Core Courses

The core curriculum assists students in developing an understanding of the institutions—social, economic, political, administrative, and legal systems —which provide the context for policy analysis and constrain public choices. The core is also designed to help students develop the ability to identify social goals and normative criteria for evaluating public policies and the analytic skills, both quantitative (e.g., statistics, forecasting, surveys, regional analysis) and non-quantitative, to perform evaluations and produce plans.

The first-semester courses are drawn from traditional disciplines, particularly economics and statistics, and are combined with introductions to the land-use and to theories and the practice of planning. As students proceed through the curriculum, increasing emphasis is placed on the development of critical judgment and insight through the application of theories to realistic planning problems and case studies.

Core curriculum courses are noted in the typical class schedule that follows. Students with sufficient previous course work may request a waiver of a core course.

In addition to the core courses listed above, students are required to take at least one of the advanced economic methods courses listed below, generally during the student's first three semesters in the Program.