B.S./M.S. Public Policy - Five-year

The School of Public Policy offers a five-year B.S./M.S. program for students enrolled in the undergraduate program who demonstrate an interest in and ability for additional education beyond the B.S. degree.

Students in the B.S./M.S. program will remain undergraduates until they meet requirements for the undergraduate degree, at which point they will receive their B.S. degree and be changed to graduate status. Students will be eligible to apply for the program after completion of thirty semester credit hours at Georgia Tech (i.e., at the end of their first year), and if they show appropriate progress in their degree program thereafter. Any student in good standing in the B.S. PP program is eligible to apply to the five-year program. Admissions decisions will be based on GPA and judgments of the faculty who have served as advisors or instructors. Continuation in the program will require the student to maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher in public policy courses. The program will not penalize students who opt out after the bachelor's degree. Students participating in this program will be eligible for the six semester credit-hour Graduate Course Option.

The graduate-level credits required in the Five-Year B.S./M.S. Program are usually as follows:

  1. Core-twenty-two hours
  2. Electives-twelve hours
  3. Research paper-three hours

Total 37 hours

Specific Requirements for the Five-Year Program include:

  1. PUBP 6001    Introduction to Public Policy
    (1 semester hour, all other courses are 3 semester hours)
  2. PUBP 6010    Ethics, Epistemology, and Public Policy
  3. PUBP 6112    Research Design in Policy Science
    [NOTE: This course should be taken as an undergraduate instead of PUBP 3110 and will count for both programs]
  4. PUBP 6114    Applied Policy Methods and Data Analysis
    [NOTE: PUBP 4113 is a prerequisite]
  5. PUBP 6116    Microeconomics in Policy Analysis
  6. PUBP 6118    Public Finance and Policy
  7. PUBP 6210    Public Policy Analysis

Students must also take one of the following three courses:

  1. PUBP 6014    Organization Theory
  2. PUBP 6017    Public Management
  3. PUBP 6018    Policy Implementation

Students are required to develop, in consultation with their advisor, a six-hour concentration in an area or specialty relevant to public policy and management (e.g. environmental policy, science and technology policy, urban policy, economic development, information and communications policy, policy evaluation, public management).

Contact the B.S. PP program director for further information.