A new affiliation agreement between Worcester State University and Bridgewater State University ensures at least two reserved seats a year in Bridgewater’s Master of Science in Criminal Justice program for WSU graduates.
The agreement facilitates the application for, admission to, and completion of the Master of Science in Criminal Justice degree at BSU. It provides a public-to-public, bachelor’s-to-master’s pathway for qualified students interested in advanced careers in criminal justice administration or crime and corrections. The agreement was signed recently by President Barry M. Maloney and Bridgewater State President Fred Clark at a luncheon in Bridgewater.
To be eligible, WSU students must achieve an overall G.P.A. of 3.0 and submit general G.R.E. scores. Students with a G.P.A. above 3.49 are exempt from the G.R.E. requirement. Qualified students are eligible for a waiver of the program’s admission application fee and will have the option of delaying enrollment for up to a year.
“We do not yet have a master’s program so it’s a great opportunity for students,” Professor Stephen Morreale, Ph.D., chair of the Criminal Justice Department, says. The program could be especially beneficial for those who hope to eventually find employment with federal law enforcement agencies, he adds.
“In the federal system, it gives you extra consideration if you’re working on a graduate degree,” Morreale says. “The entry point for federal is a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, so if you can poke your head above that minimum standard, then it can be a help.”
“Students have to hit all the benchmarks, all the admissions criteria, but if they do, this means that two seats are there for Worcester State graduates,” says Russ Pottle, dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at WSU.
The Master of Science in Criminal Justice program educates students about the dynamics of crime, criminal behavior, the criminal justice system, and how these complex factors interact in recursive relationships with social institutions and public realities, according to the BSU website.
“For any of our students who are interested in those areas of criminal justice, this agreement gives them a very clear and very attainable pathway to pursuing that,” Pottle says.
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