Simultaneous Award of the Bachelor's and Master's Degrees
A Yale College undergraduate of extraordinary ability may, with the permission of the department and Yale College, undertake graduate work that will qualify the student at the end of senior year for the simultaneous award of the bachelor's and master's degrees. Each department decides whether or not it wishes to permit this arrangement. The two degrees must be in the same department. A student must consult carefully with the DUS and the director of graduate studies of the department before applying. The student then applies for the simultaneous award through the DUS who, after securing the necessary approval from the department, forwards the application, with a letter of support, to the secretary of the Committee on the Simultaneous Award of the Bachelor's and Master's Degrees, Dean Jill Cutler, 110 SSS, 432-2914. Questions about the program may be referred to her.
Although departments set the specific requirements for combined degrees, a number of general regulations, published in chapter II of the YCPS, apply to all B.A./M.A. and B.S./M.S. degree candidates. Two of these regulations should be kept particularly in mind:
(1) Students may not enroll in Yale College for more than eight terms in order to qualify for the simultaneous award of the two degrees. It is permitted to earn both degrees in fewer than eight terms, but not by the use of acceleration credits.
(2) During their last four terms of enrollment, simultaneous-award candidates must take at least six term courses outside of their major; and in the last two terms of enrollment, they must take at least two undergraduate courses. Graduate work may not be entirely concentrated in the last two terms.
With regard to eligibility, there are two somewhat different routes to the award of both degrees. One is through a department with an approved program. This is now the case with the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Mathematics, and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. Specific requirements in each of these approved programs appear under the headings for those departments in chapter III of the YCPS.
The other route allows students in a department not offering an approved program for the combined degrees to petition, with the support of the department, the Committee on the Simultaneous Award of the Bachelor's and Master's Degrees on an ad hoc basis. Such students must apply immediately after their fifth term of enrollment and must present a record of grades of A or A– in at least two-thirds of all their course credits as well as grades of A or A– in at least two-thirds of their course credits in the major. For students in departments with an approved program, the deadline for application and the specific grade requirements may differ. But in all departments, a student is officially recognized as a candidate for two degrees only after approval by both the department and the committee. Candidates for the combined degrees must petition the Graduate School for the award of the master's degree by the deadline published in the online Graduate School bulletin, Programs and Policies, usually around the middle of March.
