Before Applying

Undergraduate students in the College of Information Sciences and Technology may apply to an IUG degree program after earning 60 credits, which is typically in the spring semester of the junior year. To apply, students should:

• meet with a College of IST Academic Adviser in the spring of their sophomore year or the fall of their junior year to discuss their interest in an IUG program, to receive an assessment of whether the academic plan will accommodate the IUG program requirements, and to obtain a referral to discuss the program with the Director of Master’s Programs
• meet with the Director of Master’s Programs in the spring of their sophomore year or the fall of their junior year to declare their interest and to gather information about the program requirements for the IUG degree of interest
• prepare a proposed semester-by-semester plan for the IUG program, and submit it for approval in the fall of their junior year to the student’s academic adviser and the Director of Master’s Programs

Application Submission

Once the proposed semester-by-semester plan is approved, students should apply to the IUG program through the Graduate School’s application. It is recommended that students complete their application in January of their junior year. The Masters Recruiting Committee begins reviewing applications on a rolling basis  and admission decisions are sent via email as they are made.

Automatic Acceptance & Application Fee Waiver

• The College of IST offers automatic acceptance into one of the college’s M.S. or M.P.S. degree programs and will waive the application fee for any graduate from an IST bachelor’s degree program with a 3.5 GPA or higher.
• This offer is good for 2 years after graduating from an IST program (any PSU campus).
• Eligible applicants should contact istgradprograms@psu.edu for verification and issuance of the waiver.

IUG degrees offer undergraduate students the benefits of graduate education. These programs aim to:

• introduce undergraduate students to the rigors of graduate study and graduate faculty
• make the resources of the Graduate School available to IUG students
• allow students with IUG status to benefit from their association with graduate students whose level of work and whose intensity of interest and commitment parallel their own
• permit 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

The first two to three years of undergraduate coursework follow the same undergraduate curriculum that other students follow in the IST or SRA majors. The final years of study include undergraduate and graduate requirements.

Students may double-count a maximum of 12 specified credits toward their graduate and undergraduate degrees, thus making faster progress toward each degree. At least 50% of the courses that are double-counted must be at the graduate level.

Student performance will be monitored on an on-going basis by the student’s adviser and the Graduate Programs Office. Students admitted to the integrated degrees must maintain a high cumulative GPA in order to maintain good academic standing and meet graduation requirements.