BA to MPA Accelerated Degree Program
Earn your BA and MPA in 5 years!
The accelerated Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree option allows students majoring in Communication, Criminal Justice, Integrated Studies, Nonprofit Leadership & Administration and Political Science, who meet certain guidelines, the opportunity to apply 9 hours of MPA classes to both the 124-hour undergraduate degrees and the MPA degree.
Students applying for this program must:
- Have completed at least 30 hours of coursework at Augusta University.
- Have an overall cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or better.
- Be within 30 semester hours of graduating with a BA in a participating department.
- Have written permission of the chair of the department of the undergraduate major to use the graduate level courses as acceptable substitutes to fulfill related requirements of the bachelor's degree (students must satisfy all prerequisites for those graduate courses).
- Meet all requirements for admissions into the MPA program and be in good standing with the university (except for receipt of the undergraduate degree and the completion of the GRE).
- Submit an application for admissions in the spring semester of the junior year to the BA to MPA program, along with all necessary admissions documentation to The Graduate School according to institutional policy.
Participating BA Programs
Important Information
The BA-MPA is a dual enrollment program. As a dual enrollment program, students follow the plan below:
Undergraduate
1st Year - Undergraduate Student
2nd Year- Undergraduate Student
3rd Year- Undergraduate Student
4th Year- Undergraduate Student (undergraduate & graduate courses)
Graduate with a BA Degree
5th Year Graduate Student
BA-MPA students need to contact the Office of Student Financial Aid directly to discuss if/how dual degree enrollment may impact your financial aid or at any time if you have any questions about your financial aid awards.
It is the responsibility of the student interested in applying to the BA-MPA program to consult with the Office of Student Financial Aid to determine any potential ramifications on their financial aid during dual degree enrollment (taking graduate and undergraduate courses during the same semester) and during the change from undergraduate to graduate standing.
Other Considerations
Some financial aid funds apply to undergraduate level courses only. For semesters when a student has a mixture of undergraduate and graduate level courses, an award will be calculated for the undergraduate level courses only.
Federal Loans: A student who is classified as an undergraduate student must be enrolled in 6 hours of undergraduate level courses to be eligible for federal loans. A graduate level student must be enrolled in 5 hours of graduate level courses to be eligible for federal loans.
HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship can pay for graduate level courses as long as the student record is classified as undergraduate and the student has not reached the maximum 127 hours or reached maximum number of years of eligibility.
Pell Grant can only pay for undergraduate level courses.
If the student record is showing the student as graduated and now in a graduate level program then neither HOPE/Zell nor Pell Grant can be awarded.