The accelerated BS/MS program is a well-integrated program that permits students to complete both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in communications and media design/information design and technology in a reduced time frame with a reduced total number of credits.

Degree Requirements
Completion of the joint BS/MS program requires a minimum of 145 credit hours, including a minimum of 33 semester hours of graduate study. All specific requirements for both the BS and the MS degrees must be met. Students in the joint program may apply up to twelve credits of graduate coursework to both the undergraduate and graduate degrees simultaneously. The double-counted coursework will be chosen from the core and elective courses in the graduate program, and up to 6 of these credits may be applied to the undergraduate track electives with the remaining credits applied toward the undergraduate open electives requirement. The intent of this program option is to allow well-prepared students to finish both a bachelor’s and master’s degree within an abbreviated period of time.

Status
A student enrolled in the joint BS/MS program will be considered to remain in undergraduate status until the completion of 124 semester hours, and thereafter tuition and fees will be charged at the graduate level. The BS degree will be awarded at such time as all the requirements for that degree are satisfactorily met. Students are expected to complete their BS program requirements prior to pursuit of the MS degree except where those two programs overlap.

Academic Standing/Maintaining Matriculation
Continued matriculation in the joint program requires maintenance of a GPA of 3.0 for courses taken at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in each of the following categories:

• All communication courses applicable to the undergraduate degree
• All information design and technology courses applicable to the undergraduate degree
• All graduate courses

Note: entering first-year students must achieve an overall GPA of at least a 3.0 upon completion of their first 60 credits.

Students with a GPA of less than 3.0 in any of these categories will be placed on academic probation in the program. Students who are on academic probation for any two semesters or who have a GPA of less than 2.50 in any of these categories will be academically dismissed from the joint program. Students who are academically dismissed but have not yet completed the baccalaureate program but whose performance constitutes satisfactory performance in the undergraduate program will automatically be placed in that program.