The Master of Criminal Justice degree is a program offered for the purpose of providing students and practitioners in the criminal justice system the opportunity to obtain advanced education in the area of Criminal Justice.
The Requirements for the Master of Criminal Justice include thirty-six (36) hours. The thesis or comprehensive exam will be supervised by faculty designated at the time of admission to Candidacy.
The purpose of the M.C.J. program is to provide students and practitioners in the criminal justice system, the opportunity to obtain advanced education in the area of Criminal Justice.
Admission Requirements
Unconditional admission to the M.C.J. program requires the student to have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university, an undergraduate grade point average of 2.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale, and a minimal score of 137 on the Verbal Reasoning and a minimal score of 138 on Quantitative Reasoning sections of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), or at least 370 on the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
Unconditional admission may be gained with a lower grade point average, but the GRE or MAT score must be correspondingly higher. If the undergraduate GPA is between 2.25 and 2.49, the GRE score must be 145 on the Verbal Reasoning section and 146 on the Quantitative Reasoning or the MAT score must be 383. If the GPA is between 2.0 and 2.24, the GRE score must be 149 on the Verbal Reasoning and 150 on the Quantitative, or the MAT score must be 394.
Conditional admission may also be granted to a student with a limited number of deficiencies in undergraduate course prerequisites; these course deficiencies must be removed before enrollment in Criminal Justice courses at the graduate level. The student must remove conditional status by earning at least a B (3.0 average) in the first nine hours of graduate courses; failure to achieve this average will result in withdrawal from the program.
Students with less than a 2.5 undergraduate GPA must submit test scores at the time of application; students with a GPA of 2.5 or above may submit test scores in the first semester of attendance, but it is preferable that they submit test scores at the time of original application. In addition, the individual must have a minimum of eighteen hours of work at the undergraduate level in Criminal Justice courses or an approved equivalent.
Degree Requirements
The total program consists of thirty-six semester hours of course work.
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