Program Overview

B.A./M.A. Degree Program in Religious Studies

The B.A./M.A. Degree Program in Religious Studies is a bachelor's–accelerated master's (BAM) degree program that offers exceptional undergraduates the opportunity to begin graduate work while still an undergraduate and thereby complete the B.A. and M.A. degrees simultaneously and on an accelerated schedule. The entire program normally requires 5-6 years and permits six credit units to be double-counted toward both degrees.

Advantages of the Program

The advantages of this program to students and the department are manifold, including:

• The opportunity to present an undergraduate program that makes full use of the university's unique resources as a research university and that fosters meaningful undergraduate research.
• A path for the best students to continue their study of religion through a range of courses of increasing sophistication and specialization.
• The opportunity to plot extended academic paths for undergraduates that include requisite language learning and study abroad.

Admission to the Program

Applicants to the program must be full-time, continuously enrolled students with a minimum overall GPA of 3.0, and a 3.5 GPA in Religious Studies courses. They must have completed at least 24 credit hours prior to admission to the bachelor's–accelerated master's (BAM) degree program. Applications will include letters of recommendation from Department faculty and will be evaluated by faculty as a whole, much as graduate applications are.

Continuation in the Program

Students enrolled in the concurrent bachelor's–accelerated master's (BAM) program must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 and 3.5 in the department. Each BAM student will be assigned a graduate advisor with whom they will meet regularly and will be required to demonstrate satisfactory progress toward degree. Students who need to drop out will be required to fulfill the B.A. degree requirements for Religious Studies and the Department will apply graduate courses to undergraduate requirements on the advice of the advisor.

Curriculum

Students enrolled in the bachelor's–accelerated master's (BAM) program may complete 12 credits of graduate coursework while undergraduates. Of those 12 credits, six may double-count toward both degrees, thereby reducing the total amount of RLST coursework to 60 credit hours. The program proposes that one of these courses be RLST 6830 Intro to the Academic Study of Religion, which would replace Senior Seminar for BAM students, and that the other be in an area of depth concentration. Otherwise, program students will fulfill all the normal requirements for the B.A. and the M.A. degree.