College Policy on Second Undergraduate Degrees

The College Policy is:

An individual may pursue a second undergraduate degree in a new field to fulfill a different academic objective. A student may not concurrently pursue two undergraduate degrees at Oswego. An individual who seeks admission/readmission to earn a second undergraduate degree must:

meet with an academic advisor in the major to develop a program of study;
submit that program of study to the appropriate academic associate dean for approval before registering for coursework;
complete and pass a minimum of 30 hours of coursework at Oswego after admission/readmission;
complete a minimum of one-half of the major and/or concentration requirements at Oswego after admission/readmission.

The intended interpretation of the above policy is that despite however many credit hours the student may have already taken towards the second major while an undergraduate working toward his/her first degree, the student will still be required to complete the minimum of one-half of the credit hours required (cognates included) in whichever major the student is now actively pursuing as a second degree. In addition, all second degrees must be in a significantly different academic field and requires Dean's approval prior to registration.

For example, assume the total number of hours required for the second degree major is 36 hours and the student has previously earned 27 hours in the subject area while an undergraduate pursuing his/her first degree. In order to fulfill the "additional one-half" requirement stated above, the student would need to take an additional 18 hours in order to satisfy this requirement and not just 9 hours to total 36 hours. Essentially, in order for this student to fulfill the "one-half of the major" as stated in the policy, the student will actually have had to exceed the minimum 36 hours total number required in the major.

Going one step further, the student could not simply take the 18 hours in the major area, but would need an additional 12 hours to reach the minimum 30 credit hour requirement.

A student wishing to pursue a second undergraduate degree in a BFA or BS program will need to exceed the minimum 30 additional credit hours as these degrees typically require in excess of 60 total credit hours. A BS in chemistry, for example, requires a minimum of 76 credit hours, so a student would need at least 38 credit hours at Oswego to meet the 4^th requirement in the policy listed above.

Upon acceptance, the student needs only to complete all of the second degree major and cognate requirements and earn at least a 2.00 cumulative index. There are no additional general education requirements.

Structure of Proposed Program of Study

An academic advisor and student should create a written document that describes the program of study to meet the requirements listed above. This should include:

the catalog description of the program of study which indicates the total credit hours needed to complete the requirements for the major, inclusive of core, elective, cognate and/or other requirements.
a statement indicating that a minimum of one-half of the hours will be completed after beginning this second undergraduate degree
a semester by semester description of the coursework to be taken that demonstrates that at least 30 credit hours and one-half the major requirements are part of the plan
signatures and dates for both the faculty advisor and student, indicating agreement with the proposed plan. Please note that until approved by the Dean's Office, this proposed plan is tentative and subject to revision.