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  • Bruce L. Berg
  • Ryan Fischer
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  • Harvey N. Morley
  • Lisa M. Murphy
  • Tracy Tolbert
  • Sam Torres
  • Brenda Vogel
  • Zheng "John" Wang
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Master's of Science in Criminal Justice

The Criminal Justice Masters Degree requires 36 semester units of course work. The program consists of six core courses and a series of electives. The program is designed to be completed in a two-year, full-time traditional program on CSULB's campus. In addition, we offer an off-campus accelerated master's program to be completed in 18-19 months of classes offered on Saturdays.

• To view the course requirements, click on on the links below:
  • M.S. Requirements for those Advancing to Candidacy Prior to 2008
  • M.S. Requirements for those Advancing to Candidacy During or After 2008
• To view the courses offered, click on the link below:
  • Graduate and Undergraduate Catalogs

Admissions to the Graduate Program

• Application Deadlines

  The following are application deadlines for the Criminal Justice Department.

  • May 1: Fall semester application deadline to full-time program.
  • October 15: Spring semester application deadline to full-time program.
  • May 31: Application deadline to the next annual cohort of the accelerated M.S. program.

  To view the online application instructions and university deadlines, click on the links below:

  • Application instructions
  • University admission deadline

• Admission Requirements

1. Complete a University Application via CSU Mentor.
• When completing the electronic application, print a copy for the Criminal Justice Department before you finalize the application for the university.
• When applying for the off-campus accelerated program, please indicate this where it asks for "Program of Study."
2. Three (3) letters of recommendation. Letters from instructors are recommended but not exclusively required.
3. All official transcripts including those from community colleges must be provided. A minimum GPA of 2.5 overall is required for admission into the university's graduate school. Please note that a GPA of 3.0 or higher is preferred.
4. A resume describing your academic and work experiences.
5. A written statement of your personal goals and objectives (700-1,000 typewritten words).
   
   

   All above items should be addressed to:

Please Note: When communicating by email, please do NOT send attachements without a bried note explaining who you are and what you are sending. Email with unexplained attachments will not be opened.

Course Prerequisites

It is important to note that some of our master's-level courses have undergraduate prerequisites that must be taken before graduate students may enroll. Some substitution for prerequisites are permissible; contact Dr. Berg for details.

The prerequisites are:

• Graduate students must have taken CRJU 101 or an equivalent course during their undergraduate careers that exposed them to the primary components of the criminal justice system. Alternatively, students may take a qualifying exam demonstrating their understanding of the criminal justice system at a sufficient level to waive this requirement.
  
  
• In order to register for CRJU 504: Advanced Criminological Theory, graduate students must have taken CRJU 304: Criminological Theory or an equivalent undergraduate course in theoretical criminology. Alternatively, students may take a qualifying exam demonstrating their understanding of basic criminological theory at a sufficient level to waive this requirement.
  
  
• In order to register for either CRJU 520: Research Methods, or CRJU 525: Advanced Statistics, graduate students must have taken both CRJU 320 (or CRIM 480) and CRJU 325 (or CRIM 303) or equivalent undergraduate-level social scientific research methods and statistics courses.
  
  
• Use ASSIST to determine which courses are transferable to CSULB.
  
  

• Although these prerequisite classes are offered at CSULB, you may take them at any college or university. If these classes are offered in departments other than criminal justice, you will need the approval of the Graduate Advisor.

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