How does this work? I know that for most masters degrees, schools will say that you do not need to have a bachelors in the same field, but that they want you to take additional coursework so you have the basics down. 1) If you’ve already graduated as an undergrad so you can’t take the additional coursework, when are you supposed to take it? 2) if I have a minor in the subject I now want a masters in, do the classes taken for that minor usually qualify as the “additional coursework” they describe?
It depends on the masters program and the school requirements. Perhaps your undergrad coursework is sufficient. For my husband, mechanical engineer wanting an MBA, he took prerequisites at our local community college.
@svlab112 do you know if it’s also true that some graduate schools will allow you to take the additional coursework at their school as part of your masters program?
Yes. I actually believe in my husband’s case they have him the option. However, because he needed only some basic business courses he saved $1000s by fulfilling requirements through community college.
I was in a similar situation (many years ago). I was missing only one course. I therefore took it the first quarter of my master’s program and there was no problem at all. The master’s that I got had room for at least two or three electives, so the one missing class was just one of the electives.
I have heard of other cases where students are missing more classes, and take them at their local in-state public university or a community college before starting their master’s. I don’t know whether it is possible to start your master’s with the intention that you will do one additional semester to catch up on missing courses, but that seems like a possibility at well (when I did my masters there were some students that went one additional quarter, but I don’t know whether than was to catch up on missing courses or to allow them to take fewer concurrent courses).
If you already have a minor in the field where you want to do your master’s, then it is likely that you are missing very few classes if any. You will need to check with the university where you intend to do your master’s.
It depends on the field. For example, my H got a MBA and one can pursue that degree with any undergraduate major – in contrast my D is getting a MS in speech pathology and has an extra two semesters of classes to take because she was not a speech major undergrad (and many MS programs would not even allow her to apply without a background in the subject). You will need to carefully look at the details of the admission requirements for each Master’s program from each school.
I had a bachelors in CS, and got a masters in Industrial Engineering without having to take any additional prerequisites for the latter. From what I’ve seen, if you go into a master’s program where you need prerequisites, you take those classes before you start the masters classes. Typically, you’d take the classes at the place you’d be attending for your masters.
Generally, if you have a non science/math bachelors degree such as english, socialogy, etc., it would be very difficult to get a masters degree in engineering, physics, chemistry, etc., or a doctor degree in health science such as pharmacy, optometry, dentistry, etc. There is too much “catching up” and a steep learning curve to get to the level of competency in the prerequisites. It can be done if you have the time to fulfill the prerequisites. I know of people who went from working as CPA accountants and early in their careers went back to a community college to take the prerequisites for pharmacy and optometry. Now these people are optometrists and pharmacists.
For MBA and law, you can have any undergraduate major and still get into MBA or law school.