BA-MS in Biostatistics

The Gallatin School of Individualized Study and the School of Global Public Health (GPH) offer a dual-degree program to enable students to earn both a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Gallatin’s Individualized Major and a Master of Science (MS) in Biostatistics in less time than it would take to complete the programs separately. Because both the Gallatin School and the School of Global Public Health have a strong commitment to interdisciplinary study, this partnership is desirable for faculty and students in both programs.

The dual degree is designed for academically strong students with an equally strong commitment to public health, and provides the opportunity for students to supplement their undergraduate studies in almost every field of science, social science and even humanities, with a Master’s of Science in Biostatistics. The MS in Biostatistics provides students with strong grounding in Public Health, as well as expertise in Biostatistics and data analysis and statistical computing.

Students admitted to the BA-MS dual degree program will accelerate their progress to an MS degree in Biostatistics by earning 15 credits of the 46 credits required for the MS during their undergraduate program. These 15 credits comprise five MS required core courses. Students may count up to 15 of these credits toward both the BA and the MS degrees. Full-time students who complete five MS core courses as part of the BA degree can complete both degrees within five years and a total of 159 credits. Taken separately, both degrees would take a minimum of six years and a total of 174 credits.

Admission to the dual-degree program is open to Gallatin undergraduate students who have completed 64 credits toward the BA degree, with a GPA of 3.5 or higher, and have completed the equivalent of a college level pre-calculus course.

Students in the dual-degree program must earn grades of C or higher in all the MS graduate courses to receive credit toward the MS and also maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA during the remainder of their Gallatin program. If either standard is not met, the student would be subject to extra review and may be dismissed from the dual-degree program, but would be able to earn the BA upon completion of the requirements for that degree.