Bachelor's-Plus-Master's Program

The University of Dayton offers opportunities for well qualified students to earn both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in an accelerated fashion. The BPM program makes it possible for students to reduce the time required to complete a master’s degree by providing advanced graduate credit earned during the student’s bachelor’s program of study. Through careful coordination, the BPM program allows up to nine (9) hours to be completed toward both degrees.  Students in a BPM pathway must complete the minimum requirements for each degree and must complete the bachelor’s degree requirements in full before a bachelor’s degree will be awarded. Prior to earning the bachelor’s degree, a student in a BPM pathway will retain undergraduate status for all courses taken and will be responsible for tuition and fees at the undergraduate rate. Following graduation from the bachelor’s degree program, the student will have graduate status and will be responsible for the graduate costs of enrollment. 

Note that in order to remain in compliance with Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) regulations, the combined credit hours for the pathway degrees must reach a minimum of 141 hours with at least 30 credit hours applied toward the master’s degree. Because a bachelor’s degree requires a minimum of 120 hours, the BPM pathway program allows up to nine (9) hours to count toward both degrees provided that the nine hours are graduate courses.

Admission to a BPM program will typically occur during the first semester of the junior year. However, individual BPM programs may seek to recruit students at any point in their undergraduate studies. Earlier recruitment and admission to BPM programs, during admission to the university or prior to junior status, may contribute to greater undergraduate recruitment and retention. Students admitted to a BPM program cannot register for graduate coursework until completion of 60 semester hours of undergraduate coursework. 

Admission to a BPM program requires a minimum cumulative undergraduate grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 at the time of application, if coursework has been completed, and at the time of registration for graduate coursework. Continued enrollment in the BPM program also requires maintenance of an undergraduate cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. Individual programs may require additional or more stringent criteria (e.g., higher minimum GPAs, standards for performance within the undergraduate major, or the completion of specific coursework).  

Prior to initiating the application process, it is recommended that students meet with their program advisors to discuss their plans for graduate study. Program advisors may in turn recommend that students consult with the program directors for their intended master’s degree programs to determine the viability of proposed BPM pathways (e.g., confirming the availability of transferable graduate courses). Students should also obtain a list from the graduate program of recommended courses they intend to complete in fulfillment of the BPM pathway. If such a list is not provided, that should be taken as an indicator that the proposed BPM pathway is not viable. Once the student and advisor have agreed upon the viability of a BPM pathway, the student should initiate the application using the BPM Pathway Approval Form, found on the University of Dayton intranet (Porches) under Student Resources.

Completion of graduate credit course work does not guarantee admission to a master’s program. BPM students must also apply for admission to the master’s program through the Office of Admission. To matriculate as a BPM graduate student, students must meet all admission requirements for the master’s degree program and be fully accepted into the approved BPM graduate program.

Transcript Considerations

Joint-degree graduate course hours will be credited to both the undergraduate and graduate degree program requirements. Transcription of graduate only degree credit will, however, be contingent upon matriculation into the graduate degree program. If a conditionally admitted student does not achieve regular admission to the graduate program, any graduate work already completed will be noted on the undergraduate transcript only.

Joint-degree (i.e., double-counted) graduate course hours will be shown only on the undergraduate portion of a BPM student’s transcript and are included only in undergraduate quality point-average calculations. Double-counted courses will transfer into the graduate degree and will not count toward the GPA for that degree. Because double-counted courses count as transfer credits, the earned undergraduate grade for each course must be B or better.