St. Norbert, Marquette to start joint economics degree program

St. Norbert College in De Pere and Marquette University in Milwaukee have agreed to collaborate on a program that will allow students to combine a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Norbert and a master of science in applied economics degree from Marquette starting this fall.

Since 2000, 13 St. Norbert College students have gone on to Marquette to receive their M.S.A.E. It’s been a win–win relationship, according to St. Norbert College associate professor of economics Marc von der Ruhr.

“This is a very organic agreement because it presented itself based on past success, which I think is the beauty of the program,” he said. “Marquette says our students are well-prepared across the board, which shows the strength of our faculty members. All are excellent economists and excellent teachers.”

The M.S.A.E. involves 10 courses for credit and a professional project. A motivated student could opt to take two enhanced upper level courses at St. Norbert College for master’s credit, take two MBA classes over the summer and then go through the core courses their first true year working toward the M.S.A.E. at Marquette, knocking out an entire academic year.

The idea of being able to invest only one extra year in your education and raise your earning potential is an attractive one, according to von der Ruhr. “Some of last year’s graduates earned starting salaries at $65,000 to $70,000 and some even received signing bonuses,” he said. They entered fields like market research or sales forecasting with companies such as Miller Brewing, Assurant Health or Kohler Co., for example.

St. Norbert’s economics faculty is looking closely at which upper level electives in the discipline would lend themselves to this partnership.

“I think we’re ready to go.” said von der Ruhr. “We just need the right students, the right classes. Associate professor of economics Kevin Quinn’s sports economics class and my international trade classes fit nicely.”

Von der Ruhr is familiar with the program and the faculty at Marquette University because he is an alumnus of the program. He remains involved in research, having co-authored with Joe Daniels, professor of economics at Marquette. Quinn co-teaches an M.S.A.E. or graduate school seminar at Marquette in economics, The Economics of Sports.