With apologies to Adam Smith
The Invisible Hand
Adam Smith said an invisible hand guides the market. Nobody has ever worked out what guides a university calendar. So we made it visible.
The Visible Hand is a free guide to undergraduate economics degrees at Canadian universities. We read each school’s official calendar and show what every degree actually requires, in plain English, side by side.
An
Inquiry
into the
Nature and Causes
of the
Requirements of Degrees.
By
THE VISIBLE HAND,
Reader of Calendars, so that You need not be.
In Two Twenty Volumes.
10 now bound; 10 at the printer.
MMXXVI
What you can do here
See what a degree is really made of
Every required course, and how much of the degree goes to math, economics, business, or courses you choose yourself.
Pick a university →Compare programs side by side
Two programs at one school, or up to three across different schools, even when they count credits differently.
Open the comparer →Spot the traps before they spring
Hidden prerequisites, grade cut-offs, and first-year choices that quietly close doors later.
See some examples ↓
Who it’s for
- High school students deciding where to apply for economics.
- First-year students choosing between a major, honours, or a joint program.
- Parents and guidance counsellors who want the facts without the jargon.
Same name, very different degree
Each bar below is one whole economics degree. The colours show where the courses go. The grey end is the part you get to choose: electives, a minor, or something you love.
The kind of thing nobody tells you
Real examples from the school pages, taken from each university’s own calendar.
Second-year course choice decides the specialist
The Economics specialists are entered from a major using grades in ECO206Y1 and ECO208Y1. Taking the easier ECO200Y1/ECO202Y1 closes that door, and ECO206/208 themselves need 70% in ECO101/102.
UBCThere is a checkpoint at 45 credits
By 45 credits, majors need integral calculus, ECON 301 and ECON 325, and a 60% ECON average. Students who fall short can be asked to leave the major.
Queen'sC grades gate the upper-year theory
A C in ECON 212 is required for ECON 310 or 311, and a C in ECON 222 for ECON 320. A C- passes the course but blocks the next step.
Schools you can explore now
52 programs at 10 universities, with 10 more on the way.
Straight from the source. Every requirement comes from the university’s official academic calendar, and every page shows when it was last checked.
Not a ranking. More math is not better than more freedom. We show the trade-offs; you choose.
Independent. Not affiliated with any university. The official calendar always has the final word. How we do it