Query:

Dear Colleagues,

If a prospective student who already has a bachelor's degree from another college or university wants to enroll for a second bachelor's degree at your institution, do you require that he or she complete the entire program (for example: 120 semester hours, if that's what your bachelor's degree requires)?

Or, does he or she only have to complete your institution's residency requirement (say, 60 hours, or whatever it may be)?

In the latter case, I assume you would be using transfer credit from the previous bachelor's degree to satisfy some of your institutions requirements. How do you justify this since those credits were already applied to a bachelor's degree elsewhere?

Thanks, as always, for your words of wisdom. A summary will be forthcoming.

Sincerely,

Karla Leybold-Taylor

Results:

Dear Colleagues,

Thanks to each and every one of you for your thoughtful and detailed responses to my question regarding the awarding of a second B.A. or B.S. degree to an individual who already has one such degree.I received 23 responses, and only one college does not allow students to matriculate toward a second bachelor's degree. The other 22 schools allow it and, in general, have the following stipulations:

The student must complete a major, the general education requirements (some or all of which may be satisfied by transfer credit from the first bachelor's), and the particular institution's residency requirement.

I have recommended that we begin to accept students who want a second bachelor's degree and require that they complete 60 hours at Wells, which is the same amount any other transfer student has to complete. Up until now, if a student wanted a second bachelor's degree, she had to do all 120 hours, so needless to say, we've not had anyone do it.

Thanks again for your wisdom!

Karla Leybold-Taylor, April, 2001

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