General Requirements
Colorado School of Mines offers several certificate and degree programs for those who have completed an undergraduate degree program. These programs lead to the awarding of post-baccalaureate certificates, graduate certificates, professional master's degrees, thesis and non-thesis master of science degrees, non-thesis master of engineering degrees, and doctor of philosophy degrees. This section describes these certificates and degrees and explains the minimum institutional requirements for each. Students may apply to, and be admitted in, multiple graduate programs simultaneously. In this case, a student may use the same graduate course credits to satisfy the requirements for each certificate or degree.
Students enrolled simultaneously and/or sequentially in two Mines master's degree programs may use up to half of the course credits required for the master's degree program with the smallest course credit-hour requirement toward both degree programs. Before the Office of Graduate Studies will count these credits toward each degree requirement, the student must obtain written permission to do so from each department or program granting the degree. This permission should be submitted with the student’s Degree Audit form and should clearly indicate that each degree program is aware that the specific credits are being counted toward the requirements of multiple master’s degrees. For thesis-based students this permission should be provided by the student’s thesis committee and department head or program director. For non-thesis and certificate programs, permission should be obtained from advisors and department head or program director.
Students simultaneously and/or sequentially enrolled in a master's degree and doctoral degree may, with departmental approval, count course credits toward each degree without limit. Approval to count credits toward a master’s degree and doctoral degree will be indicated by the committee’s and department head's or program director's signature on the Degree Audit form.
Course credits may never be applied toward more than three graduate degrees.