Accelerated BS to MS in Applied Geospatial Science

Students who wish to work toward both a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Applied Geospatial Science may do so in our Accelerated BS to MS program if the student meets all application requirements. This accelerated plan provides the opportunity for students to complete both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in an efficient and effective format, normally in five year.  Undergraduate students who meet all the application requirements and are selected for enrollment into the MA program earn Pre-Master’s status as an undergraduate until they are officially graduated with their Bachelor’s degree and earn Graduate Student Status. Once having earned Pre-Master’s status, an undergraduate student is able to enroll in the graduate courses and follow the program plan outlined in the attached Accelerated BS to MS Program Plan.

Admissions Requirements

Students interested in pursuing the Accelerated BS to MS program plan in Applied Geospatial Science, School of Earth Environment and Society (SEES) must complete the following application requirements:  
    1. By the start of Pre-Master’s status, they must have either:
        - 75 credit hours earned and an overall BGSU GPA of at least 3.2[1], or
        - 90 credit hours earned and an overall BGSU GPA of at least 3.0;
    2. A completed Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s Program Application;
    3. Transcripts from the registration and records office at BGSU[2];
    4. At least two letters of recommendation from a full-time BGSU faculty member, preferably from graduate faculty within the             student’s major or targeted graduate program

Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s Graduate College Policies

Student Status Once accepted into an Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s program, the student remains coded as an undergraduate student with Pre-Master’s status and officially becomes coded as a graduate student once the student has earned the bachelor’s degree.  The student’s coding as an undergraduate or graduate student is associated with other BGSU policies pertaining to degree status.

Credit hour policies The following policies apply to students in all Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s programs.

1. After being accepted into an Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s program, students may take up to 12 credit hours of graduate credit while maintaining undergraduate status.
2. Subject to program approval, students may apply a maximum of 12 credit hours to both the bachelor’s and master’s programs.  However, the ability to apply credit hours to both the undergraduate and graduate degree is influenced by each program’s minimum credit hour requirements (see policy #3).  Because the Applied Geospatial Sciences MS program includes the state of Ohio minimum of 30 credit hours, very few students will be permitted to dual count courses for both the Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree. 
3. At the end of both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees, a student must have a minimum of 150 discrete semester credit hours (120 + 30 = 150 state of Ohio regulated minimum credits).
4. Pre-Master’s students may enroll in 5000 and 6000 level graduate classes (not 7000).
5. All graduate policies pertaining to graduate credit hours, time to degree, and other regulations are also applicable to Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s program students.

Tuition Students enrolled in Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s programs with Pre-Master’s status will pay tuition at the undergraduate rate through the completion of the bachelor’s degree.  Thereafter, students will be coded as graduate students and pay the graduate rate for tuition and fees.  

Financial Aid  Students will be eligible for financial aid based on their BGSU student status as either an undergraduate or graduate student.  During a student’s Pre-Master’s status, they remain coded as undergraduate students and may be eligible for financial aid but not graduate assistantships. Once students become regularly admitted graduate students with full graduate student status, they may be eligible for graduate-level financial assistance, including graduate assistantships with stipends and/or graduate tuition scholarships.

Program Withdrawal A student admitted to an Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s program with a Pre-Master’s status may withdraw from the program and continue as a traditional undergraduate student toward the completion of the bachelor’s degree.

Program Dismissal  Students who fail to maintain minimum requirements for adequate academic graduate standing will lose Pre-Master’s status, and as a result will be unable to continue taking graduate level courses. Under these conditions, if adequate standing is maintained for their undergraduate program, the student may continue in the bachelor’s degree program.

                                            Accelerated BS to MS in Applied Geospatial Science Program Plan  

Students enrolled in the accelerated BS to MS program in Applied Geospatial Science should follow the following course schedule for planning out graduate work that begins while still enrolled as an undergraduate student, followed by the courses taken when fully enrolled as a graduate student in the MS program.  In order to complete this plan in an accelerated format (4 years undergraduate + 1 year graduate), it is strongly recommended that students choose the Plan II option (non-thesis) and complete either an independent research project or an approved three credit internship.  Plan II also requires a comprehensive examination in the final semester.  Students who choose the thesis option (Plan I) should expect the completion of their master’s degree program to take longer than an additional extra (5^th) year.

Pre-Master’s Status (limited to 9 credits maximum)

Courses that may be taken while an undergraduate student with Pre-Master’s Status:

            SEES 5100 Geographic Information Systems
            SEES 5500 Remote Sensing
            Geospatial core elective  

Master’s Degree Graduate Student Status

Courses to be taken once graduated with a bachelor’s degree and fully enrolled as a graduate student in the Applied Geospatial Science program:

• Any courses required or elective not taken in the list above while in Pre-Master’s Status   
• Courses from the Geospatial Core Electives (4 courses required)

          ENVS 5130 Applications in Environmental GIS (3 hours)
          GEOG 5250 Applied GIS Human Dimensions (3 hours)
          GEOL 6930 Advanced Field Geology (6 hours)
          SEES 6800/6810 Seminar in SEES – MSAGS approved topic (3 hours)
          SEES 6400 Environmental Remote Sensing (3 hours)
          SEES 6600 Spatial Modeling (3 hours)
          SEES 6620 GIS Techniques and Applications (3 hours)

• Additional selections from the Geospatial Core Electives or other courses approved by the Graduate Coordinator (6-9 hours)
• SEES 6900 or SEES 6890 (3 hours)

Capstone Experience:
    Choose ONE:
        Plan I:
            SEES 6990 Thesis
        OR
        Plan II:
            SEES 6900 Directed Research or SEES 6890 Internship
            AND Comprehensive Examination

[1] For the purposes of this policy, BGSU GPA is calculated based on BGSU credits only. However, credits transferred into BGSU may be counted as part of credit hours earned (not GPA).
[2] The graduate college will obtain these records.