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Accelerated Pathway Programs and Specialized Combined Degrees
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2024-2025 UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES CATALOG

Effective 1 June 2024 through 31 May 2025

Please see the Undergraduate Catalog Archives for PDF versions of past catalogs.



Accelerated Pathway Programs

Program Description

Undergraduate students at Webster University may work with their academic advisor to begin taking approved graduate courses for a master’s program from the below list of accelerated pathway programs. Students must have a 3.0 GPA and may apply for their intended accelerated pathway program after the completion of 60 credits and before graduation. Students who have been approved for an accelerated pathway program may take up to 6 or 9 graduate-level credits (the maximum number is determined by the receiving graduate program). These graduate-level courses will count as electives for the student’s undergraduate degree (toward their 120-credit requirement) and count toward the degree requirements for the receiving master’s program. Students must receive a grade of B or better to use the course towards the master’s program. Students must begin their graduate program within 2 years of completing their undergraduate program. Transfer credit from another institution will not be accepted for accelerated pathway programs.

Requirements of Accelerated Pathway Programs

General Requirements

Students in the undergraduate component of an accelerated pathway program are subject to the policies and procedures outlined in the current Undergraduate Studies Catalog, with the addition or exception of admission, academic performance, advancement to candidacy and continuous enrollment requirements detailed in this section.

Students in the graduate component of the combined degrees program are subject to the policies and procedures outlined in the current Graduate Studies Catalog, with the addition or exception of admission, academic performance, advancement to candidacy and continuous enrollment requirements detailed in this section.

Admission

Students will follow the standard application process for admission to their selected graduate program. This must be done within two years of completing their bachelor’s degree.

Due to the accelerated nature of this program, no transfer credit will be accepted into the graduate component of the program.

Academic Performance

Students must maintain a current GPA of at least 3.0.

Advancement to Candidacy

Degree seeking students are advanced to master’s candidacy after successfully completing 12 credit hours with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. Some programs may have additional requirements in order to advance to candidacy.

Accelerated Pathway Programs

Criminal Justice (MS)

Maximum number of of graduate hours accepted - 9 hours

Students may select up to 9 hours from the following four courses:

  • CRIM 5000 Ethics and Decision Making in Criminal Justice (3 hours)
  • CRIM 5050 Organization and Administration of Criminal Justice (3 hours)
  • CRIM 5060 Policing and Law Enforcement (3 hours)
  • CRIM 5070 Institutional and Community Corrections (3 hours)

Data Analytics (MS)

Maximum number of graduate hours accepted - 9 hours

Students may select up to 9 hours from the following courses:

  • CSDA 5110 Analytics Programming with R (3 hours)
  • CSDA 5210 Databases and Data Warehouses (3 hours)
  • CSDA 5240 Database Programming (3 hours)
  • CSDA 5320 Analytics Applications Using Python (3 hours)
  • CSDA 5330 Machine Learning for Predictive Analytics (3 hours)

Environmental Management (MS)

Maximum number of graduate hours accepted - 6 hours

Students may select up to 6 hours from the following courses:

  • ENMG 5000 Environmental Science (3 hours)
  • ENMG 5100 Environmental Law (3 hours)
  • ENMG 5200 Environmental Regulations and Compliance Auditing (3 hours)
  • BUSN 6110 Production and Operations Management (3 hours)

Human Services (MA)

Maximum number of graduate hours accepted - 9 hours

Students may select up to 9 hours from the following three courses:

  • HUMS 5000 Foundations of Human Services (3 hours)
  • HUMS 5200 Social Welfare Policy (3 hours)
  • COUN 5050 Human Growth and Development (3 hours) (Undergraduates must be senior status and have successfully completed PSYC 4650 Biopsychology)

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Maximum number of graduate hours accepted - 9 hours

Students may select up to 9 hours from the following courses:

  • BUSN 5000 Business (3 hours) (only for students not completing an ACBSP-accredited undergraduate degree)
  • MBA 5010 Value Creation (3 hours)
  • MBA 5020 Quantitative Methods for the MBA (3 hours)

Students who have completed an ACBSP-accredited undergraduate program at Webster are eligible for a 6 hour reduction of electives toward the MBA and a BUSN 5000 waiver, reducing the number of required credit hours to 30 (minimum of 24 at the graduate level).

Note: The MBA may be a good choice for any student wishing to go into a management role in their field, regardless of major/minor. Students from majors other than BSBA or BS Finance should complete BUSN 5000, MBA 5010 and MBA 5020. Students completing the BSBA or BS Finance should complete MBA 5010 and MBA 5020, as BUSN 5000 is waived for them.

