Methodology
How the data is collected, how courses are grouped, and how programs from schools that count differently are compared fairly.
Where the data comes from
- We start from the official academic calendar for the current edition and the economics department's list of programs, not admissions marketing pages.
- For each in-scope program (majors, honours, specialists, BA and BSc variants, finance or quantitative options, and joint programs with business, math or political science) we record the requirements as the calendar groups them, by year or by lower and upper division.
- We record entry rules: where students are admitted, when they declare, and any GPA needed to enter, continue and graduate.
- Course titles come from the calendar. One-line course summaries are written by us; calendar descriptions are never copied.
- Every program is checked automatically: its requirements and its category totals must add up exactly to the degree's total units, or the site will not publish.
- Anything we could not confirm is listed on the page as "Unconfirmed". Unverified data is marked, never hidden.
Scope: main campuses only, undergraduate only. Co-op is noted as a flag, not modelled. Business degrees appear only where they are joint or combined with economics.
Categories
Every requirement is assigned to one category. The grouping is ours, not the university's, and where a course could fit two categories we choose the one that best describes what the student spends the time on.
| Category | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Math & computing | Calculus, linear algebra, mathematical economics, and programming or computing courses. |
| Statistics & econometrics | Statistics, probability and econometrics, whichever department teaches them. |
| Economic theory & topics | Economic theory and field courses, including unnamed upper-division economics requirements. |
| Business & finance | Business, accounting, commerce and finance courses, including finance-focused economics courses. |
| Political science | Political science courses in joint programs. |
| Writing, research & breadth | Required writing, communication, research and thesis courses, and named breadth requirements. |
| Other required | Required courses that fit none of the above, such as a science requirement. |
| Open units (electives, breadth) | Units the student chooses. These often still have to satisfy faculty breadth or distribution rules. |
Comparing schools that count differently
A one-term course is 1.5 units at UVic, 3 units at SFU, 3 credits at UBC and McGill, and 0.5 of a full-course equivalent at Toronto. We never convert these into an invented "universal credit". Instead every page shows two numbers: the school's own units, so they match the calendar, and the percent of the degree, so programs can be compared. Charts that span schools always use percent of degree.
| School | Counts in | Typical one-term course | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
| McGill | credits | 3 | 120 |
| McMaster | units | 3 | 120 |
| Queen's | units | 3 | 120 |
| SFU | units | 3 | 120 |
| UAlberta | units | 3 | 120 |
| UBC | credits | 3 | 120 |
| UofT | credits | 0.5 | 20 |
| UVic | units | 1.5 | 60 |
| Waterloo | units | 0.5 | 20 |
| Western | courses | 0.5 | 20 |
Where a requirement offers a choice of courses with different weights, unit counts assume the most common choice. The tallies are planning estimates: the calendar is the authority.
Keeping it current
Every school is re-verified each spring when new calendars are published. Each page shows the calendar edition and the date it was last verified, and warns readers automatically if that date is more than 12 months old.
Found a mistake? Every program has a "Report an error" link that opens a report already filled in with the school and program.
Put the data to work.