# Doing a masters degree without a bachelors - any experience of this? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 17, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-a-masters-degree-without-a-bachelors-any-experience-of-this/486256 "2009-02-17T11:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-a-masters-degree-without-a-bachelors-any-experience-of-this/486256/21 "2012-05-17T00:35:30Z")
> [@Santo\_Rugger](#): > > From my alma matter’s website: > > It sounds like you’d like to move faster than that, but it at least shows that there’s programs out there. If you can CLEP out of a lot of the introductory classes, you may be able to cut it down to three years. Stanford does the same thing, at least in the Engineering School. It goes by the odd term of “coterminal”. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-a-masters-degree-without-a-bachelors-any-experience-of-this/486256/22 "2012-05-17T00:48:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Stanford does the same thing, at least in the Engineering School. It goes by the odd term of “coterminal”. MIT had something like this also, that went with industrial internships, and which a lot of people did. I suspect it would be easier to pull off with 78 semesters completed than with no semesters completed, though. I do know someone who went to college without a high school degree - but she almost finished, the high school was Music and Art in NY, the college was MIT, and she had 800s in math and verbal and in all achievement tests. Many graduate departments are a lot more flexible than undergraduate ones, since they make the admission decisions, not the admissions office. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-a-masters-degree-without-a-bachelors-any-experience-of-this/486256/23 "2012-05-17T02:21:35Z")
I am doing my MA now and don’t have an undergrad degree. I applied for flexible entry, and they considered the education I do have (two, two year diplomas) and my work experience (about 7 years in a career related to my MA). In our class of ~40, there are only two of us that are flexible entry/don’t have an undergrad degree. I am in Canada, and am currently at [Royal Roads University](http://www.royalroads.ca/) in Victoria, BC. It is a thesis based Masters program. That said, I am doing an MA, not an MSc. I think if I were to go for a science based masters it would have been a lot tougher to get in without an undergrad degree. ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-a-masters-degree-without-a-bachelors-any-experience-of-this/486256/24 "2012-05-17T02:29:51Z")
> [@Freemanf](#): > > I have been accepted to a masters program (MFA) without doing my bachelors (BFA) because Ive got the equivalency to a bachelors with my previous college program. Will this set me back, will schools not accept me(to be a teacher) because i didn’t do the traditional bachelors to masters? should I do this straight to masters or go for my bachlors then masters? This is why you should start your own thread rather than piggybacking on a zombie thread. As you can see everybody is answering the two year old question and not yours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-a-masters-degree-without-a-bachelors-any-experience-of-this/486256.md?page=1)