Fast Track (4+1) Graduate Program (BIS)

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Program description, goals, and benefits

The Fast Track program at DSU provides a unique opportunity for high achieving undergraduate students to obtain both a Bachelors and a Master’s degree in five years. This is accomplished by allowing these students to take selected graduate courses during their senior year. These courses will also count towards their undergraduate course requirements thereby accelerating completion of a graduate program. In effect, students will be able to:

Leverage their presence on campus to complete some of the requirements of the graduate program during the last semesters of their undergraduate degree, thus reducing completion time by at least one semester. In effect, obtaining a BS and a MS degree in five years.
Save on tuition cost by between 9-12 credits of graduate course work that will count towards undergraduate and graduate program requirements.

Specific Undergraduate and Graduate Programs for Fast Track Requirements

The Fast Track programs are specifically for the MBA General Studies, Masters of Science in Analytics or Information Systems, or Health Informatics and Information Management graduate programs in the College of Business and Information Systems.

Undergraduate students in:

BBA, Business Technology Specialization would select MS Information System program.
BBA (all specializations) would select MBA General Management program.
BS Computer Information Systems would select either MS Analytics or MS Information Systems program.
Health Informatics and Information Management would select the MSHIIM program.

Admission requirements

Students in the identified majors may be admitted to the Fast Track program upon completion of their junior year. Accordingly, they can apply to the program in the last semester of their junior year. To be considered, the student will have to meet the following requirements:

Have senior status by the time they commence their joint undergraduate/graduate program.
Have a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher after grades have been posted from their junior year.

Application requirements

A Fast Track application can be picked up in either the College of Business & Information Systems or the Office of Graduate Studies & Research, or on the graduate website. A completed application package is required once a student has earned his/her BS degree. See program information for specific application requirements.

BBA Business, Business Technology Specialization with MS Info Systems Program of Study

Option 1: Students will be allowed to substitute three specific INFS courses to replace two specific CIS courses and one elective course.

Take INFS 720 System Analysis and Design Using Case Tools to replace: CIS 332 - Structured Systems Analysis and Design
Take INFS 724 Project and Change Management to replace: CIS 338 - Project Management
Take one of the following to replace an Elective: INFS 730 Web Application Development or INFS 750 IT Infrastructure, Technology & Network Mgmt or INFS 760 Enterprise Modeling and Data Mgm

Option 2: Students will be allowed to substitute up to three of the INFS courses listed below to replace three electives.

INFS 720 System Analysis and Design Using Case Tools
INFS 724 Project and Change Management
INFS 730 Web Application Development
INFS 750 IT Infrastructure, Technology & Network Management
INFS 760 Enterprise Modeling and Data Management

BBA Business with MBA General Business Program of Study

Students in the Management Specialization will be allowed to substitue three specific BADM graduate courses to replace three courses or electives.

BADM 729 Business Analysis for Managerial Decisions to replace BADM 425 - Production and Operations Management
BADM 755 Organizational Behavior and HR Management to replace BADM 464 - Organizational Behavior
BADM 768 International Management to replace BADM 468 - International Management

Students in the Accounting, Business Technology, Finance and Marketing Specialization will be allowed to substitute one specific BADM graduate course and two electives.

BADM 729 Business Analysis for Managerial Decisions to replace BADM 425 - Production and Operations Management
BADM 755 Organizational Behavior and HR Management to replace BADM Elective
BADM 768 International Management to replace BADM Elective

Computer Information Systems with MS Analytics Program of Study

Students will be allowed to take up to 9 graduate credits during their senior year. Substitute three specific INFS courses to replace three CIS courses.

Take INFS 768 Predictive Analytics for Decision Making to replace: CIS 368 - Predictive Analytics
Take INFS 772 Programming for Analytics to replace: CIS 372 - Programming for Analytics
Take INFS 776 Business Intelligence and Visualization to replace: CIS 474 - Business Intelligence and Big Data

Computer Information Systems with MS Information Systems Plan of Study

Students will be allowed to take up to 9 graduate credits from either Option 1 or 2 during their senior year.

Option 1:

Substitute three specific INFS core courses for three specific CIS courses (a total of nine credits):

Take: INFS 720 Systems Analysis & Design Using Case-based tools to replace: CIS 332 - Structured Systems Analysis and Design
Take: INFS 724 Project and Change Management to replace: CIS 427 - Information Systems Planning and Management
Take: INFS 760 Enterprise Modeling, and Data Management to replace: CIS 484 - Database Management Systems

Option 2:

Students will be allowed to take up to three INFS graduate courses during their senior year. Choose three INFS courses from the list below to replace three CIS Electives.

Recommended selections:

INFS 720 - Systems Analysis & Design Using Case-based tools
INFS 724 - Project and Change Management
INFS 730 - Programming for E Commerce
INFS 750 - IT Infrastructure, Technology and Network Mgmt
INFS 760 - Enterprise Modeling, and Data Management
INFS 780 - Information Technology Strategy and Policy

Health Informatics and Information Management with MSHIIM Program of Study

Students will be allowed to take up to 12 graduate credits during their senior year. Substitute four specific HIMS or INFS core courses to replace four elective courses.