Kennesaw State’s new Double Owl program has allowed undergraduate students to maximize their time and money by allowing them to get their graduate degrees in less time.
The Double Owl program allows students to earn their undergraduate and graduate degrees faster and at a lower cost than if they pursued each separately.
According to David Baugher, senior Assistant Dean of the College of Graduate Education, there was a program called the “Accelerated Bachelor’s Master’s” 15 years before the Double Owl program. Baugher also said that this program allowed students the same opportunities that the Double Owl Program offers, but it was not publicized very well.
“We decided to retool things and give it some good branding,” said Baugher. “We also looked at other universities and how they set theirs up, particularly UGA. We follow their model very closely.”
The program had several meetings with the University of Georgia and “picked their brains” on how things worked and did not work for them. Dr. Whitten, former president at KSU “spearheaded” starting UGA’s program and, with her direction, KSU followed UGA’s model for the program.
Baugher said that there are 117 pathways with the top pathways being Criminal Justice and Mechanical Engineering. About 122 students have been accepted into the program and about 58 students are taking graduate courses and undergraduate courses this spring.
Students save time by pursuing both degrees at the same time and save money because they would be paying undergraduate tuition for both degrees.
Christopher Staples, an exercise science major in the Double Owl program, said that he was informed of the program by the graduate program coordinator at the university, who happened to be his professor.
Staples said that he decided to participate in the program as a supplement to offset his GPA. He wanted to show whoever was analyzing his academics that his GPA might suffer, but that he can do graduate-level coursework.
“It’s been a great opportunity seeing how graduate students communicate, what their ideas are, what’s expected of graduate students versus undergrad students,” Staples said.
He said that he appreciates the teachers’ flexibility in the program.
“They understand that you’re a graduate student,” Staples said. “They know you want to go above and beyond.”
Because the program is so recent, no graduates have been reported yet.
Baugher said that when a department does decide to offer a Double Owl Pathway, faculty from an undergraduate and a graduate program will get together and decide if there are courses that could contribute to both programs.
Baugher states that about 20% of the program’s graduate students had a degree from KSU, so the goal of the program is to get more students to stay and go into graduate programs.
As far as future goals for the Double Owl program, Baugher said that the program would like to get more departments involved for students to have more options, to do a better job at getting the word out about the program to students and work more closely with advisors.
For more information about the Double Owl Program, visit the Double Owl website.
