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Full-time students have the option of applying for admission into the
five-year combined Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering/Master of
Science in Chemical Engineering program.
The standard senior-year undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum
generally requiring students to enroll in 15 undergraduate credits each
semester. Therefore, it will be necessary for students interested in the
BS/MS program to plan ahead by reducing the number of senior-year undergraduate
courses they will need to take through the use of AP credit, transfer credit
or academic overloads generally during the first three years of undergraduate
study. In this manner a student would not need to enroll in more than a
total of 33 credits (24 undergraduate credits + 9 graduate credits) during
their senior year.
Typical Five-Year Plan
- Earn a BSChE degree after four years of study and complete the 30-credit
requirement for the MSChE degree (initiated during the student's fourth
year) with one additional year of work. All graduate courses must be
taken at Villanova University.
- Complete 9 credits of graduate study during the senior year (no
more than 6 credits in any semester) and complete the remaining 21 credits
of graduate study over the 12-month period following the senior year.
As permission for undergraduates to take graduate courses normally requires
a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.00 or higher, this is generally
considered the minimum undergraduate GPA required for consideration
for admission into the combined BS/MS Program. Such a GPA guarantees
neither admission into the program nor consideration for a merit-based
tuition scholarship.
- Opt for either a thesis track program or a non-thesis track program.
If the student chooses the thesis-track program, the student may perform
a (Master's thesis) research project in the same research area as their
undergraduate (senior) chemical engineering research project, or may
initiate a completely different project with the same or a different
research advisor. (Note: Choosing the thesis option may lead to a delay
in the conferring of the Master's degree beyond May of the fifth year
of the student's combined undergraduate and graduate studies.)
Application Timeline
Students interested in participating in the BS/MS Program should contact
the Department of Chemical Engineering Graduate Program Advisor (currently
Dr. Vito Punzi) as early as
possible during their undergraduate studies at Villanova. An interested
student would normally submit a letter of intent indicating an interest
in participating in the BS/MS Program to the Engineering Chair during the
Spring semester of their junior year (near the time the student would normally
seek pre-registration advisement for their undergraduate senior year).
An individual graduate program course of study will be established, subsequent
to advisement by the Departmental Graduate Program Advisor, based on the
interests and career goals of the student, and the Department's anticipated
graduate course offerings during the period in which the student would be
enrolled in the graduate program. Students would then formally apply to
the BS/MS Program by submitting a Graduate
Application late in the Fall semester or early in Spring semester of
their senior year.
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Tuition Scholarship
The Department of Chemical Engineering has established as a high priority
of its graduate program the allocation of a tuition scholarship to one fifth-year
student in the BS/MS program. The scholarship covers tuition and fees during
the fifth year in return for 12 hours of work per week devoted to Department
activities, such as homework grading and research.
Students who wish to be considered for a tuition scholarship are expected
to submit a formal application for the graduate program by the middle of
the Fall semester of their senior year. Awardees will be notified during
the Spring semester of their senior year.
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