Criteria for student admission into the Five Year Program:

1. Undergraduate cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

2. GPA in the student’s major of at least 3.0.

3. Submission of one of the following:

   a)  A minimum SAT Score of 1100 with a minimum of 530 in the verbal and quantitative sections (must be less than five years old);

   b)  A Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test score of 950 for the Verbal and Quantitative sections combined. The GRE scores are used as one of several indicators of the applicant’s ability to succeed in graduate studies.

4. Two letters of recommendation. One must be from a faculty member in the major who has taught/or mentored the student in a major course or research project.

After completion of at least 65 hours of undergraduate study, the Formal Application (pdf) to the Five Year Program is submitted by February 1 of the Spring semester. Applications for admission to the Five Year Program are also available from the BCES Graduate Program Coordinator. Approval of the application will constitute admission to the Master of Science in Environmental Science Program. 

After the complete admission package has been submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies, please allow 3 weeks for the committee's decision and processing. A letter will be sent to you by mail. If you are concerned about whether documents have been received which will complete your admission package or to check on the status of your file, please contact us at gradques@cnu.edu.     

Graduate credit hours taken as a Five-year BS/MS undergraduate are subject to the following requirements:

1. A maximum of nine hours of credit will be allowed while classified as an undergraduate

2. All courses must be approved by the student's advisor

3. The student will be held to the same standards in these classes as a graduate student

4. To continue to take graduate courses as an undergraduate, a student must complete each course with a grade of B- or better

5. These graduate credit hours will count towards the 120 hours required for an undergraduate degree. They will not directly count toward the MS

6. Graduate cross-listed courses will count toward the student's major requirements in exactly the same way that the corresponding undergraduate cross-listed courses would count. If a graduate course, which is not cross-listed, is used to satisfy a requirement of the undergraduate major then the student must get the course substitution approved by the department chair to substitute the graduate course for a required course in the major.

7. Students in the five-year program who have taken graduate courses (up to 9 credit hours) as an undergraduate will be required to take additional graduate hours (24 credit hours at a minimum) for the M.S. in Environmental Science thesis track as a graduate student. The number of graduate credit hours (ENVS or CHEM) must total at least 33 overall.