Professional Science Master's
PSM Startup Checklist





  • Learn about jobs and labor markets for graduates, including salaries, especially by visiting sites of possible employment.
  • Determine identifiable niche that will generate interest from faculty and students with strong support from business, government, and/or nonprofit sectors.
  • Form advisory board of industry and other likely employers.
  • Meet employer needs for relevant technical and professional skills.
  • Define scholarly rationale for the proposed degree program and its content.
  • The focus area could be interdisciplinary or be a non-traditional focus where there is existing faculty expertise and interest. The degree is named for the focus area, not for the discipline(s) involved.
  • Assure faculty enthusiasm for the new degree, including commitment by regular department faculty to provide bulk of instruction.
  • Win high-level institutional commitment to master's level education, including central coordination of all PSM programs at level of dean or above.
  • Prepare business plan projecting both expenses and revenues, and showing how and when each degree program can become self-sustaining based on tuition revenues, corporate support, and university support.
  • Design a curriculum with a majority of coursework in graduate level science and/or mathematics in one or more disciplines.
  • Develop intense identity-building or "branding" experience for PSM's, including team project for entering students. 
  • Encourage business/industry internships or equivalent.
  • Design exposure to cutting-edge research issues and equipment, for example, by lab rotations.
  • Conduct seminars/colloquia jointly for all PSM students.
  • Teach writing/communication/negotiation/consensus-building and other workplace assets.
  • There should be a reasonable number of existing courses which could be adopted or adapted for the program.
  • Require final project, often team experience, in which meeting a schedule really matters (in contrast to the open-ended nature of much university research).
  • Degree could be completed in approximately two years.
  • Apply to the Council of Graduate Schools for recognition as a Professional Science Master's program.
  • Appoint personnel or hire staff coordinator to handle liaison to business and industry; publicity; recruitment; student services; placement.
  • Win rapid approval of new degree programs by state Regents and other gatekeepers.
  • Create management teams dedicated to recruitment of students and placement of graduates.
  • Set up systems to keep track of graduates and network them.
  • Keep contact with other professional master's programs around the country.
  • Set up systems for assessment and quality control.
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NEWS & UPDATES

The accompanying sidebar in the higher education chapter of the Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 report describes why the PSM was developed and details its rapid growth.
More Info >

The Council of Graduate Schools PSM Team is pleased to release the Proceedings of the Sixth PSM Biennial Meeting featuring full contributed papers as presented at November's meeting, bios from each Distinguished Alumni, speakers notes and presentations, copies of posters and more. More Info >

Promoting Professional Science Master’s Degrees: Inside Higher Ed reports from Capitol Hill as members of the PSM community gather to discuss the continued relevance and national prominence of the PSM. More Info > 

New York Times publishes letter from the Chair of the CGS PSM Advisory Board. More Info >

Professional Science Master’s Update: The Internship Component: CGS Communicator article discusses various PSM internship models. More Info >

 

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PROGRAM LOCATIONS

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Program Locations.
STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

“I was waiting for something different. I was waiting for something more technical, more scientific that would integrate business courses into a more scientific program." Read More Student Testimonials >

EMPLOYER TESTIMONIALS

"Students in the Professional Master’s Program benefit from ... well-recognized academic resources enhanced with professional components that together foster the development of essential science, communication, and management skills." Read More Employer Testimonials >


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