That is to say, go to college more than once as an undergrad to get a seperate bachelor’s degree?
I know that one can have more than one major when in school, but once you graduate, are you allowed to enroll again to get another degree? Will they make you apply and attent graduate school instead?
I’m wondering about this because what if someone chooses a field they hate, and want to get into something new? Let’s say you get a BS in history but then hate working in the field. You want to go into chemistry, it would be a lot easier to get a BS in chemistry then to have to go to graduate school and get a master’s in it, what with not knowing much about it. (I’m not talking from experience here, just a pure hypothetical.)
What are the collegiate rules regarding mulitple degrees? Are there any, or is it on a case-by-case school-by-school basis?
Enroll in the requisite classes, accumulate the requisite credits and earn one or as many additional BS degress as you wish to spend the time and money on!
Call the registrar of your college or university to confirm the requirements for the degrees of interest.
At some schools you can even double-dip the General Education requirements. That way all you have to take are the courses required for the major. Ask the registrar.
My university only allowed you to have one bachelor’s degree of each type. If you had a B.Sc. in physics, you wouldn’t be allowed to get a second B.Sc. in math, but you could get a BA in English. Or, if you already had a BA in history, you could get a B.Sc. in chemistry, but not a second BA in psychology. I’m not sure how the rules apply for more exotic bachelor’s degrees, but I assume you could get a B.Sc. if you already had a B.Comm. or a degree in music.
I’m not sure how it is in other areas, but you cannot apply for graduate studies in chemistry unless you have a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. Someone with a bachelor’s in a related field (e.g. molecular biology, but not classical literature) might be allowed to study for a master’s in chemistry if they had sufficient background in chemistry. In an area like chemistry, you really do need to have extensive preparation in the field before beginning graduate studies.
I know that this does not apply for some other fields of study, particularly for professional degrees. You can apply for law or medical school with practically any bachelor’s degree, provided that you’ve taken a few necessary courses.
My university had specific requirements for a second degree. Just off the top of my head, I believe you had to accumulate 30 more credits and the degree had to be in a different field. I never checked as to whether that meant you couldn’t get two University at Buffalo BAs, or whether you couldn’t get two BAs in (say) two of the languages in the Modern Languages family, or whether you just couldn’t get two BAs in Political Science.
Just another thought to throw into the mix – many schools will let you get another undergraduate degree, but it’s often very hard to get any financial aid. Many scholarships, grants and other forms of assistance will consider you ineligible to receive aid if you already have an undergraduate degree. I have known of people who crafted creative work-arounds for this, by applying to masters programs with a proposed course of study that would let them take enough undergraduate level courses to be prepared for an (entry level) position in another field.
I have a Bachelor of Economics (BEc) degree and I’m currently doing a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree at the same university - albeit twenty years later. There’s no problem unless you’re trying to gain multiple degrees of the same type, using the same courses as credit.
Sure you can. I have two Bachelors degrees from a dual degree program at the University of Pennsylvania, one from the engineering school and one from the business school.
My sister, on the other hand has two Bachelors degrees from two different universities. She initially got a B.A. as a German major and business minor. After she had been working for a few years, she decided she was interested in American history, and went to another school to get a degree in that so she could go on to graduate work. For her second degree, she wasn’t really required to do all of the distributional and general educational requirements as her prior work qualified. All she had to do was comply with the requirements of her major.
I received a BA in Government & Politics in 1999. Fell in love with programming and shifted into computer work, went back and got a BS in Computer Science in 2003. I went to a different university for the 2nd degree and they accepted ALL of my general education/CORE requirement classes. I was absolutely amazed. I was able to finish an accelerated program for the 2nd degree in 9 months. Damn that was a lot of work!
Florida state schools make you start paying nonresident tuition costs after you have more than 150 credit hours (or around that), regardless of whether or not you’ve graduated. You’re free to obtain as many degrees as you can pay for, though.
Or you can do it the hard way. One professor I had earned an engineering degree at Berkeley and a physics degree at Stanford simultaneously, attending MWF classes at one and TTh classes at the other. Why? He had a girlfriend at Stanford and hated wasting his spare time.