<p>if you get a degree in one subject, is it possible to go to grad school for a different subject. My daughter is close to graduating. She took some extra classes for an environmental certificate which included a class she found very interesting. So she has taken a few more more classes in it that subject (enough for a minor). She has found she is much more interested in it than in her major subject, so is thinking, if she goes to grad school, she would like to do her studies in that subject. Is that a possibility?</p>
<p>Assuming she’s thinking about a Master’s program–it is certainly a possibility since the field is her minor. But depending on the program, they may place some restrictions/ additional requirements on her acceptance.</p>
<p>A grad program may require her to make up any required undergrad course deficits prior to enrolling or concurrently while she is taking her grad classes. Or a program may admit her provisionally with the understanding that she needs to maintain a certain GPA in her grad classes to remain in the program. Or they may welcome her as is. It will depend on the individual grad program and its policies. </p>
<p>If her GPA in her minor is good, and she can articulate in a clear, well written statement of purpose why she wants to pursue this field, and she has strong letters of recommendation from her environ profs, she’ll probably have a pretty good chance.</p>
<p>Usually, yes. There may be prerequisites involved but those are easy to knock out in a semester or two. </p>
<p>The common case is someone who can use what they learned in the undergrad degree in a different field or vice versa, i.e. an undergrad in Accounting followed by an MS in MIS or IT type work…</p>
<p>Yes, you can always go into a grad program different from your undergrad. HOWEVER, you must show the college/department you want to go to that you are a viable candidate. You may/probably have to take some classes which are prerequisites to the grad program that you didn’t have in your undergrad. You should probably research the particular grad program you are interested in and review their prerequisiets (ie. look at the grad catalog). Taking them in advance of your applying makes you a more attractive candidate and gets them out of the way before the real fun begins.</p>
<p>My bachelor’s degree is in geology. I went to grad school in English literature. (I was not a very good geologist.)</p>
<p>Thanks. She has mentioned a couple of times that she is leaning this way, so I was hoping it was a possibility. I’m not planning to interfere, was just hoping she wasn’t thinking of doing something that was not a possibility. Hopefully she will talk to some of her current school profs and advisers of the area that interests her. She is a terrible procrastinator, so who knows when/if she will do that.</p>
<p>Can be done, especially if she has enough courses in the grad school field showing good work. Closely related fields work- such as a math undergrad going to grad school in comp sci happens. Some students who go to grad school in their major may need “remedial” course work they didn’t receive at their undergrad college.</p>
<p>Bachelor’s in Classical Archaeology</p>
<p>Master’s in Ag. Science</p>
<p>Transition accomplished by taking classwork at home-state Ag. school for a year and a half before applying to grad school. Classmates in some of those Ag. classes included Sociology and History majors who were making the same transition - or as we called it back then “re-treading”.</p>
<p>Of course your kid can do this!</p>
<p>Earned a bachelor’s in journalism, now pursuing an master’s in outdoor recreation.</p>
<p>Whether or not there’ll be prerequisites to go back and cover depends on the field - my degree program doesn’t have any.</p>
<p>Absolutely, as someone said there might be a class or two to pick up but she won’t be alone. BA in political science and an MBA. I avoided math totally in UG so had to pick up a “real” math class, can’t even remember which one anymore just remember having to do that. One of my MBA class members has TWO BAs one in geography and one in English.</p>
<p>I did it.</p>
<p>Bachelor’s degree in microbiology, master’s in food science.</p>
<p>When I realized that I was interested in food science, I took some undergraduate courses in food science and related subjects as electives during my senior year of college. I also had to take some make-up courses as a graduate student, and I chose a master’s thesis topic that made good use of my microbiology background and didn’t require me to have a knowledge of things that were totally new to me, such as food engineering. That way, I could work on the thesis and course work simultaneously, and the gaps in my background didn’t matter. </p>
<p>In a field like food science, which is not offered as an undergraduate major at many colleges, graduate programs expect to have to accommodate students with non-food science undergraduate majors (although chemistry is more common than biology). Most of those students won’t even have the opportunity I had to take a few food science courses as an undergraduate. I suspect that the same sort of thing may be true in environmental fields as well.</p>
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<p>Yes.</p>
