Accelerate Central

Accelerate Central is a program that offers highly motivated and well-qualified Central Connecticut State University undergraduate students the opportunity to complete both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in as few as 5 years of full-time study. Accelerate Central allows students to get a jump-start on a graduate degree by taking up to four (4) graduate level courses, for graduate credit, while remaining a matriculated undergraduate student. Depending on the program, two to four courses may count at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Please see the undergraduate program page to determine how many courses may be counted at both levels.

All Central undergraduate students are eligible to apply to Accelerate Central after successful completion of 60 or more credit hours; of which, at least 12 credit hours must be completed at Central. Some programs may require more credits to be completed at Central before a student is eligible to apply to an Accelerate Central program.

For acceptance into Accelerate Central, the standard undergraduate student will need a GPA of 3.3 or higher (for the most recent 60 credit hours of completed study) and meet program-specific admission criteria.

Students who are accepted into Accelerate Central will officially matriculate into the Graduate Studies at Central the semester immediately following conferral of their bachelor’s degree, provided the minimum 3.0 GPA is maintained.

Students wishing to defer their graduate studies must notify graduate admissions of this decision prior to the start of the term following the conferral of their bachelor’s degree.

If a student in an Accelerate Central program decides not to pursue the master's degree, they should notify the department and the registrar's office to be placed back into the original major. Courses that were applied to both graduate and undergraduate transcripts as part of the Accelerate Central program will be removed from the graduate transcript and only be applied to the undergraduate transcript. 500-level courses may be substituted for undergraduate degree requirements with departmental approval. Courses completed for only graduate credit will not be affected and will remain listed on the graduate transcript.

Available Pathways