A combined bachelor’s and master’s degree program that was discontinued by the Walter Cronkite School over the summer has been redesigned and will open for enrollment on Friday.
The program, which was originally available only to Cronkite School students enrolled in Barrett, the Honors College, will now be open to all students who are admitted to the Cronkite School for the fall of their freshman year.
Students under the new version, which the administration is calling an accelerated-degree program, will earn their bachelor’s degrees after three to four years and will receive their master’s degree the following year. It is a shift from a four-year combined-degree program that allowed students to earn their bachelor’s degree in journalism and their master’s degree in mass communication concurrently.
The Cronkite School decided during the summer to end the old program after this year’s freshman class. Next year’s freshmen will be able to participate in the new iteration of the program, so no students were denied the opportunity to participate in some kind of combined bachelor’s/master’s program.
Cronkite School Outreach Director Liz Smith said the school would release details of the program on Friday.
Smith said the program was revamped so that it would be more inclusive.
“This redesigned program is open to even more students, so even more students have the chance to accelerate,” she said.
The new program mimics the old in that students must still complete 144 credits to receive their degrees. The first 120 credits apply toward an undergraduate degree and are still subject to undergraduate tuition.
The master’s degree requires 36 credits, 12 of which also count as undergraduate credit. But students who enroll in the new program must now pay graduate tuition while they are enrolled in graduate courses.
Students under the new program will be eligible for graduate assistantships to help offset the cost of graduate tuition, Smith said.
Students can apply to the graduate college after they have completed 75 undergraduate credit hours, and can begin the program once they have completed 90 credit hours. Students must maintain a 3.25 cumulative GPA throughout the undergraduate portion of the program and a 3.0 cumulative GPA during the graduate portion.
“If you are accepted to the accelerated program, you must formally apply to the grad school, but you don’t have to worry about all the extra stuff like GREs and an essay and reference letters,” Smith said. “We’re sort of guaranteeing you admission to the grad school.”
Smith said the redesigned program comes with a revised degree-completion timeline for many students.
“It’s designed so that a regular student not bringing in a lot of credits could do it in five years,” she said.
But for students bringing in a significant number of credit hours through high-school advanced-placement classes, the redesign will be less of an issue.
“Barrett students typically enter ASU with multiple college credits, therefore making this program relatively manageable,” said Jill Johnson, program manager for Barrett, the Honors College at the Downtown campus.
Johnson said honors students who declared participation in the combined-degree program under the old system were required to enroll in honors sections of certain core journalism courses starting in the spring of their freshmen year, at the same time they declared participation in the program.
That course requirement may change under the new program because students will not apply until much later in their academic careers. Cronkite administration had not yet solidified that requirement late Wednesday.
To some students, the possibility of graduating with two degrees a year or two ahead of their peers outweighs the cost of graduate tuition.
“When you enter the workforce you’ll stand out so much more and get better jobs,” said Cydney Henderson, a journalism freshman. “I’d probably have to figure out a way to pay for it; maybe get student loans, but that definitely sounds worth it.”
Contact the reporter at chloe.brooks@asu.edu
Editor’s note: Chloe Brooks is enrolled in the Cronkite School’s combined bachelor’s/master’s program.