Strategic Communications (MA)

Maximum number of graduate hours accepted - 9 hours

Students must take:

  • MEDC 5300 Strategic Communications (3 hours)
  • Select two courses from the following courses for the remaining 6 hours:
    • STCM 5210 Digital Media Literacy (3 hours)
    • PBRL 5322 Public Relations (3 hours)
    • ADVT 5321 Advertising Decision Making (3 hours)
    • MEDC 5310 Media and Culture (3 hours)

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MA)

Maximum number of graduate hours accepted - 9 hours

Students may select up to 9 hours from the following four courses:

  • TESL 5030 Linguistics for Language Learning and Teaching (3 hours)
  • TESL 5230 Theories of Foreign and Second Language Acquisition (3 hours)
  • TESL 5139 Instructional Methods for Language Classrooms (3 hours)
  • TESL 5220 Lesson Planning and Curriculum Development for Language Classrooms (3 hours)

Specialized Combined Degrees

Program Description

The specialized combined degrees program enables students to complete both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree that have been specially paired in a program that will guide students through specific undergraduate and graduate coursework that will lead to completing two credentials, one bachelor’s degree and one master’s degree. Upper-level undergraduate courses are integrated with initial graduate courses in the curriculum, which decreases the total requirements for both degrees by a maximum of 12 credit hours. Students who have accumulated between 60 and 90 credit hours and who have maintained a 3.3 GPA in previous college work are eligible to apply for admission to the program. The combined degrees program is offered at the St. Louis area locations and has limited availability at other campuses and online.

BA/MA, BS/MA, BA/MS, BS/MS and Other Degree Combinations

By completing a block of requisite courses for the declared graduate major, students may combine their liberal arts undergraduate major with a more career-oriented graduate program.

Most undergraduate majors leading to a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree can be combined with any of the following graduate programs as long as the requisite courses for the graduate program have been met:

Webster University also offers the following specialized combined degrees:

Learning outcomes for each combined degree follow the outcomes outlined for the corresponding graduate degree in the Graduate Studies Catalog. Graduate course descriptions are included in the Course Descriptions section of the current Graduate Studies Catalog. For undergraduate course descriptions, please refer to the appropriate Course Descriptions section of this catalog.

Requirements of Combined Degrees

General Requirements

Students in the undergraduate component of the combined degrees program are subject to the policies and procedures outlined in the current Undergraduate Studies Catalog, with the addition or exception of admission, academic performance, advancement to candidacy and continuous enrollment requirements detailed in this section.

Students in the graduate component of the combined degrees program are subject to the policies and procedures outlined in the current Graduate Studies Catalog, with the addition or exception of admission, academic performance, advancement to candidacy and continuous enrollment requirements detailed in this section.

Admission

Students must submit an application for the combined degrees program along with a signed letter of agreement to the Academic Advising Center. The letter of acceptance to the combined degrees program serves as the letter of acceptance required for the master's degree program.

Due to the accelerated nature of this program, no transfer credit will be accepted into the graduate component of the program. Transfer credit may be used only to meet the undergraduate requisite course requirements, and then only if taken before acceptance into the program.

Academic Performance

Students must maintain a current GPA of at least 3.0.

Advancement to Candidacy

Degree seeking students are advanced to master’s candidacy after successfully completing 12 credit hours with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. Some programs may have additional requirements in order to advance to candidacy.

Human Resources Development (MA)

Undergraduate Requisite Courses

  • PSYC 1100 Introduction to Psychology
  • MNGT 2100 Management Theory and Practices
  • MNGT 3400 Human Resource Management
  • PSYC 3325 Applied Learning Theory
    or PSYC 3350 Cognitive Psychology
    or MNGT 3450 Principles of Organizational Behavior

Transition Courses

  • MNGT 4400 Employment Law and Compliance
  • MNGT 4600 Contemporary Human Resource Strategies
  • HRDV 5000 Introduction to Human Resources Development
  • HRDV 5610 Training and Development

Graduate Courses

  • HRDV 5560 Group Development and Change
  • HRDV 5700 Career Management
  • MNGT 5590 Organizational Behavior
  • HRDV 5750 Research and Assessment Methods in Human Resources Development
  • HRDV 6000 Integrated Studies in Human Resources Development

Elective Courses

The combined degree in human resources development requires three elective graduate courses in addition to the courses listed.

