The Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development permits highly qualified MSU undergraduates to earn up to 15 hours of graduate-level coursework after completing a minimum number of coursework hours. Students in an Accelerated Program take graduate-level courses and earn both undergraduate credit and graduate credit simultaneously. Students need to consult with a potential graduate advisor to ensure graduate credit could be applied to a program of study for the graduate degree. Application to this program is made in the junior year (i.e., after completion of 60 or more hours of graded undergraduate courses).
Requirements for admission into the Accelerated Program requires the following.
- A GPA of 3.00 or higher on a 4.00 system for all undergraduate work
- A minimum of 60 hours toward the Bachelor's degree
For students enrolled in an Accelerated Program the MSU Graduate Council has established these guidelines in cooperation with the Registrar's Office.
- Once the student is accepted into the Accelerated Program, the student and the advisor may select up to 15 hours that will satisfy both undergraduate and graduate requirements. These courses may be split-level (i.e., 4000-6000) or 8000 level classes. The student should take the courses for graduate credit (i.e., 6000-level or higher).
- Graduate courses in our department are online, so there is an additional cost for online education fees assessed to current undergraduate Starkville campus students.
- The student should use the Undergraduate Enrollment in Accelerated Degree Program form (http://www.grad.msstate.edu/forms/pdf/accel.pdf) to (i) receive from the Graduate School a level override that enables the student to enroll in the graduate course(s) and (ii) activate a process with the Registrar's Office to obtain both undergraduate and graduate credit for the course. After successfully completing the graduate-level class(es), the Registrar will grant credit for the undergraduate course with the same grade as received for the graduate course. For a split-level class, the transcript will show credit for both the 4000- and 6000-level on the transcript. In the case of an 8000 level class, a special topics undergraduate course of the same title will be entered on the transcript to allow dual credit.
- Students are permitted to opt out of the Accelerated Program at any time, at which point they would complete only the undergraduate portion of the program. No additional dual counting of courses would occur after the student opted out of the accelerated degree program.
- Students are expected to apply to the graduate degree program during the last semester in which they are enrolled in the bachelor's program.
Application to the graduate degree program would be made through the standard application process via the Office of the Graduate School. Students will receive the bachelor's degree once the requirements for the bachelor's degree are met. Students will be required to complete all of the requirements for both the bachelor's and graduate degrees in order to receive both degrees and those requirements will be identical to the requirements for students enrolled in traditional bachelor's and graduate degree programs. Students will be classified as undergraduates until they fulfill all the requirements for the undergraduate degree. At that time, upon admission to graduate school, they will be classified as graduate students and will be subject to all the guidelines pertaining to the graduate degree.
Students need to consult with a potential graduate advisor or the graduate coordinator in ISWD to ensure graduate credit could be applied to a program of study for the M.S. degree. Interested students should contact the graduate coordinator, and consult Accelerated Programs for complete information.
In addition to the University requirements, the Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development also requires the following information from applicants.
- A minimum of 90 hours toward the bachelor's degree
- A statement of purpose (500-750 words, e.g., why applying for the program)