Full-time students have the option of applying for admission into the five-year combined Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering/Master of Science in Chemical Engineering program.

The standard senior-year undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum generally requiring students to enroll in 15 undergraduate credits each semester. Therefore, it will be necessary for students interested in the BS/MS program to plan ahead by reducing the number of senior-year undergraduate courses they will need to take through the use of AP credit, transfer credit or academic overloads generally during the first three years of undergraduate study. In this manner a student would not need to enroll in more than a total of 33 credits (24 undergraduate credits + 9 graduate credits) during their senior year.

Typical Five-Year Plan

• Earn a BSChE degree after four years of study and complete the 30-credit requirement for the MSChE degree (initiated during the student's fourth year) with one additional year of work. All graduate courses must be taken at Villanova University.
• Complete 9 credits of graduate study during the senior year (no more than 6 credits in any semester) and complete the remaining 21 credits of graduate study over the 12-month period following the senior year. As permission for undergraduates to take graduate courses normally requires a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.00 or higher, this is generally considered the minimum undergraduate GPA required for consideration for admission into the combined BS/MS Program. Such a GPA guarantees neither admission into the program nor consideration for a merit-based tuition scholarship.
• Opt for either a thesis track program or a non-thesis track program. If the student chooses the thesis-track program, the student may perform a (Master's thesis) research project in the same research area as their undergraduate (senior) chemical engineering research project, or may initiate a completely different project with the same or a different research advisor. (Note: Choosing the thesis option may lead to a delay in the conferring of the Master's degree beyond May of the fifth year of the student's combined undergraduate and graduate studies.)

Application Timeline

Students interested in participating in the BS/MS Program should contact the Department of Chemical Engineering Graduate Program Advisor (currently Dr. Vito Punzi) as early as possible during their undergraduate studies at Villanova. An interested student would normally submit a letter of intent indicating an interest in participating in the BS/MS Program to the Engineering Chair during the Spring semester of their junior year (near the time the student would normally seek pre-registration advisement for their undergraduate senior year).

An individual graduate program course of study will be established, subsequent to advisement by the Departmental Graduate Program Advisor, based on the interests and career goals of the student, and the Department's anticipated graduate course offerings during the period in which the student would be enrolled in the graduate program. Students would then formally apply to the BS/MS Program by submitting a Graduate Application late in the Fall semester or early in Spring semester of their senior year.