COURSE CREDIT AND DEGREE INFORMATION


STUDENT CLASSIFICATION


UNDERGRADUATE DIVISION

Students in the undergraduate division are those who are working on an Associate or Bachelor's degree. An Associate degree can be obtained by completing 62 semester hours of study with at least a C- average. A Bachelor's degree can be obtained by completing 124 semester hours of study and maintaining at least a C- average.

GRADUATE DIVISION

Individuals seeking admission into a Master's degree program must have a total grade point average of 2.7 on a 4.0 system, or B- average, for their Bachelor's degree. Individuals with a G.P.A. below a 2.7 may be admitted with a probationary status. Students can claim one major or a double major; students are not required to claim a minor but most students do.

To earn a Master's degree, a student must complete 32 semester hours of course work plus a Thesis or 6 additional hours of course work; the Thesis is optional. Any student wishing to complete the Master's Thesis will be required to take the Thesis Preparation 657 course in the department of their concentration.

Individuals seeking admission on the Doctoral level must have completed their Master degree with a 3.0 G.P.A. or B average. The Doctor of Philosophy degree is 45 semester hours of course work and a Dissertation of 12 semester hours of credit; the Dissertation is required of all Doctoral Candidates. All Doctoral Candidates must successfully follow the guidelines for completing the Dissertation process.

Individuals entering the Ministerial Doctoral program fulfill varying guidelines. Please see an explanation listed in the Religion Department of this catalog.

Graduate students may qualify to be granted a Teaching Assistantship. Teaching Assistants earn credit toward their own degree by teaching St. John's University curriculum.


HONORARY DEGREES

Honorary Degrees are granted to those individuals who have made an outstanding contribution during their lifetime to a profession, area of knowledge or to humanity itself. Most Honorary Degree recipients have been in their 60s, 70s or 80s.


DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

A student must have a bona fide Bachelor's degree before being permitted to study for a Master's degree; a student must have a bona fide Master's degree or its equivalency to be eligible to enroll in a Doctoral program.

To obtain a Bachelor's degree from St. John's University, a student must complete at least 124 semester hours of study.

To obtain a Master's degree, a student must complete 38 semester hours of study beyond the Bachelor's degree; the Master's thesis is optional. A student can complete 6 semester hours of course work instead of completing the Thesis.

To obtain the Doctoral degree, a student must complete 45 semester hours of course work beyond the Master's degree and must complete a Doctoral Dissertation which is 12 semester hours of credit. For the Master's and Doctoral degrees, all courses must be taken from the graduate and postgraduate level of curriculum.

The thesis for the Master's degree must be a minimum of 25,000 words; the Doctoral Dissertation must be a minimum of 50,000 words. Graduate students follow specific procedures in order to complete these projects. A Thesis or Dissertation Committee consists of three faculty Instructors. Charles Marchand, Ph.D. currently coordinates all Thesis and Dissertation Committees.

All Theses and Dissertations are to be hard bound. The original is kept permanently at the University; the copy is returned to the student once all requirements have been met. Degrees will be granted upon receipt of both hard bound copies. If a student's final draft has been accepted by the Committee, but the hard bound copies have not been received, the student will be allowed to graduate; the transcript and diploma will be mailed to the graduate as soon as the hard bound copies are received.


EXPLANATION OF CREDITS

Each credit listed in the curriculum catalog represents 1 semester hour of credit. The standard policy among most colleges is that one semester hour of credit equals to approximately 20 clock hours of study, research and writing. Based on each student's ability, this can vary. However, a 3 semester hour course should take the average student approximately 60 hours to complete all requirements for that course.


MINIMUM DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

St. John's University requires that a minimum of 12 semester hours are completed from St. John's University's curriculum before a degree can be granted. Graduate students, who complete all course requirements but have not completed the Thesis or Dissertation before transferring to St. John's University, will complete a minimum of twelve semester hours of course work plus the Dissertation, which is also 12 semester hours of credit.


DISSERTATION GUIDELINES

The Doctoral Candidate has two years in which to complete their Dissertation once all course work is completed and the initial Dissertation proposal is approved by the Dissertation Committee Advisor. Dissertation procedures and materials will be provided to the graduate student in the 857 course provided in each department. After completing all course work the graduate student will have the benefit of a Dissertation Committee and Advisor who will assist the graduate student by guiding the Dissertation process. Students must wait for the Advisor's approval before beginning any portion of the Dissertation. Each Doctoral Candidate is to carefully follow all Dissertation guide lines.

Before the Candidate can be assigned to the Advisor all Dissertation tuition must be received at the University. Both hard bound copies are sent to the University for final approval by the Dissertation Committee. After the Dissertation Committee signs both, the original remains permanently at the University and the copy is returned to the Candidate.

During the student's work on the Dissertation, it is the student's responsibility to keep the Dissertation Advisor informed of their progress at each step in the process. It is the student's responsibility to follow all University guide lines when completing the Dissertation.


SENDING LESSONS

All lessons are mailed to the Instructor who is assigned to a particular course. Students are required to use a self addressed stamped envelope to send their lessons to their Instructor so their graded lessons can be returned. Assignments going to Instructors or correspondence coming to the University with postage due cannot be accepted, so be sure to have your assignments and return envelope weighed to insure proper postage.


SHIPPING YOUR TEXTBOOKS

Your textbooks and assignment materials are mailed as soon as possible after we have received payment for the book and postage. Unless a particular book is out of stock, textbooks are usually mailed within a week or ten days of receiving a textbook order. Book orders usually take 5 working days for delivery. Books are shipped UPS unless a student has a post office box as part of their mailing address, in which case, the United States Postal system is used. All books are insured to guarantee their arrival.


MAILING FEE

There is a $4.00 handling and mailing fee for each textbook that is mailed. This fee also includes the cost for the assignment materials. All orders must be pre-paid. Book orders for foreign students will be sent air mail unless a student requests them to be sent by surface mail. Cost of shipping to foreign countries will vary.


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