Agreement With ISU Offers Master’s Degrees to BYU-ID Students

A new agreement between Brigham Young University-Idaho and Idaho State University will make it possible for BYU-ID s tudents to complete two degrees in the same time it takes many to complete just one. Students will be able to complete both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in as little as five years.

Statistics from The College Board show that the average time it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree is 4.7 years and only 57% of those who start a 4-year degree, finish in less than six years. However, school officials at BYU-ID are giving students the opportunity to work on their bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the same time.

“This would be a great way to maybe utilize the time as it is, to expedite the completion of a student’s master’s degree,” said John Ivers, Dean of the College of Language and Letters at BYU-Idaho.

BYU-Idaho students can obtain early admissions to ISU’s graduate programs after they obtain 60 undergraduate credits and maintain a minimum 3.5 GPA, allowing them to work toward a master’s degree at ISU while completing their bachelor’s at BYU at the same time.

“As a result, theoretically, they could have their master’s degree 50 percent completed by the time they finish their bachelor’s degree,” said Ivers.

School officials say students can begin enrolling in the program as early as fall 2013.

BYU-ID officials say they hope to partner with other state universities in the future.

Two master’s degrees are currently available as part of this initiative–historical resources management and political science. More master’s degrees are expected to be added to this program in the future.