Nov 04, 2024  
CURRENT 2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
CURRENT 2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog

Criminal Justice, BS


Total number of hours for the program: 120.

Admission Requirements: General admission requirements for undergraduate students can be found on the WCU Admission Requirements page. Freshman are welcome to declare a major in criminal justice, and an earned AA or AS degree from North Carolina Community College System provides for seamless transfers.

Upper-level requirement: For all students, 50 percent of earned degree hours and 50 percent of all courses in the major must be at the 300-/400- level.

Residential Credit: Residential students are not allowed to take distance education courses or select the distance education concentration in Administration of Justice as part of their program.

Distance Education: Declaration of a major in distance education Criminal Justice does not guarantee admission into the program. Admission includes a two-stage process, with admission into the university as the first stage and admission into the Criminal Justice program (Administration of Justice concentration) as a separate stage. In addition to the admission requirements listed above, distance-education requirements include the following:

  • A cumulative 2.00 GPA or better on all coursework at other colleges or universities
  • Completion of an Associate of Arts or an Associate of Science degree from a community college or completion of the “44 General Core” courses that satisfy the General Education/Liberal Studies requirement for a North Carolina community college
  • At least one year experience (documentable) in the criminal justice field

Liberal Studies Hours (42 hours)


Liberal Studies Program Requirements  

Major Requirements for Residential Students Only (49 hours)


Additional requirement for residential students (18 hours) include six hours in each of the following areas:


Major Electives* (15 hours)


15 hours required with diverse choices available*, including:

Administration of Justice Concentration for Distance Learning Students Only (49 hours)


Only students with a minimum one year of experience working in the criminal justice field are admitted to this program.

Major Core requirement (16 hours) as listed above.


Additional Major Electives (15 hours)


Take 15 hours of major elective courses and/or additional hours in the Concentration Core or the Concentration Electives. Six hours of credit earned by completion of Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) can be used to partially satisfy this requirement.  A maximum of 9 credit hours from EDM can be applied to the Concentration Electives or the Additional Major Electives.

General Electives (29 hours)