everything I’d learned at Hunter.”
“I am not exaggerating when I say that this program has been the most rewarding thing I have ever taken on.”
“The people and the conversations have been just amazing and I feel so fortunate to be a part of it.”
“I feel grateful that I have had the opportunity to study here – being here has really helped me a lot in figuring out my own intellectual and political development.”
“The Economics Graduate Program at John Jay is so unique, tight-knit, rigorous and ambitious in so many ways.”
“The MA program has been so instrumental for me in my academic and professional development — the support of this department has been unparalleled.”
How can I learn more?
If you have any questions about the program, feel free to email me directly at profjwmason@gmail.com. You can also write to Professor Ian Seda-Irizarry, who is our Masters of Arts in Economics program director. He is at isedairi@gmail.com.
Again, the programs website is at johnjayeconomics.org and the link to apply to the program is www.jjay.cuny.edu/ma-economics-apply.