DUS Letter

August 2026

Dear Ec Concentrators,

Welcome back! We hope you had a great summer and are ready to dive into the new academic year. This letter highlights some key information for Ec concentrators, but if you take only one piece of information from this note, I hope it is this: We are here for you. Please never hesitate to reach out to me or your Ec Advising Team if there is anything we can do.

As you know, course registration for Fall 2026 was held last April. Open add/drop for Fall 2026 began on August 24th and will continue until September 9th. During this period, you can add and drop courses without needing instructor permission for most courses. After September 9th, add/drop continues until September 21st, but requires instructor permission for all course-adds. If you have any questions about this or anything at all, please come talk with an Ec Advisor in Economics Advising Office Hours.

Our Ec Advising Office Hours open for the semester on Thursday, August 27th and are Zoom-only. In-person office hours will begin on August 31st. We have 30 hours a week of drop-in, one-on-one advising with our Ec Advisors, 10am-4pm, Monday through Friday, all semester until the end of final exam period. 

As a reminder, you can find advising details, course information, job opportunities, and loads of other information on the Economics Department website.

Ec-Interested First-Years and Sophomores: Please visit our office hours anytime to discuss your interest in Economics!  We would love to talk with you. Make sure you’re signed up for our listserv so you receive relevant communications from us (https://www.economics.harvard.edu/undergraduate-resources)   

Ec-Interested Sophomores: If you’re interested in declaring an Economics concentration, please note that the Economics Department requires a three-step process to declare Ec. Please visit our website to ensure you have done everything needed to declare by the October 9th concentration declaration deadline.

Juniors and Seniors: If you were hoping to take an Ec 980 Junior Seminar in Fall 2026 but did not enter the lottery during course registration, please reach out to the course instructor to see if there is space in the course. Junior seminars are a great opportunity to work closely with an Ec faculty member, take a deep dive into an economics research question, and apply all the economics knowledge you've learned thus far.

If you have not yet taken an Ec 970 Sophomore Tutorial (required of all concentrators), tutorials with space are open for enrollment on a first-come, first-serve basis on my.harvard during the add/drop period, with no instructor permission required (note: you need to have met the Stats and Ec 1010a/1011a prerequisites to enroll). Students currently enrolled in an Ec 970 tutorial who would like to switch their assigned tutorial are likewise able to do so on my.harvard during add/drop. Find the Ec 970 Canvas site on the Sophomore Tutorial website for details and contact information.

Seniors: Please meet with your Ec Advisor this semester to check your concentration requirements and declare your track in economics (Basic, Advanced Course, Thesis). If you’re interested in thesising but have not yet enrolled in an Ec 985 Thesis Research Seminar, please reach out to Kiran at kgajwani@fas.harvard as soon as possible. You can also explore the Senior Thesis page and the Ec Thesis Canvas site for more details and guidance on the thesis process. 

We also want to highlight some courses for you.

  • We have four new course offerings this coming academic year:
    • Econ 60: Understanding the Global Economy with Gita Gopinath
    • Econ 1023: Quantitative Marketing and Economics with Jesse Shapiro
    • Econ 1663: Global Warming, Global Poverty, and Globalization with Ishan Nath
    • Soc Std 98WQ: The Economics of Climate Change and Environmental Policy with Anna Russo (counts as an economics elective)
  • Please note that Econ courses numbered 2000-level are primarily for graduate students; undergraduates should carefully check pre-requisites for such courses.  Several 2000-level economics courses welcome undergraduates with strong multi-variable calculus skills, such as Econ 2030 (Psychology and Economics), Econ 2038 (Cognitive Economics), and Econ 2070 (A Computer Science Toolbox for Modern Economic Theory; also requires having taken Econ 1011a).

You can browse a list of all economics electives on offer this semester here. 

If you have any questions, please contact us or visit us in Ec Advising Office Hours.  We wish you safe travels back to campus, and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Warm regards,

Jeffrey A. Miron
Senior Lecturer
Director of Undergraduate Studies