5th-year Master's Program
Highly qualified undergraduates with majors in the Department of Philosophy may be able to complete a Master’s degree in a fifth year at Carnegie Mellon in one of the following programs:
Ideally, students apply for the program in early January of their junior year, allowing them time to take courses that would count for the master's program in their fourth year.
Any course that has a graduate-level section (80-310/610; 80-411/711 for example) may count toward the master's program – credit for courses is decided on an individual basis in consultation between the Director of Graduate Studies and the individual course instructor. For any course in which a student earns an “A” grade and the instructor believes that they did graduate-level work, credit will be given toward the master's.
Preferably, a student would finish their undergraduate degree with six (6) courses that would count toward the master's degree, allowing them the 5th year to complete either six (6) more courses, or four (4) courses and their thesis.
Each semester, qualified master's students may have the opportunity to earn a $5,000 stipend for grading one course or a $6,000 stipend for serving as a teaching assistant for a course. Such positions are subject to availability.