a)     This degree prepares a student to finish a BS (or BA or BAS) in Computer Information Science (or some other program) at the following 4-year colleges:

b)    This degree has not been designed to lead directly to a bachelor’s degree. It is not part of an articulation agreement with a 4-year college.

Commentary: This proposal allows for a clear and easy transition from a completed 2-year degree program to a 4-year degree program. Students who are transferring between MnSCU institutions with less than a 2-year degree will have coursework transfers handled on a course by course basis as per Policy 3.21 Undergraduate Credit Transfer. Individual institutions can choose to articulate individual course transfers, as each feels to be most appropriate.

• Credit Transfer—Articulated Programs
  The evaluation and transfer of earned college credits shall be in full compliance with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities’ Board of Trustees Policy Section 3.21: Undergraduate Credit Transfer and all other state and federal educational policies pertaining to undergraduate credit transfer.  Current students and graduates, who have earned degrees from Minnesota West, shall be eligible for credit evaluation under the terms of this agreement.  Programs eligible for transfer under this articulation agreement are listed in section 3.1 of this document. 
  
  Completion of additional required general education/MnTC coursework may include prerequisite support courses required by the specific major.  Completion of these program specific courses may cause a student to exceed the 128 semester credit graduation requirement. 

For MSU to grant the BAS degree, a minimum of 30 semester credits must have been earned at MSU.  All Minnesota State University applicable graduation requirements defined by MSU and MnSCU must be met.

Each student graduating from MSU is expected to have completed at least 64 semester credits of their coursework from a four-year college or university.  In addition, 30 of the last 64 semester hours must be taken at MSU.  All other MSU and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) requirements must be met.

Each of the MSU programs listed in section 3.1 of this document will establish and maintain current course transfer guides, to be updated biennially, for courses which will be accepted in transfer from Minnesota West into the related BAS program at MSU.  When a student transfers, courses will transfer in accordance with this agreement and be placed on the standard Transfer Credit Evaluation form by the Office of Admission or the Office of the Registrar as appropriate.

Diploma and certificate program transfers are not included in this agreement.

General education/MnTC credits already earned as part of the AAS degree will be applied to the MSU general education/MnTC requirements.  Additional general education requirements will be noted in the program outline in section 3 of this document. 

AAS transfer students must satisfy the general education/MnTC requirements of a MSU baccalaureate degree.  MnSCU-approved MnTC coursework already completed as part of the AAS degree at Minnesota West will be applied to the general education/MnTC requirement at MSU.  AAS transfer students must complete any remaining general education/MnTC and satisfy the following MSU requirements:

• Have 40 MnTC semester credits in categories 1 – 10, including the MnTC coursework transferred.  
• Have at least one course in each of categories 3-10 and one course in areas 1A, 1B & 1C of category 1.
• Requirements for Category 11 are waived.  
  
  Specific general education/MnTC and prerequisite support courses may be required of this program and will be listed in 3.1 Articulated Programs section of this document.  Completion of these program-specific requirements may cause the transfer student to exceed the graduation requirement of 128 semester credits.

AS transfer students must satisfy the general education/MnTC requirements of a MSU baccalaureate degree.  Major specific coursework that will transfer into the baccalaureate degree will be outlined in part 3.1 of this document.    

• NOTE:  Specific general education/MnTC prerequisite support courses may be required of this program and will be listed in 3.1 Articulated Programs section of this document.  Completion of these program-specific requirements may cause the transfer student to exceed the graduation requirement of 128 semester credits.  

Students may transfer up to 34 technical credits from an AS degree and up to 44 technical credits from an AAS degree (see section 3.1).

MSU Transfer Course Equivalency Guides may be viewed at the MSU transfer website:

http://www.mnsu.edu/dept/admiss/transfer/index.htm

Graduates of the Technical College will be provisionally admitted to the BAS program in Computer and Information Technology.  Permanent admission will be based on criteria similar to those for current BS programs in the Computer and Information Sciences Department.  Currently the requirement for permanent admission is a grade of C or above and a grade point average of 2.5 or better in COMS 111 and 112 and completion of MATH 180 or MATH 121.

The following is an analysis of credits for a typical graduate of the Minnesota West Computer Applied Technology A.S. Degree.  This student has completed a 64 credit AS degree consisting of 30 General Education credits and 34 Technical Education credits.  All 64 credits are accepted into the BAS degree.

If the 30 credits of General Education are appropriately distributed across most of the 10 categories of the MnTC, they will all count toward MSU's General Education requirement.  For this example we will also assume that the student has taken a course in Technical Writing that is equivalent to ENG 271 at MSU.  This Technical Writing class could be taken at MSU and still fit within the 128 credits for the BAS degree.

The 34 credits of Technical courses from the AS degree are all included in the degree.

Ten credits of General Education at MSU will complete the General Education requirement.  Recall that appropriately selected courses can each satisfy two different categories of the General Education requirement.

The result is thus a total of 64 credits from the AS degree plus a total of 64 credits at MSU.  This results in a total of 128 credits for the entire BAS degree.  

The following is an analysis of credits for a typical graduate of the Minnesota West Computer and Information Technology A.A.S. Degree.  This student has completed a 64 credit AAS degree consisting of 20 General Education credits and 44 Technical Education credits.  All 64 credits are accepted into the BAS degree.

If the 20 credits of General Education are appropriately distributed across a significant number of the 10 categories of General Education, they will all count toward MSU's General Education requirement.  The AAS student should have taken ENG 2276.  Failure to do this will necessitate taking ENG 271 at MSU resulting in a credit hour total exceeding 128**.

The 44 credits of Technical courses from the AAS degree are all included in the degree. Other options are possible, but here we assume that the student has taken CSCI 2260 Assembly Language Programming (equivalent to COMS 260 at MSU) and CSCI 2202 Computers, Technology and Society (equivalent to COMS 202 at MSU).  The 1 or 2 credits from a Program Exit Capstone Seminar course or an Internship experience will be used in lieu of this amount of credit of Internship.

Twenty credits of General Education at MSU will complete the General Education requirement.  Recall that appropriately selected courses can each satisfy two different categories of the General Education requirement.

*The student may elect to take these upper division credits in the major instead, however, this will result in more than 128 credits total.

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