Simultaneous Award of the Bachelor's and Master's Degrees

A limited number of students of distinguished ability may undertake graduate work that will qualify them for the simultaneous award of the bachelor's and master's degrees at the end of their senior year. Students must apply to their department for admission to the program through their director of undergraduate studies no later than the first day of classes of their third-to-last term in Yale College. If the department acts favorably on the student's application, it is forwarded with the formal approval of the director of undergraduate studies and of the director of graduate studies to the Yale College Dean's Office, where a joint committee of Yale College and the Graduate School acts upon the department's nomination and notifies the student of acceptance into the program. The director of the Program for the Simultaneous Award of the Bachelor's and Master's Degrees is Dean George Levesque.

1. Eligibility   Applicants cannot be considered for admission unless by the end of their fifth term of enrollment they have achieved at least two-thirds A or A– grades in all of their course credits as well as in all of the course credits directly relating to their major. (Particular deadlines and specific grade requirements for programs for the two degrees in Chemistry, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Economics, Mathematics, and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology are listed on the pages for those departments in the Subjects of Instruction section. Nominations from these departments also require confirmation by the joint committee.)
   
   Prior to admission to the program, students enrolling in a course that carries both an undergraduate and a graduate number must do so under the undergraduate number. Students planning to apply to the program who enroll in such a course may petition at the time of their enrollment in the course to have it converted to the graduate number on the academic record if they are subsequently admitted to the program. The petition, which is made to the director of the program, must be accompanied by certification that the course instructor has accepted the student's proposal to complete the course at its graduate level.
2. Program requirements   Yale will award the master's degree and the bachelor's degree simultaneously only in a single department or program that confers both degrees. A student in the Special Divisional Major or any other major that does not have an exact counterpart in the Graduate School is not eligible for the combined degree program. A student cannot qualify for the simultaneous award of a bachelor's degree in one department or program and a master's in another.
   
   Specific requirements for the award of degrees will be determined by each department. Normally a student is expected to complete the requirements of the undergraduate major in addition to eight or more courses in the Graduate School. For all students in the program, graduate work must not be entirely concentrated in the final two terms, and students in the program must take at least six term courses outside the major during their last four terms at Yale and at least two undergraduate courses during their last two terms.
   
   Students may not enroll in Yale College for more than eight terms in order to qualify for the simultaneous award of both degrees. It is possible to earn both degrees in fewer than eight terms, but not by the use of acceleration credits. Upon acceptance into the program, a student who has accelerated by the use of acceleration credits will automatically be decelerated, and may not, so long as the student remains in the simultaneous degree program, subsequently employ the credits to accelerate.
3. Requirements for the master's degree   To qualify for the master's degree, students must complete eight term course credits in the Graduate School with grades of A in at least two term courses (or in one year course) and with a B average in the remaining ones. Students in those departments with a language requirement for the Ph.D. degree will be required to demonstrate proficiency in one of the specified languages.
4. Approval of course schedules   Following notification that they have been accepted into the Program for the Simultaneous Award of the Bachelor's and Master's Degrees, students must have their course schedules approved each term both by the director of undergraduate studies and by the director of graduate studies.