The Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) degree is an undergraduate degree specifically for adult learners who have delayed or interrupted their studies, or for whom their original major is no longer appropriate. Your path to a bachelor’s degree will be built around your unique college credit history, and, if applicable, incorporate transfer credits and mast major-specific work.
The BGS degree will allow you to build a custom concentration out of two minors, or a custom concentration area rather than a single content focus, while meeting all bachelor’s degree requirements. It is designed to be multidisciplinary and have maximum flexibility to suit the needs of a wide variety of students.
Online Completion
All general education requirements can be met with online courses, and several minors are also offered online, including:
- General Business
- Criminal Justice
- Psychology
- Childhood Studies
Concentration Areas Options
Option 1:
- The first concentration must be an existing MWSU minor consisting of 18-24 credit hours.
- The second concentration must be an existing MWSU minor consisting of 18-24 credit hours.
Option 2:
- The first concentration must be an existing MWSU minor consisting of 18-24 credit hours.
- The second concentration is a Custom concentration consisting of a minimum of 18 credit hours.
Option 3:
- A Custom Concentration Area consisting of a minimum of 36 credit hours.
Major Requirements
- Custom minors or concentration areas require departmental approval
- Options 1 and 2 must each contain a minimum of 18 unduplicated credit hours
- Options 1, 2, and 3 may not contain more than 54 credit hours in a single discipline
- Students must earn a minimum of 15 credit hours in upper division courses
- Students must complete an approved applied learning course for a minimum of 1 credit hour
- No more than two (2) D’s are allowed in major coursework
University Graduation Requirements
- Earn a minimum of 120 credit hours (100 level and higher, maximum of 6 CED credit hours applicable)
- Earn a minimum of 30 credit hours in upper-division courses. Lower-division transfer courses accepted as meeting upper-division departmental course requirements cannot be used to fulfill this requirement
- Earn 30 of the 45 credit hours at MWSU in institutional coursework (exclusive of credit by examination)
- Participate in required departmental and campus wide assessments
- Fulfill the Missouri Constitution requirement
- Successfully pass the Missouri Higher Education Civics Achievement exam
FAQs
Yes, two minors from the same discipline can be used for the BGS. If particular courses are in both minors, they can only be used once. Each minor/concentration must include a minimum of 18 unique credit hours. Additional hours for the second minor will need to be approved by the chair to substitute for the courses already used in the first minor.
Yes. Often one of the courses in the minor will be used to fulfill the applied learning requirement.
No. While Missouri Western graduates must earn at least 30 of their last 45 hours at Missouri Western transfer courses may be used for the BGS minors. It would be theoretically possible (although HIGHLY unlikely) for a student to have both minors consist fully of transfer hours. Department chairs may determine that a particular number of hours within the minor must be earned at Missouri Western.
Yes and No. College credit more than 10 years old cannot be used to fulfill minor requirements unless approved by the relevant department chair. General education credits more than 10 years old may be used to fulfill general education requirements.
What about online courses?
Missouri Western offers more than 300 courses online. Several minors and some majors can be completed entirely online.
In addition, members of the air force may complete their GEM requirements through online courses at Missouri Western.