Bachelor’s Degree Completion Program

Mission

The Bachelor’s Degree Completion (BDC) Program, out of Professional and Continuing Studies, is designed to meet the needs of students returning to college, especially adult-learners, looking to build on the college credits they have already earned by completing a bachelor’s degree at Merrimack College that is achievable within the realities of the working world and the busy lives of adult learners.

Merrimack College was founded in 1947 by the Order of St. Augustine to educate returning World War II veterans for the post-war workforce. In this sense, Merrimack has always been an institution dedicated to serving working adults at a crossroads in their educational trajectory. The BDC Program, and the four distinct majors offered therein, are therefore mission-centric and designed to help professionals of all levels and backgrounds complete their college degree.

Vision

The Bachelor’s Degree Completion (BDC) program is calibrated to foster a manageable path towards undergraduate degree completion for the adult learner. The intentionally flexible BDC program allows students to apply past college credits or an associate’s degree, as well as certifications and more, towards the completion of their undergraduate degree. Students must transfer in at least 12 credits and can transfer up to 90 credits towards their 124-credit bachelor’s degree, including work experience or job training training, licensures, certifications, professional development and prior work experience that aligns with their degree path.

All coursework from all accredited institutions, including four-year colleges and community colleges outside of Massachusetts, are considered for transfer credit.

The BDC program and the four unique major programs therein feature 100% online learning and mostly asynchronous classes offered in manageable 8-week sessions.

Overview

The BDC program offers an achievable and academically meaningful way for students to complete their bachelor’s degree at Merrimack College. Again, tailored to returning students and adult learners, the BDC program offers a clear and well-defined path towards degree completion, with a career-focused and academically rigorous curriculum. The program prepares students for success in today’s diverse and dynamic workplace.

Distinct from traditional full-time on-ground programs at Merrimack, the BDC program features eight-week courses taught online, as well as a general education curriculum designed with returning students and adult learners in mind. Specifically, all four major completion programs within the BDC require students to take three courses (12 credits) in the Professional Core, with the remaining general education courses coming in the form of a flexible Arts and Sciences Core.

Students may transfer up to 90 credits of previous college coursework, prior learning, and/or professional equivalencies for any of the four undergraduate degree completion programs offered through the BDC. For more information about credits for prior learning, please see the Credit for Prior Learning section.

Undergraduate degree programs offered within the BDC Program:

Major(s)

Applied Arts and Sciences, B.A. - BDC program

Business Administration, B.A. - BDC program

Psychology, B.A. - BDC program

Strategic Communication, B.A. - BDC program

Transfer Credits and Credit for Prior Learning

Transfer Credits

For students in the BDC program, college credits earned at other institutions may be accepted at Merrimack College The course credit acceptance procedures allow for most courses (few exceptions) taken at any time, regardless of date (e.g., no expiration) and at any accredited post-secondary institution to be applied toward the B.A. in APAS. Please see “Optional Academic Programs and Activities” in the College Catalog which addresses policies for transfer credit, off-campus studies, accelerated academic progress including exams (e.g. AP, IB, CLEP); military, government, and corporate training; and departmental exams. A maximum of 16 credits may be earned for life and work experience.

Credit for Prior Learning

Prior learning experiences that may be counted as course credit in the BDC program at Merrimack College include:

Professional licensure or certification where there is a body of knowledge and an official transcript made available (such as Police, Fire, and EMT Training Programs);
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and/or Professional Development Points (PDPs). Programs that issue CEUs or PDPs are programs that students participate in without offering college level credit yet nonetheless indicate that learning has taken place;
State Licensure and/or Government Certification Programs;
Work and industry experience that specifically aligns with BDC program outcomes.

In all cases, the Academic Director of the BDC will make final assessments and, when appropriate, grant approvals of prior learning for credit. When necessary, approvals may be made in consultation with the appropriate faculty member on the BDC Learning Council.

For professional licensure or certification, the College will require an official transcript; a certificate of completion; or a letter written on the training sponsor’s letterhead outlining the content and connection to a body of knowledge.

For those seeking credit for CEUs (Continuing Education Units) and/or PDPs (Professional Development Points), the College will require copies of certificates of completion; a program outline with syllabus including assignments and deliverables; and any other documentation that demonstrates a knowledge base and skill set equivalent to that of a college course.

