The Office of the Provost will be unveiling the Accelerated Master’s Program, a replacement for the 4+1 program that offers Stevens undergraduate students an accelerated process to obtain their graduate degree.
Previously, Stevens offered the 4+1 Master’s Program, which allowed selected students to obtain a graduate degree with a 20% tuition scholarship for the final year of full-time graduate study. Only students who received this offer upon admission into Stevens were able to pursue this program and receive the 20% scholarship. The Office of the Provost is leading the development of the Accelerated Master’s Program (AMP) as a replacement of the 4+1 Master’s Program.
AMP will allow students to take up to three graduate-level courses that fulfill the requirements of both the undergraduate and graduate programs as undergraduate students, thus counting those three courses for both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Furthermore, AMP will be an application-based program. Stevens students enrolled in their sixth or seventh semester, including current students, can apply to the program, as long as they have a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA and have completed all credit requirements for their first five semesters at Stevens. For students enrolled in the co-op program, the sixth or seventh semester refers to the number of academic semesters completed, excluding semesters spent on co-op. AMP requires that students spend one semester as a full-time graduate student (taking nine to twelve credits) but allows them to complete the rest of their graduate degree either full-time or part-time, online or on-campus.
Within the application for AMP, students must declare the graduate program which they wish to pursue, include a list of the three graduate courses which they plan to utilize for both their undergraduate and graduate degrees, and provide a faculty letter of recommendation. There will be no fee to apply to AMP, and the program will not be capped at a certain number of students.
Current juniors and seniors will still be able to take advantage of AMP as long as they meet the requirements and have free slots in their schedule to take advantage of the double-counted courses. Juniors and seniors would also be applying in their sixth or seventh academic semester and should submit the application one semester before they plan to enroll as a graduate student.
The Office of the Provost decided to create a new program instead of expanding the 4+1 Program to all students because the new Accelerated Master’s Program is structured in a way that makes it easier for students to follow. AMP also clearly defines when a student is an undergraduate and a graduate student, the distinction of which is essential for financial aid purposes, both through Stevens and on the state and federal levels. The name of the previous 4+1 Program was also misleading, since not all students had to stay for an entire additional academic year to earn their graduate degree. Giving the new Accelerated Master’s Program its own distinct name aims to prevent confusion with the prior 4+1 Program.
The creation of the Accelerated Master’s Program is being spearheaded by Cindy Chin, the Assistant Provost for Administration and Finance in the Office of the Provost. Provost Christophe Pierre asked Chin to lead a working group with representatives from the Office of Undergraduate Academics, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the Office of Graduate Admissions, the Office of Financial Aid, and the Office of the Registrar to find ways to improve programs for students seeking advanced studies at Stevens. The group determined that revamping the 4+1 Program into the new Accelerated Master’s Program was the way to go after extensive research, benchmarking against other universities, and consultation with internal constituents.
Current Stevens students who were offered the 4+1 Master’s Program upon admission can choose to stay in the 4+1 Program, but they can also choose to apply to the Accelerated Master’s Program instead. Chin recommends that students speak to an advisor to determine what is the best option for them, as this is on a case-by-case basis based on their current study plan.
When deciding which three graduate courses to take for AMP, students must ensure that those courses will fulfill both their undergraduate and graduate degree requirements and that they meet the prerequisites for those graduate courses. Thus, if there are no overlapping courses for their undergraduate and graduate program, students will have to use the graduate courses to fulfill their general elective requirements as an undergraduate. However, if an undergraduate student enrolled in AMP has space in their schedule to take more than three graduate courses throughout their undergraduate semesters, they will still only be able to count three predefined graduate courses towards their graduate degree, and the superfluous courses would need to fulfill undergraduate degree requirements. Students who are ahead in their curriculum should speak to an advisor to determine when it would be most appropriate to take the double-counted courses. Chin recommends that students who still have a significant amount of free space in their schedules consider taking additional undergraduate courses towards a minor or double major.
Future Stevens students will have the possibility of being offered the Accelerated Master’s Program upon acceptance, but they would still have to apply to the program as a sixth or seventh semester Stevens student.
The Accelerated Master’s Program will be officially announced by the Office of the Provost on the week of October 22 through an email. Information sessions about AMP are also in the works, as well as the incorporation of information regarding AMP into the Office of Graduate Admissions information sessions.
Applications for AMP will be available starting this fall, and the inaugural group of students enrolled in AMP will be in fall 2019. The second phase of implementing AMP will be to create predefined study plans that depict which undergraduate and graduate programs are easy to pair together to pursue both degrees sequentially.
When asked about the expansion of graduate programs at Stevens, Chin says that Stevens is “always looking for ways to improve and provide more educational and research opportunities for students, especially those in areas where there is growth and demand in the field.” Three new graduate programs are currently in the works: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science.
If students have questions about the Accelerated Master’s Program, their main points of contact are staff members of the Office of Undergraduate Academics and the amp@stevens.edu email alias, but more information will be available with the official announcement of the program on the week of October 22.
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