Special Requirements

For students who will not complete a business or business-related undergraduate degree from Webster or another university that do not meet the following criteria:

  • Regionally-accredited
  • The business school must have a business-related accreditation (e.g. AACSB, ACBSP, IACBE, etc.)

Students must do one of the following:

  • Successfully complete BUSN 5000.
    • Note: BUSN 5000 will count as an elective course in your program. This option is only available for students who are required to take BUSN 5000.
  • Complete all of the following undergraduate courses (or their equivalent) with a grade of C- or better (17 credit hours total, not including individual course prerequisites):
    • MNGT 2100 Management Theory and Practices
    • ACCT 2010 Financial Accounting
    • BUSN 2750 Introduction to Statistics
    • ECON 2000 Survey of Economics
    • MNGT 2500 Marketing
    • BUSN 3500 Business and Global Ethics
    • BUSN 4500 Ethical Issues in Business

International Relations (MA)

Undergraduate Requisite Courses

  • POLT 1050 Introduction to International Relations
  • POLT 1080 Introduction to Comparative Politics
  • INTL 1500 The World System Since 1500
  • POLT 2600 Research Methods and Approaches in Political Science
    or INTL 2700 Methods of Political Inquiry

Transition Courses

  • INTL 4600 International Relations Seminar
  • INTL 4280 International Economics
    or INTL 3100 International Political Economy
  • INTL 5590 International Security
    or INTL 5550 War and Diplomacy
  • One course from the Graduate Comparative Politics Cluster
    (see Graduate requirement in International Relations)

Graduate Courses

This program is offered only in St. Louis.

Legal Studies (MA)

Undergraduate Requisite Courses

  • LEGL 2080 Topics in Law
    or LEGL 4800 Advanced Topics in Law
  • LEGL 2400 Introduction to Law
    or POLT 2400 Introduction to Law
  • LEGL 4490 Advanced Paralegal Procedures
  • LEGL 4810 Tort Law Practice

Transition Courses

  • LEGL 4460 Methods of Legal Research and Writing I
  • LEGL 4470 Methods of Legal Research and Writing II
  • LEGL 5450 American Constitutional Law
  • LEGL 5470 Civil Actions

Graduate Courses

  • LEGL 5100 Jurisprudence
  • LEGL 5300 Ethics for the Legal Professional
  • LEGL 5400 Anglo-American Legal History
  • LEGL 5480 Criminal Actions
  • LEGL 5490 Advanced Topics in Law
  • LEGL 5800 Computerized Legal Research
  • LEGL 6000 Research and Writing Project

Elective Courses

The combined degree in legal studies requires two elective graduate courses in addition to the courses listed.

Management and Leadership (MA)

Undergraduate Requisite Courses

  • ECON 2030 Principles of Macroeconomics
  • ACCT 2010 Financial Accounting
  • MNGT 2100 Management Theory and Practices
  • MNGT 3400 Human Resource Management
  • MNGT 2500 Marketing

Transition Courses

  • MNGT 4100 International Management
  • MNGT 4900 Managerial Policies and Strategies
  • HRMG 5000 Managing Human Resources
  • MNGT 5590 Organizational Behavior

Graduate Courses

  • BUSN 5200 Basic Finance for Managers
  • HRDV 5630 Organization Development and Change
  • MNGT 5650 Management and Strategy
  • MNGT 5670 Managerial Leadership
  • MNGT 6000 Integrated Studies in Management

Elective Courses

The combined degree in management and leadership requires three elective graduate courses in addition to the courses listed.

Special Requirements

For students who will not complete a business or business-related undergraduate degree from Webster or another university that do not meet the following criteria:

  • Regionally-accredited
  • The business school must have a business-related accreditation (e.g. AACSB, ACBSP, IACBE, etc.)

