Can you get a master's degree in a subject other than your major?

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I was wondering if it's possible to get a master's degree in a subject other than what you got your bachelor's degree in. When I was an undergrad, I studied business...but I've always been scientifically-minded and I'm very interested in going back to school for either engineering, computer science, or physics.</p>

<p>Can I leap right into a master's program, or do I have to get another bachelor's degree in one of those subjects first? I know that you can get a MBA without majoring in business, but I don't know if it's the same way for technical subjects.</p>

<p>When I did that, I had to go back and take some undergrad required classes (not get another BS, but a decent amount of upper division courses in the new major).</p>

<p>You need to check with your intended college to find out what they would require for admittance into their grad school.</p>

<p>Generally the answer is yes, but you might have to take a lot of pre-reqs. For me, I only have to take 10hrs, but in a technical subject you’d have to be careful because you might get stuck taking 60 or so. Fortunately, often times you can be admitted into a graduate school w/o pre-reqs but you’d have to take them before you start graduate courses.</p>

<p>in the sciences, its quite acceptable to do a master’s in another field. Often this is a way to complete pre-reqs or explore areas thay may be of potential interest for subsequent doctoral studies.</p>

<p>B.A. Classical Archaeology
M.S. Soil Science</p>

<p>In between: 1 academic year as a “senior transfer”, and 1 semester as a “non-degree grad student” at my cheapo home-state public u, and another year to work and apply to grad schools. </p>

<p>Read the graduate catalogues of the programs you are interested in. Find out what the pre-recs. are for the classes, and work backwards to the freshman year courses. Figure out which of those classes you need to take to get to the grad level classes you want. I’d had calculus, chemistry, and physics the first time around which saved me at least a semester of undergrad work when I “re-treaded”. Friends with weaker science backgrounds ended up completing second bachelors degrees because of the number of credits they needed to cover before being ready for grad school.</p>