Integrated Undergraduate/Graduate Study

Program Description

The Schreyer Honors College provides ambitious research-oriented students the opportunity to pursue simultaneous undergraduate and graduate degrees in programs that have a master’s degree curriculum. In addition to having outstanding academic records, an established research record, and well-defined academic and career plans which include graduate study, these extraordinary students have made unusually accelerated progress in the major. Neither the fixed time periods traditionally associated with the undergraduate degrees, nor many graduate and professional degrees, nor the sharp break between undergraduate and graduate study, serve any significant purpose for these students

IUG status permits Scholars to take on the rigors and research challenges of graduate study at Penn State, coordinating and combining them with their baccalaureate studies. Because some credits earned as an undergraduate may be applied to both degree programs, the time required for completion of integrated undergraduate/graduate studies is normally less than that required to complete separate degree programs. The actual time required is determined by the individual student’s objectives and needs. The acceleration of work in the major must not be at the expense of the richest possible undergraduate experience; therefore, the student is required to demonstrate a balance between the accelerated specialization and a sound general education.

The advantages of Integrated Undergraduate/Graduate status are several: (a) It permits coherent planning of studies through the graduate degree, with advising informed by not only the requirements of the baccalaureate program, but also the longer-range goals of the graduate degree. (b) It permits and promotes higher levels of research accomplishment. (c) While still undergraduates, students with IUG status benefit from their association with graduate students whose level of work and whose intensity of interest and commitment parallel or even surpass their own. (d) The student will have earlier contact with the rigors of graduate study (in some cases substituting graduate work for undergraduate requirements) and with graduate faculty; the resources of the Graduate School are accessible to IUG students. (e) For most students, the total time required to reach completion of the higher degree will be shortened.