BA/BS in Economics is a bachelor's degree in Economics programme taught at University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Canada. Tuition for international students is CAD 27,010 per semester (CAD 3,125 per semester for local students).
The Economics program at the University of Waterloo leads to a Bachelor of Arts and applies economic analysis to areas such as business and finance, government and public policy, labour markets, and the environment, combining statistical training with economic theory. First-year study introduces microeconomics, macroeconomics, and calculus alongside business-oriented coursework; upper years devote a portion of coursework to economics while drawing the remainder from other subject areas across the university, including social sciences and policy studies. Students can pursue the degree as Honours Arts or as a combined Honours Arts and Business program, with or without co-op; the co-op stream alternates study and paid work terms from second year. Areas of focus available within the program include econometrics, financial economics, public policy, and a more quantitative Mathematical Economics option for students with a stronger mathematics background, alongside popular minors such as Finance and Human Resources Management. The program suits students who want a quantitative, policy-relevant social science degree with flexibility to combine it with business or mathematics coursework. Career paths associated with the degree include government roles in finance and statistics agencies, banking and financial services, consulting, data science, and further academic study in economics.
Requirements
Admission Requirements: There is no direct-entry admission to Economics: Ontario applicants apply to Honours Arts or Honours Arts and Business through OUAC and choose Economics as their major at the end of first year, presenting six Grade 12 U/M courses including any Grade 12 U English (minimum final grade of 70%). Admission to Honours Arts is competitive, with recent admission averages in the high 70s. The program strongly recommends high school Calculus and Vectors and Advanced Functions given the mathematical content of the discipline, though students without this background can complete the needed mathematics in first year. Applicants studying outside Ontario follow the University's general admission requirements for Honours Arts or Honours Arts and Business, presenting an equivalent senior secondary qualification. Applicants whose four most recent years of full-time education were not completed in Canada or at English-language schools must submit an accepted English test: IELTS 6.5 overall (6.5 writing and speaking, 6.0 reading and listening), TOEFL iBT 90 overall with 25 in writing and speaking for tests completed before 21 January 2026 (4.5 overall with 5 in writing and speaking for tests on or after that date), PTE Academic 63 (65 writing and speaking), Duolingo 120 (125 Literacy and Production), or Cambridge C1/C2 180 (176 per skill).
Application Details
Start Date:September
Application Deadline:Waterloo admits first-year students for September entry only, through the OUAC, with identical deadlines for domestic and international applicants. For Fall 2027, most programmes must be applied to by 1 February 2027 with documents due 15 February 2027; Engineering programmes (excluding Architecture) close earlier, on 15 January 2027, with documents due 1 February 2027, and require an online interview. Waterloo states a deadline may be extended if a programme is not yet full, but publishes no separate rolling-admission date and no explicit application-opening date. Pharmacy is a named exception with its own earlier deadline; Social Work and the Conditional Admission to Pharmacy stream are directed to programme-specific timelines outside this page. These are institution-wide dates; this programme publishes no deadline of its own.
