 Despite growing recognition, the application pool for BC's fifth year programs in A&S, CSON, and LSOE still remain largely self selective.
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As undergraduates think about the possibility of continuing their education for a master's degree, they may not need to look further than Boston College. The postgraduate master's degree can take up to four years to complete, but BC's fifth- year program allows students to obtain a degree in only one. While the advantages of this are numerous - an extra year at BC for one - only paying one year of tuition versus four years certainly has its perks as well.
The trend toward a more rapid completion of graduate study is one that is a priority for both students and the schools they attend. On Oct. 3, Joseph Berger wrote in The New York Times that the Council of Graduate Schools, which represents 480 universities in the United States and Canada, "is halfway through a seven-year project to explore ways of speeding up the ordeal." BC's fifth year program is one solution.
Fifth-year programs have emerged at BC as both popular and well-regarded in three colleges: the Lynch School of Education, the Connell School of Nursing, and the College of Arts and Sciences. Students complete and receive their master's degree after only one year of post-graduate study, supplemented by a few courses taken in the student's senior year or the summer after graduation.
The Lynch School of Education has included a fifth-year program since 1985 and can now boast a 22nd position in the U.S. News and World Report's ranking of Best Graduate Schools in 2008. Students can receive an accelerated master's degree in teaching, curriculum and instruction, developmental and educational psychology, higher education, or educational research, measurement, and evaluation.
John Cawthorne, head of the Lynch School's Offices for Students and Outreach, said that the program is "especially wise for students who want to teach moderate or severe special needs or who want to get higher education in education or developmental psychology." While most applicants to the program are from LSOE, Cawthorne said students from other schools often enroll in the program if they wish to teach elementary or secondary school.
2008 Woodie Awards
