Philosophy, 4 + 1 BA/ Humanities, MH
Introduction
Please click here to see Philosophy department information.
The 4+1 accelerated Master's program in Philosophy is an expedited program of study that allows students to complete a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and a Master's degree in Humanities in as few as 5 years.
Upon acceptance, students are allowed to take some graduate-level courses during their remaining semesters of undergraduate study. Up to defined limits, such classes may count both towards satisfying the requirements of the BA major and the MH Masters in Humanities. Ideally arranged, a student could take 5 dual-counted courses so that by the time of BA completion they are approximately halfway done with their graduate degree. This program is intended for outstanding undergraduate Philosophy majors who have demonstrated graduate-level academic skills and can do graduate-quality work as undergraduates.
These degree requirements are subject to periodic revision by the academic department, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences reserves the right to make exceptions and substitutions as judged necessary in individual cases. Therefore, the College strongly urges students to consult regularly with their major advisor and CLAS advisor to confirm the best plans of study before finalizing them.
Program Delivery
• This is an on-campus program.
Declaring This Major
Application deadlines are as followed:
- November 1 – Spring Semester admission
- April 1 – Summer Semester admission
- May 1 – Fall Semester admission
Contact department advisor Mark Tanzer (mark.tanzer@ucdenver.edu) for more information.
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Click here to go to information about declaring a major.
General Requirements
To earn a degree, students must satisfy all requirements in each of the three areas below, in addition to their individual major requirements.
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Click here for information about Academic Policies
Program Requirements
While students are completing a BA degree in Philosophy, they may also complete some of the requirements for an Master's in Humanities program by participating in the BA/ MH program using the following guidelines:
- The student must apply and be accepted for participation in the program prior to completion of the BA degree in consultation with both the undergraduate and graduate advisors. Students must complete a 4+1 intent form to formally declare this program, as they work very closely with undergraduate and graduate advisors to ensure they are on track and completing requirements as necessary.
- Students will follow the undergraduate curriculum for the Philosophy BA and work closely with their faculty advisor to begin taking Philosophy graduate level coursework as they complete their undergraduate degree.
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Students must complete a minimum of 36 PHIL credit hours applied to the BA.
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Students must complete a minimum of 16 upper-division (3000-level and above) PHIL credit hours and no more than 15 graduate (5000-level and above) credit hours.
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Students must earn a minimum grade of C- (1.7) in all courses that apply to the major and must achieve a minimum cumulative major GPA of 2.0. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to major requirements. Courses completed with grades below the letter grade of B- (GPA 2.7) may not be applied toward fulfillment of the requirements for any graduate degree within Graduate Education.
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Students must complete a minimum of 18 undergraduate PHIL credit hours with CU Denver faculty and all graduate-level coursework with CU Denver faculty.
- Students may complete a maximum of 15 credits as an undergraduate that will apply to both their undergraduate and graduate degrees. These courses must be 4000 or 5000 level and should be selected in consultation with undergraduate and graduate advisors.
- Students should officially declare their intent to complete this program by their junior year and apply to the graduate program during the semester in which they intend to complete their BA.
- Application requirements may differ from the traditional 2 year MH, which is why students need to work closely with faculty advisors and the philosophy departmental advisor for more information and to ensure they are following the best track to complete coursework so that they only have one year after completing the undergraduate degree, to complete the graduate requirements.
Student Learning Outcomes for the Undergraduate Student
Philosophy is a discipline that teaches students skills for thinking critically, systematically, and imaginatively about fundamental issues that arise both in everyday life and through other disciplines. Philosophy develops these skills in students through their application to a variety of subject matters and relevant issues. The subject matters range both historically (from ancient to contemporary periods) and topically (including ethics, the arts, social and political issues, religion, metaphysics, epistemology, science, and technology, among others). The educational outcome of applying philosophy's skills to the rich range of subject matters is one of the most rigorous intellectual preparations possible in undergraduate education. Such preparation orients and strengthens students for future careers in communication, law, medicine, business, government, teaching, and social services.
To learn more about the undergraduate Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website.
Student Learning Outcomes for the Graduate Student
When students complete either the MH or MSS degree we want them to have the ability to demonstrate the “capacity to integrate knowledge and modes of thinking drawn from two or more disciplines to produce a cognitive advancement…in ways that would have been unlikely through single disciplinary means.” Fundamentally we want students to demonstrate foundational knowledge of critical theories and concepts within the Humanities or Social Sciences depending on the degree sought. Student proficiency in either the Humanities or Social Science is demonstrated through writing with the following benchmarks in mind:
- “Interdisciplinary grounding” - student selects appropriate disciplines to solve unique problems; concepts are used in accurate but nuanced ways befitting multiple perspectives
- “Integrative leverage” - student calls attention to a novel concept or problem, interpretation, or relationship
- “Critical stance” - student identifies the significance of the integrated stance and ways to reconcile diverse or conflicting views that emerge from interdisciplinary thinking.
- To critically analyze and synthesize information from different kinds of literature and disciplines
- To demonstrate relevant information pertaining to particular areas of focus
- To write effective, grammatically correct, well-organized, scholarly papers
- To demonstrate the ability to read critically a range of scholarly literature in a range of disciplines
- To demonstrate skills to apply knowledge to the particular field of work
To learn more about the graduate Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website.