<p>I have a question about getting a Masters degree. I am considering going to Regent University for Undergrad as a transfer student. After I complete my undergrad in political science and want to to my graduate work like a Masters Degree for instance if I decided against law school... Can I get into the majority of Masters degree programs? Basically as long as it's a non-profit accredited school can I get into the Masters programs? I just didn't know if any of it predicated on the curriculum of your undergrad. Like for instance at Regent you only take 1 science and 2 maths versus Penn State 3 sciences and 2 maths as part of your general education requirements. I just didn't know if that was a factor at all. (By no means am I asking for an opinion on Regent University, I know the majority will rag on it. I have my personal reasons for choosing it.)</p>
<p>In what type of masters programs are you interested? There are course-based prerequisites for most programs. These are easily found on individual programs’ websites.</p>
<p>This is a very strange question.</p>
<p>Can you get into the majority of master’s programs? No. Will you be able to get into a selected range of programs in a specific field, if you prepare for them? Yes. Are you asking if your university is going to hold you back? The answer is probably not, but that depends on you.</p>
<p>Graduate schools only care about the classes relevant to their programs. So if you are a political science major and you want to go get a master’s in public policy, for example, those programs aren’t going to care that you only had one science, unless you say you’re interested in science policy. What they are going to care about is social science classes, classes that teach you to write, and maybe a few math/statistics courses. The other thing is that you don’t have to let your general education requirements limit you; if you want to take more than 1 science class, go ahead and take it. Nobody’s stopping you.</p>
<p>I’d also like to add the plug in here that graduate school is not interchangeable. It shouldn’t really work like “Well my original goal is law school, but if I don’t get in, I’ll just go get a master’s.” Graduate and professional school programs are preparations for specific jobs and/or job category fields. You have to know what you plan to do with them before you go.</p>
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It seems what you are trying to ask is* “Will attending Regent University inhibit my ability to get into a masters program at a secular university?”* As juillet noted, for the most part they will care about the coursework that you take that is relevant to the specialty you want to study in grad school, and in most cases that will be maybe 2-4 senior or grad-level classes out of your entire undergrad. The rest don’t matter, as the breadth of your undergrad does not really impact the narrow depth of your masters (although it should inform it).</p>
<p>However, as you yourself seem to acknowledge in your parenthetical statement, you may have a problem with the name on your degree. Like it or not, attending Regent makes a statement about the priorities in your life, and not everyone will approve of it. Getting into grad school, even for a masters, is a very individual and relatively secretive process, and I would suspect that some professors will pass over an applicant from an evangelical university in favor of someone else about as qualified but who does not carry the possibility of the negatives often associated with such graduates. Of course, Poli Sci is a relatively conservative field in academia, so you may find that almost as many doors open as close, but I think it would still be a net negative.</p>
<p>You also need to consider that even as a masters candidate you will need letters of recommendation, and that means you need to form professional and academic relationships with at least a couple of Poli Sci professors who are respected outside Regent’s walls and the evangelical academic community. I am not sure how many such faculty exist at Regent and how many opportunities you would have to work with them, but this is an important factor to consider.</p>