Students must do one of the following:

  • Successfully complete BUSN 5000.
    • Note: BUSN 5000 will count as an elective course in your program. This option is only available for students who are required to take BUSN 5000.
  • Complete all of the following undergraduate courses (or their equivalent) with a grade of C- or better (17 credit hours total, not including individual course prerequisites):
    • MNGT 2100 Management Theory and Practices
    • ACCT 2010 Financial Accounting
    • BUSN 2750 Introduction to Statistics
    • ECON 2000 Survey of Economics
    • MNGT 2500 Marketing
    • BUSN 3500 Business and Global Ethics
    • BUSN 4500 Ethical Issues in Business

Marketing (MS); Marketing (MS) with an Emphasis in Analytics; Marketing (MS) with an Emphasis in Digital Marketing Management

Undergraduate Requisite Courses

  • ECON 2000 Survey of Economics
  • MNGT 2100 Management Theory and Practices
  • MNGT 2500 Marketing
  • MNGT 3510 Management of Integrated Marketing Communications

Transition Courses

  • MNGT 4330 International Marketing
  • MNGT 4920 Marketing Strategies*
  • MRKT 5720 Promotional Management
  • MRKT 5890 Marketing Statistics
    or BUSN 5760 Applied Business Statistics
  • MRKT 5850 Marketing Research

*MNGT 4920 should be completed after MRKT 5850.

Graduate Courses

  • MRKT 5610 Marketing Channel Management
  • MRKT 5740 Management of Digital Marketing
  • MRKT 5895 Marketing Analytics
  • MRKT 5960 Marketing Management
  • MRKT 6000 Integrated Studies in Marketing

Elective Courses

The combined degree in marketing requires two elective graduate courses in addition to the courses listed, which must be selected from courses offered in this major (e.g. MRKT prefix) or from the following list:

  • NPLR 5020 Essentials of Marketing and Resource Development in Nonprofits
  • ADVT 5410 Fundamentals of Branding
  • CSDA 5110 Analytics Programming with R
  • CSDA 5310 Data Visualization
  • CSDA 5330 Data Mining
  • CSDA 5430 Predictive Analytics
  • BUSN 6160 Integrated Business Processes and ERP
  • MNGT 5670 Managerial Leadership

If the requisite course is waived, the student must choose an elective course from the electives listed above.

Special Requirements

For students who will not complete a business or business-related undergraduate degree from Webster or another university that do not meet the following criteria:

  • Regionally-accredited
  • The business school must have a business-related accreditation (e.g. AACSB, ACBSP, IACBE, etc.)

Students must do one of the following:

  • Successfully complete BUSN 5000.
    • Note: BUSN 5000 will count as an elective course in your program. This option is only available for students who are required to take BUSN 5000.
  • Complete all of the following undergraduate courses (or their equivalent) with a grade of C- or better (17 credit hours total, not including individual course prerequisites):
    • MNGT 2100 Management Theory and Practices
    • ACCT 2010 Financial Accounting
    • BUSN 2750 Introduction to Statistics
    • ECON 2000 Survey of Economics
    • MNGT 2500 Marketing
    • BUSN 3500 Business and Global Ethics
    • BUSN 4500 Ethical Issues in Business

Analytics Emphasis Courses

  • CSDA 5110 Analytics Programming with R
  • CSDA 5310 Data Visualization
  • CSDA 5330 Data Mining
  • CSDA 6010 Analytics Practicum

Digital Marketing Management Emphasis Courses

  • MRKT 5570 Marketing in Electronic Commerce
  • MRKT 5750 Management of Social Media
  • MRKT 5790 Digital Marketing Strategy

Business Administration (BS) with an Emphasis in Accounting/Finance (MS)

Program Description

The bachelor of science (BS) in business administration with an emphasis in accounting/master of science (MS) in finance is an accelerated degree combination primarily designed for students who plan to enter the accounting profession and are in need of at least 150 credit hours in order to qualify for the license to practice as a Certified Public Accountant.

Admission

Students seeking combined degree program BS in business administration with an emphasis in accounting/MS in finance must submit an application to the Office of Academic Advising and must provide two letters of recommendation from Webster University faculty with the application.

General Requirements

The BS in business administration with an emphasis in accounting/MS in finance degree combination program requires a total of 144 credit hours which is a combination of undergraduate and graduate credit hours. A maximum of 90 credit hours may be accepted for transfer into the undergraduate program but only a maximum of 64 credit hours of lower-division work are allowed to transfer. A student must complete a minimum of 18 credit hours of undergraduate accounting courses at Webster University. No transfer credit is allowed for the graduate portion of the program.

Students must apply to the Business Department through the Office of Academic Advising for the graduate portion of the BS in business administration with an emphasis in accounting/MS in finance when they have accumulated between 64 and 98 credit hours and have successfully completed 15 credit hours of required upper-division ACCT courses including Intermediate Accounting. Students who have maintained an overall grade point average of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale in all previous college work will be eligible for the BS in business administration with an emphasis in accounting/MS in finance degree combination.

