Students that are interested in pursuing a combined degree program should make their intentions known to their departmental chair, undergraduate advisor or graduate program director. This should be done early in the junior year. Often a letter of intent or an application form is required at that time. If admitted, the student follows a prescribed course of study in which a maximum of nine credits of 600- or above level courses may be taken as an undergraduate and counted toward the master's degree.

Students must also apply and be admitted to the graduate school one semester prior to the completion of bachelor's degree requirements.

The bachelor's degree may be awarded after successful completion of bachelor's degree requirements (usually at least 120 credits); master's degree requirements depend upon the individual program, but a minimum of 141 total credits are required for both degrees.

This program is selective. Students must have at least a 3.0 GPA to be considered, and some programs have more stringent requirements. The Graduate Record Examination is usually waived for applicants in this program. Students in these accelerated tracks must also continue to be in good academic standing throughout the course of their studies.

No more than one master's degree may be earned through a combined bachelor's/master's degree program.