<p>Often, it is a somewhat related subject (e.g. math to computer science, chemical engineering to materials science, physics to astronomy, etc.).</p>
<p>Professional schools in subjects like business, law, medicine, and primary/secondary education take people who did undergraduate majors in all subjects.</p>
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<p>If her minor course selection includes the “core” courses that students majoring in the subject take, then she should be better placed to go to graduate school in that subject than if she did not take anything in that subject.</p>
<p>I know of someone who recently completed a degree in history. He decided to go graduate school for physical therapy. He took his prereq. classes first at a community college (much less expensive there and needed lots of prereq classes) and then he applied to grad school.</p>
<p>Our beloved pediatrician was an international relations major!</p>
<p>DH was an accounting and CS major before law school. Darned useful skills in his field.</p>
<p>S1 will be a math major going to grad school at some point in the next couple of years for CS. That was always his plan. He had a very strong CS background already and wanted a very strong math program. CS grad school will be about his specialization.</p>
<p>My BA is in Sociology and my MA is in International Affairs.</p>
<p>It was a few years in between my undergrad and grad, so I took some grad level coursework in some areas where I thought it would be appropriate before I applied. I had no problem getting accepted to a good school for my MA degree.</p>
<p>Absolutely. And IMO, people who come in with a very different major (say, Anthropology undergrad, Economics grad) often bring some very interesting and beneficial ways of analyzing things. Yes, there are prereq. courses to take, but I think it is both very doable and reasonably desirable.</p>
<p>I have often found the professionals (all variety of medical professionals, lawyers, all types of teachers and therapists) I have dealt with in my daily life to be much more competent and helpful if they have been able to draw upon a diverse educational background (generally including undergraduate and graduate work in different areas, sometimes added to a professional degree) in addressing my own needs. </p>
<p>I have tried to out some money aside in case one of Frazzled kids wants or needs to change direction to become more employable, but with rapidly rising tuitions I don’t know if it will be enough.</p>
<p>One of the notable things about the United States is that we, unlike residents of lots of other countries, are largely not "locked’ into a social class and careers by birth. We have the opportunity to change our careers should we choose to work and do so. This flexibility is indeed a luxury. Acquaintances from the UK have remarked on this. It was not something I had ever thought of until they brought it up.</p>
<p>I have a BA in Anthropology (with a secondary level teaching certificate), started grad school working for an MA in Asian Studies and ended up with an MPH in Health Care Planning and Administration and a certificate in Urban Planning, worked in health care for 10 years, and then went to law school. Currently a partner in a law firm in private practice for the past 20 years. Purely serendipitous. Never thought of, much less planned on, being an attorney.</p>
<p>My wife, similarly, is an accidental physician. She has a Bio UG, an MS in Zoology and an MPH in Environmental Management. Several years later, medical school seemed like a good idea at the time. I went back to law school when she completed her residency and went into private practice. Seemed like a good idea at the time.</p>
<p>I have a college friend who was an English major, got his MFA and his PhD and was on tenure track in the English department at a major university. A published author. Decided he really wanted to be a physician after all. Took several years of premed classes, and applied to medical schools. He’s now in practice (a gerontologist I believe) and recently published a well received book of short stories. I have another college friend who was an English and Philosophy major (graduated summa) and later became a petroleum engineer. I can think of numerous other examples.</p>
<p>Certainly for professional programs, your undergraduate major needn’t materially restrict your opportunities. As others have noted, you may need to make up some prerequisites, but it is indeed possible to jump to another discipline or career should you choose to do so and if you are willing to do the work to get there.</p>
<p>All my degrees are in engineering or comp science. Interestingly, the three major areas of my study (Civil Engineering, Computer Science, and Industrial / Human Factors Engineering) intersect quite nicely in facilities or manufacturing plant design, but I have no interest whatsoever in playing Civil Engineer or designing plants. </p>
<p>Best synergy… A friend’s BS Nutrition, MS Computer Science. She took a bunch of prereqs, but did get a job doing a combination (writing software for menu planning and diets etc at a hospital).</p>
<p>D was a vocal performance major and got a M. Divinity.</p>