Combination BS in Business Administration with an Emphasis in Accounting/MS in Finance Requirements

The BS in business administration with an emphasis in accounting/MS in finance degree combination requires that all university-wide undergraduate degree requirements for general education and the accounting major must be met. Students may receive the BS in business administration with an emphasis in accounting degree after completing all the undergraduate requirements for the degree and before completing the graduate requirements for the MS in finance degree. For the BS in business administration with an emphasis in accounting, they should have a total of 120 credit hours, completed all general education requirements, completed all of the required undergraduate courses for the major in accounting, and completed the four transition courses in the set of core requirements. Students may then continue completing the requirements for the MS in finance degree.

Undergraduate Requisite Courses

All courses required for the BS in business administration with an emphasis in accounting major with the exception of ACCT 4100 Advanced Financial Accounting and ACCT 4900 Auditing, which are defined as core transition courses between the BS in business administration with an emphasis in accounting/MS in finance programs.

Transition Courses

  • ACCT 4100 Advanced Financial Accounting
  • ACCT 4900 Auditing
  • FINC 5000 Finance
  • FINC 5100 Financial Modeling

Graduate Courses

  • FINC 5210 Investments
  • FINC 5810 Capital Budgeting and Corporate Investment
  • FINC 5830 Institutions and Financial Markets
  • FINC 5840 International Finance
  • FINC 5880 Advanced Corporate Finance
  • FINC 5890 Financial Statement Analysis
  • FINC 6290 Mergers and Acquisitions

Computer Science (BS) with an Emphasis in Cybersecurity/Cybersecurity Operations (MS)

Program Description

The MS in cybersecurity program builds on the strong technical foundation in the BS in computer science with an emphasis in cybersecurity program. The combined program allows students to enhance and further develop their technical skills in the profession.

Admission

Students seeking combined degrees in cybersecurity must submit an application to the Academic Advising Center in St. Louis.

General Requirements

Students must have an overall lifetime 3.3 GPA. They should have between 64 and 98 credit hours and have successfully completed at least 27 credit hours of COSC coursework before applying for the combined degree program. Students must be accepted into the program before enrolling in the 4000-level core courses or in any graduate-level courses. Students must take all of the undergraduate courses before taking any of the graduate courses.

Students may receive the BS degree after completing all of the requirements for the degree and before completing the requirements for the MS degree. For the BS degree, they should have a total of 120 credit hours, completed all Global Citizenship Requirements (GCP), completed all 57 credit hours of the required undergraduate COSC/CSSS courses, and completed the four CSSS courses in the set of transition courses. Students may then continue completing the requirement for the MS degree.

Undergraduate Requisite Courses

  • COSC 1550 Computer Programming I
  • COSC 1560 Computer Programming II
  • COSC 1570 Mathematics for Computer Science
  • COSC 2610 Operating Systems
  • COSC 2670 Network Principles
  • COSC 2710 Social Engineering and Society
  • COSC 2810 Systems Analysis and Design
  • COSC 3050 Data Structures I
  • COSC 3100 Data Structures II
  • COSC 3510 Computer Architecture
  • COSC 3810 Principles of Programming Languages
  • COSC 4110 Database Concepts
  • COSC 4120 Database Applications
  • MATH 2410 Discrete Mathematics
  • CSSS 2510 Cyber Attacks and Defenses
  • CSSS 3510 Writing Secure Code
  • CSSS 3520 Cybersecurity Program, Policies and Ethics

Transition Courses

  • CSSS 2410 Cybersecurity and Internet Architecture
  • CSSS 4510 Cybersecurity Capstone Project
  • CSSS 5110 Cybersecurity Communications
  • CSSS 5120 Cybersecurity Infrastructures

Graduate Courses

  • CSSS 5130 Cybersecurity Intelligence/Counter Intelligence
  • CSSS 5140 Cybersecurity Strategic Operations
  • CSSS 5160 Encryption Methods and Techniques
  • CSSS 5180 Social Engineering
  • CSSS 6000 Practical Research in Cybersecurity

Three electives from the following:

  • CSSS 5210 Cybersecurity Law and Policy
  • CSSS 5220 Cybersecurity Threat Detection
  • CSSS 5230 Cybersecurity Forensics
  • CSSS 5250 Use and Protection of Space Assets
  • CSSS 5265 Foundations of Software Development
  • CSSS 5270 Cybersecurity in Cloud Computing
  • CSSS 5290 Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework
  • CSSS 5990 Advanced Topics in Cybersecurity
  • CSSS 6500 Cybersecurity Internship
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