Application process
Students seeking to declare the Bachelor of Specialized Studies major with 60 or more credit hours completed are required to work with a BSS advisor and faculty to achieve an appropriate program. Students first should meet with a campus-appropriate BSS academic advisor to orient them to the BSS program.
At your hour-long BSS orientation, expect the following with your BSS academic advisor:
- Review your unique academic circumstances via a 鈥淲hat-If pre-BSS鈥 DARS report to understand your own 鈥渃onstruction zone鈥 to build your major and graduation timeline
- Sign into the orientation attendance link and review key resources via the BSS Orientation powerpoint.
- Review key resources needed to create your proposal, including the template, template planning guide, checklist, rubric, and how to utilize resources like the writing center, career coaching, , and as you create your proposal.
- Establish deadlines with your advisor to collaborate in the coming weeks to complete and formally submit your proposal.
- Declare the pre-BSS major if interested.
- Schedule your next appointment.
For Athens campus students, please call 740-593-1935 to request an hour-long BSS orientation meeting with a BSS academic advisor.
For OHIO Online and regional campus students, please declare your intention to become pre-BSS with your academic advisor. Please call 740-593-1935 if you need assistance.
Declare the Pre-BSS major
At the end of your BSS orientation with a BSS academic advisor, your advisor will give you the link to declare the pre-BSS major code. This declaration will prompt a formal assignment of a BSS academic advisor. Your current major program will remain posted and be dropped once your proposal is approved as your official BSS curriculum.
To be eligible to apply to Pre-BSS you must meet the following criteria:
- Be currently enrolled at 91探花
- Have a minimum of a 2.0 accumulative grade point average
Creating your BSS major
Phase 1: Collaboration with a BSS Advisor
Once a student declares the pre-BSS major, University College will assign a BSS academic advisor. Students are then encouraged to complete a rough draft of the proposal on the BSS proposal template and meet with their BSS academic advisor as quickly as possible to review their rough draft. 45-minute appointments are recommended until a student is admitted to the BSS program.
At your first BSS advising meeting, you鈥檒l review your 鈥淲hat-If pre-BSS鈥 DARS report to understand your own 鈥渃onstruction zone鈥 to build your major, agree to a timeline and adjust the MyOhio Success Network (MOSN) success plan accordingly, and review your rough draft. Depending upon the date of your meeting, discussing the adjustment of your current schedule to match your proposed draft may be important. Scheduling a 45-60 minute first advising session is strongly recommended.
Students are strongly encouraged to meet with a Career Network coach to assist with the creation of their transition plan within the proposal. If writing assistance is needed to draft the proposal, please work with a tutor at the Writing Commons.
Students will collaborate with their advisor to revise and refine their proposal until it receives a 鈥済reen light.鈥 A green light means that your BSS advisor believes your proposal meets all criteria on the checklist and faculty rubric and is ready for phase 2.
Phase 2: Collaboration with Faculty
Once a proposal has a green light, students will begin working with identified faculty partner(s) identified by the BSS advisor.
Students will communicate with faculty online or in person to pursue faculty expertise and input on their own proposal. Once faculty partners support the student鈥檚 proposal, a pre-BSS student returns to meets with their BSS advisor once more.
Phase 3: Final pre-BSS Advising Meeting
Prior to the desired residency deadline and once a student has obtained support from their faculty partner(s), a pre-BSS student meets with their BSS advisor one more time to formally prepare and submit their BSS proposal for review and admission to the BSS program.
Deadlines for 2023-2024 Academic Year
Once a student鈥檚 proposal is admitted, their major code changes from pre-BSS to BSS, and their approved curriculum appears on the DARS report.