For those seeking credit for State Licensure and/or Government Certifications, the College will require copies of the license or certificate along with a detailed description of how the knowledge base and skill merits college credit.

For those seeking credit for prior work experience, the College will require the student to prepare a portfolio that outlines specific job competencies that are connected to program outcomes to demonstrate learning through on the job experiences.

Students may petition for credit for prior learning for work experience by submitting a Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Portfolio. Students may submit a portfolio that details college level learning that took place outside of a college or university. This portfolio will be reviewed and college credits may be awarded. Students should first meet with their Education Specialist or Academic Advisor to discuss the process for submitting a portfolio.

The portfolio must include:
1. PLA Portfolio Application.
2. An autobiographical account that describes in detail the student’s training, work, and life experiences; this must include what the student has learned from these experiences using college-level terminology.
3. A statement of how the prior learning relates to the specific course for which the student is requesting credit.
4. Evidence of understanding of the subject for which the student is requesting credit.
5. The student should demonstrate an appropriate balance between theory and application.
6. Any examples of relevant direct verification of learning (e.g., licenses, certificates, authored reports).
7. An in-depth description of how the student has applied, or plans to apply, the knowledge and skills acquired in other settings.
All portfolio material will be submitted electronically.
Review Process:
1. Portfolios will first be reviewed by an Education Specialist to ensure portfolios are complete.
2. They will then be sent to the chair of the Academic Learning Council who will assign the portfolio to an appropriate member of the BDC Learning Council who will review it and get the input of the chair of the department from which credit is being sought.
3. BDC Learning Council members must be trained in Portfolio PLA before they may review a portfolio. The Office of Graduate and Professional Studies will develop a portfolio PLA training process. In reviewing a portfolio, the learning being evaluated must:
  1. Be measurable.
  2. Be at a level of achievement defined by the faculty as college-equivalent or consistent with the learning of other students engaged in college studies.
  3. Be applicable outside the specific job or context in which it was learned.
  4. Demonstrate a knowledge base.
  5. Be reasonably current.
  6. Imply a conceptual or theoretical as well as a practical understanding.
  7. Not repeat learning for which credit has already been awarded.
The learning must be related to a specific Merrimack College course.

Guidelines for Merrimack College Undergraduate Students Who Want to Take BDC Courses During the Fall or Spring Semesters:

Because the BDC program is designed for students returning to college, especially adult-learners, in order for current undergraduate students enrolled at Merrimack College to take BDC courses to complete their traditional on-ground bachelor’s degree, students must meet the following stringent criteria:

The student needs 16 or fewer credits to graduate
Those 16 credits needed to graduate can all be met through the completion of open elective courses, they cannot be credits that would count towards completion of the student’s major, their minor or their general education requirements
The student has extenuating circumstances* and is unable to complete these credits on-campus in the upcoming semester**
The student is a part of the 6-year cohort wherein if they don’t complete these 16 or fewer credits they will not be able to graduate within 6 years
The student has exhausted the possibility for all summer and winter courses in the coming year and exhausted all non-BDC online course offerings in the upcoming fall and spring semesters

*Examples of extenuating circumstances include but are not limited to: The student has physical or mental health concerns that restrict them from continuing to come to campus; The student or the student’s family moved away from the College, making commuting an impossibility.

**To be approved for this option, the student must petition the Academic Director of the BDC program in the form of a brief memo. The memo must be written by the student and reviewed by their academic advisor and it must clarify their extenuating circumstances, including their need to take online BDC classes in either fall or spring semesters. Approvals would be granted by the Academic Director of the BDC program in consultation with the faculty members on the BDC Faculty Learning Council.

If a student does not meet the five criteria above, then their academic advisors should advise them to consider one of the following two options:

The undergraduate student should be advised to complete their traditional major program requirements to complete the bachelor’s degree associated with their original program of study. This is always the preferred option if the student can achieve it.
In cases in which the undergraduate student has extenuating circumstances and has no options to make satisfactory progress in their on-ground degree program and graduate within 6 years from their cohort entrance, but has more than 16-credits of open elective courses to complete, then the student should consider transitioning into the BDC program. In this case, the student would select the most appropriate bachelor’s degree among the four offered through the BDC program. Students who select this option must meet the College’s residency requirements. Students must also meet any additional requirements of the BDC’s degrees not met by the course work completed in their original day school program, including but perhaps not limited to the three required “Professional Core” courses unique to the BDC program at Merrimack.