If you’re an undergraduate student in Asbury University’s School of Communication Arts, you can take advantage of the special +Grad program. The +Grad Program allows students to finish their undergraduate degree and then earn a Master of Arts in Digital Storytelling (30 graduate credit hours) in as little as one additional year.
Earning a graduate degree has become an increasingly important way to set oneself apart in the job market. An M.A. degree demonstrates that you have advanced training in media production and a greater understanding of how to plan and carry out successful media campaigns. Asbury University’s M.A. program has been specifically designed to equip you with the skills needed to be a successful media professional in today’s ever-changing world. The program can be completed entirely online, so you can live anywhere in the world and even work a full-time job while completing your graduate degree. Please note that the experiential course does require working in an apprenticeship-type environment or being involved in a film or TV experience.
In order to enter the +Grad program, you will need to have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and will need to have completed three classes: MC 121 Audio Production, MC 261 Multi-Camera Production, and MC 302 Single Camera Production (or their equivalents). Upon being accepted to the +Grad program, you will be allowed to take up to 9 hours of graduate courses during your senior year. This means you’ll only have 21 hours left in the M.A. program after undergraduate degree completion.
Asbury has substantially lowered the cost of graduate tuition in order to help students earn valuable graduate degrees, but graduate courses taken during your senior year will add no cost to your undergraduate tuition. This means you can complete 30% of the M.A. program without paying extra tuition! In order to take graduate courses during your senior year, you must maintain at least 12 hours of undergraduate courses per semester, and graduate courses taken as part of the +Grad program cannot be counted towards your undergraduate degree.
Asbury also offers two Master of Fine Arts degrees: an M.F.A. in Screenwriting and an M.F.A. in Film & Television Production. Both of these M.F.A. programs serve as a terminal degree in these fields and you can start either of them as an undergraduate senior. Please note that the M.F.A. degrees require 42 credit hours and will therefore require more time than an additional year. If you choose the MFA route, you can reduce the 42 graduate hours to 33, completing just over 20% of the degree while being an undergraduate.