Chemistry (Four Plus One Concentration), B.S.

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Major Requirements

The major in chemistry requires 27 hours in Chemistry as follows:

CHEM 140 - Advanced General Chemistry Credits: (4)
CHEM 232 - Quantitative Analysis Credits: (3)
CHEM 241 - Organic Chemistry I Credits: (3)
CHEM 242 - Organic Chemistry II Credits: (3)
CHEM 272 - Organic Chemistry Lab Credits: (2)
CHEM 352 - Physical Chemistry I Credits: (3)
CHEM 361 - Principles of Biochemistry Credits: (3)
CHEM 370 - Instrumental Analysis I Credits: (3)
CHEM 371 - Chemical Dynamics Credits: (2)
CHEM 495 - Seminar in Chemistry Credits: (l, R4) (1 hour required)

Four Plus One Chemistry Concentration

Concentration Requirements

The concentration requires 34 hours as follows:

CHEM 380 - Research in Chemistry Credits: (2, R8) (6 hours required)
MATH 153 - Calculus I Credits: (4)
MATH 255 - Calculus II Credits: (4)
PHYS 230 - General Physics I Credits: (4)
PHYS 231 - General Physics II Credits: (3-4) (4 hours required)

Electives

12 hours of Chemistry electives selected from:

CHEM 532 - Instrumental Analysis II Credits: (3)
CHEM 541 - Advanced Organic Chemistry Credits: (3)
CHEM 542 - Introduction to Organic Polymers Credits: (3)
CHEM 553 - Physical Chemistry II Credits: (3)
CHEM 554 - Computer Interfacing Credits: (3)
CHEM 561 - Environmental Chemistry Credits: (3)
CHEM 562 - Molecular Bioinformatics Credits: (3)
CHEM 570 - Advanced Instrumental Analysis Laboratory Credits: (1)
CHEM 593 - Topics in Chemistry Credits: (1-3, R6)

General Electives

General electives (17 hours), including at least 2 hours at the junior-senior level, are required to complete the program.

The Four Plus One degree program in Chemistry allows an outstanding student to complete the requirements for both B.S. and M.S. degrees in a period of 5 years. Students are expected to meet all of the requirements of the M.S. program. These include a minimum of 30 semester hours of graduate study, including a thesis and an oral defense of the thesis. Once a student has completed the B.S. he/she formally applies to the graduate school. Students begin research while earning the B.S. degree. Up to 12 credit hours of 500+ course work taken in the undergraduate program can count toward MS degree requirements. All grades, even those below a B taken at the 500+ level will count toward both the graduate and undergraduate GPA. All graduate degree program rules apply to all courses taken for the graduate program, including the 500 level courses taken as an undergraduate student.

Students applying for the 4+1 B.S. program in Chemistry must meet the following guidelines:
• a minimum cumulative GPA and GPA in the chemistry major of 3.00 at WCU.
• Completed a minimum of seventy-five (75) and a maximum of ninety-six (96) credit hours in their undergraduate programs, including graduate courses taken as an undergraduate.
• Completed at least three sections of CHEM 380-Research before completing the B.S. degree.

Applicants must be approved by the Graduate School, Department Head, Departmental Graduate Program Director and the Thesis advisor. After the student receives the BS degree, meets and completes admission requirements, he or she may be officially admitted into the MS degree program depending on GRE scores. After admission to the master’s program, the 500+ courses in which the student completed (and made a grade of C or better) during the B.S. will be applied toward the requirements of the M.S. degree. These courses also count toward the 128 hours needed for the BS degree.
Students need to be aware that making 3 Cs or below automatically dismisses them from the Graduate degree program of study—the courses taken at the undergraduate level in anticipation of counting in the MS program also apply to this rule.

Visit the department’s website at http://www.wcu.edu/4409.asp to view the semester curriculum guide.