The minimum requirement for admission into the M.A. program is an undergraduate honours degree in economics with a B+ average or higher.

Students who have an of average B+ or higher, and a good undergraduate background in economics, but who lack advanced undergraduate courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics, or econometrics, may be admitted into an extended master's program. An extended master's program is simply the regular master's program with up to four additional course requirements.

Students with undergraduate degrees in finance, accounting, law, engineering, physics, or certain other disciplines, as well as students with undergraduate economics degrees that do not follow the standard North American pattern, may be admitted to the PBDE program.

Proficiency in English is necessary to pursue graduate studies at Carleton University. Applicants whose first language is not English must satisfy this requirement in one of the following ways:

by presenting a CAEL overall band score of 70 or higher, or
by presenting a TOEFL iBT total score of 100 or higher with a score of 24 or higher on each of the four (Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking) sections, or
by presenting an IELTS overall band score of 7.0 or higher with a score of 6.5 or higher on each of the four (Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking) parts, or