Qualified Hobart and William Smith Colleges economics students now have a pathway offering guaranteed admission and credit transfer to graduate programs at Bard College's Levy Economics Institute.
The arrangement covers Levy's one-year Master of Arts and two-year Master of Science programs in economic theory and policy, according to HWS.
Students who major or minor in economics can use coordinated advising and a streamlined application process. Eligible students may also receive scholarships.
The pathway requires students to complete ECON 304, Econometrics, by the end of the first semester of their senior year. HWS Associate Professor of Economics Joshua Greenstein advises students interested in the programs.
The Levy programs combine economic theory, quantitative analysis and policy study. Their approach gives students opportunities to examine questions involving inequality, development and environmental policy through more than one economic framework.
Alumni connect graduate study with policy work
Brendon Bennett, a 2023 HWS graduate from Brighton, initially expected to study politics. An introductory economics course, ECON 160, helped change his direction.
Bennett is finishing the Levy Master of Arts program while working full time as a graduate scholar in the New York State Assembly. His work includes researching legislation and preparing memoranda and briefings for Assemblymember Charles Lavine, whose work includes insurance and judiciary issues.
Bennett, who won HWS' 2022 Pitch competition, said economics study benefited from attention to history and to political, cultural and social influences, alongside models and mathematics.
He described that combination as useful for understanding problems shaped by several interacting forces, including climate change and inequality.
Anjalee Wanduragala, a 2025 HWS graduate from Sri Lanka, is pursuing Levy's two-year Master of Science degree and expects to finish in May 2027. She majored in economics and environmental studies and previously served as an HWS trustee.
Her interests include inequality, development and environmental policy research. At HWS, those interests also took her into work on water quality and youth climate education through the Finger Lakes Institute.
Wanduragala studied abroad in New Zealand and participated in a Southeast Asia youth climate summit in 2024. She described graduate study as a way to deepen her understanding of the economic forces behind environmental and social problems.
Advising links the two programs
Greenstein said the connection reflects an approach shared by the HWS economics department and Levy: examining economic questions through multiple theoretical perspectives.
That approach asks students to consider how institutions and policy choices affect an economy, alongside the quantitative tools used to analyze it. Levy students also have access to conferences that bring different perspectives into economic debate.
For HWS students considering the new pathway, the econometrics deadline is an early planning requirement. Completing that course by the first semester of senior year helps position students for the graduate application process with Greenstein's advising.
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