Earn a Certification or Industry-Facing Credential
Level up your degree with one or more certifications to get you career-ready. Every student can complete a hands-on, industry-facing certificate as part of their career planning process and strengthen their career portfolio.
The graduate certificates adhere to the following requirements to make it possible for every student to attain a graduate certificate while pursuing an undergraduate degree.
- Most, if not all, coursework for a certificate can be completed during the senior year. To make this possible, up to 12 hours of graduate coursework could be completed by an undergraduate enrolled in a graduate certificate program to double-count toward the 128-hour graduation requirement.
- Any courses for the certificate that regularly extend beyond graduation are priced attractively via a reduced credit hour rate, should take place during the summer after graduation, and should be available online.
- Courses in graduate certificate programs, as in graduate degree programs, are at the 500-level and above.
Saint-Mary’s Sponsored Graduate Certificate
A graduate certificate is an academic non-degree program at the graduate level focused on a specialized area or narrow in scope. A certificate is the rough equivalent of a graduate minor or concentration taken within a degree program in size and scope. Graduate certificates offered by Saint Mary’s:
- consist of 3-6 courses or 9-18 graduate credit hours;
- can be completed in accelerated time frame (usually 12 months or less);
- may be stand-alone or creditable towards a master’s degree;
- are typically offered online and with a modular course structure so that students take only one course at a time and can begin the program at more than one point in the academic year;
- are priced competitively and are not eligible for federal financial aid unless completed as part of a master’s program.
- Graduate certificates will be conferred once all requirements are completed, at the end of each academic term.
Earn a Saint Mary's College Sponsored Graduate Certificate
