The new programs with Penn, Claremont McKenna College, and Zheijiang University in China will offer an accelerated path to a master's degree.
In 2012, Haverford forged an innovative partnership with the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering to launch the 4+1 Program, which allows students to receive a master's degree in engineering after four years of study at Haverford and one at Penn. Now, three new partnerships recently announced by the College will offer additional opportunities for Haverford students interested in taking an accelerated path to a master's degree.
The new 4+1 Bioethics Program with the University of Pennsylvania, will enable qualified Haverford undergraduates to gain early and expedited admission to a master's program offered by Penn's Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Admitted students will take up to three graduate bioethics courses at Penn, while completing their undergraduate work at Haverford, and spend the fifth year of the program at Penn.
Also new is the One-Year Master's Program at Claremont McKenna College's Robert Day School Of Economics and Finance, which will offer strongly qualified students the opportunity to receive a master's in finance after one year of study. The intensive program, which will provide at least one full scholarship to an admitted Haverford student, also emphasizes co-curricular programming to help develop career skills and support job placement. Finally, the Two-Year China Studies Master's Program at Zheijiang University in Hangzhou, China, offers training in Mandarin and features an internship component between the first and second year of study. The program provides a full scholarship to admitted students.
While accelerated bachelors plus masters programs have long existed within large universities, the idea has begun to take on new forms, says Haverford College Provost Kim Benston.“What's new is the partnering of undergraduate-focused institutions like Haverford and universities like Penn,” Benston says.
The partnership with Claremont-McKenna College, one of Haverford's peer schools, is also unusual, he says.“They are, like us, an undergraduate, liberal arts institution, but they received a huge gift to develop a graduate school for finance and they are looking to develop a broader base of excellent liberal arts partners to do that.”
The appeal of these kinds of programs is strong, says Benston, who observes,“Students today have a sense urgency about their futures. Our students don't want to sacrifice the liberal arts experience, but at the same time they are beginning to think a little bit earlier about career aspirations. Long before their senior year, they are considering what kind of training they can get that might be a bridge to a terminal degree like a Ph.D., a law degree, or a medical degree. Or they are thinking about how they might get to a higher level of professional job entry. ”
These new programs at Haverford join two other existing partnerships. The 3/2 Program With CalTech allows students to spend two years at Haverford and two years at CalTech and receive their B.S. from Haverford as well as a bachelor's in engineering from CalTech. The Five-Year Program with the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University offers highly qualified Haverford students who are admitted to Georgetown's M.A. program in Latin American Studies the opportunity to count four courses from their undergraduate study toward the master's degree requirements. To qualify, students must declare an interest in the cooperative degree program during their junior year and participate in a summer study abroad program sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies.
