Graduate Student Handbook

This handbook covers university requirements, policies, and procedures for graduate and post-baccalaureate students at Cal State East Bay. Individual programs set requirements above these, so check with your program coordinator. The University Catalog is the authoritative source for academic policy.

Jump to introduction, admission and enrollment, degree requirements, academic policies, capstone, dual and second master’s degrees, graduate study completion, probation, disqualification, and reinstatement, career readiness.

Introduction

The Office of Graduate Studies provides information and guidance for prospective and current graduate students across Cal State East Bay’s academic programs and support services. The university offers more than fifty graduate programs.

Each degree program has a faculty graduate program coordinator who supervises the program. Arrange your advising appointments with that coordinator; contacts are on the graduate program coordinators page.

Graduate students on a student visa contact the Center for International Education about visa status, employment eligibility, and special academic requirements.

For financial aid, complete the FAFSA or the California Dream Act Application each year. The Office of Graduate Studies also coordinates programs that provide financial resources and educational opportunities for graduate students; these are on the graduate opportunities and financial resources page.

Admission and enrollment

Transitory admission

Graduate students are eligible for Intrasystem Concurrent Enrollment, Intrasystem Visitor Enrollment, and cross-registration with the University of California, Berkeley and selected other East Bay colleges. Contact the Office of the Registrar for either intrasystem option.

Intrasystem Concurrent Enrollment lets a student enrolled at any CSU campus attend another campus while still enrolled at the home campus. Intrasystem Visitor Enrollment lets a student of any CSU campus attend another campus as a visiting student for one term. Both require that you have completed at least one term at the home campus as a matriculated student, or will be enrolled concurrently in that status; are or have been enrolled in an authorized graduate program at the home campus; and are in good standing at the last college attended.

Returning graduate and post-baccalaureate students

Cal State East Bay students receive an automatic leave of absence for one semester. The leave maintains continuous attendance status, keeps you eligible to register in following semesters, and holds the catalog that determines your degree requirements.

Former students absent for two or more semesters apply for readmission and pay an application fee. Readmission may carry new university or program requirements. Students who left in negative academic standing may need additional coursework before returning, after a mandatory interruption of one or more semesters. Students who were academically disqualified or dismissed file an appeal for reinstatement.

Enrollment and degree progress

Graduate students must enroll in courses that satisfy their degree program, master’s or credential, to qualify for veterans’ benefits or benefits as dependents of disabled or deceased veterans, Department of Homeland Security certification for international students, intercollegiate athletic competition, and most types of financial aid.

Full-time enrollment for graduate students and classified post-baccalaureate students is 8 or more units for financial aid, F-1 and J-1 visas, and veterans or reservists under Chapter 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, or 1606. These classifications apply to fall and spring semesters and to summer session, not to University Extension non-degree programs or shorter sessions including winter. Veterans and eligible dependents consult the Veteran Benefits Coordinator before the first day of classes and submit forms requesting certification of enrollment.

Degree requirements

Master’s degree

A master’s degree requires advancement to candidacy; at least 30 semester units applicable to the degree, with the total for each program given in the catalog; a program of study approved by the department that includes a thesis, project, or comprehensive examination; and a 3.0 grade point average in all units counted toward the degree, with a minimum grade of C in every course. A course counting toward degree requirements with a grade of C− or below must be repeated.

Units carry these limits. All units must be earned within the five calendar years immediately preceding receipt of the degree; outdated units may be accepted for one additional year with approval from the major department and Graduate Studies, and in the sixth year currency in the subject matter must be demonstrated. Courses older than seven years apply only in exceptional circumstances. At least 70 percent of the total units required by the program must be completed in residence as an admitted graduate student, which for a 30-unit program is 21 units. At least half the units must be in stand-alone 600-level courses, and up to half may be in upper-division undergraduate or dual-listed courses. No lower-division units count. No more than 6 units of university thesis, departmental thesis, or project work count. No more than 8 units of independent study count. No units taken CR/NC count unless the course is offered exclusively on that basis, which is mostly fieldwork and internships; this doesn’t apply to prerequisite or proficiency coursework.

Individual programs may set more stringent requirements, including higher minimum grades.

Academic course load

A graduate student who wants a master’s degree in two years enrolls in about 8 units per semester, 15 units a year in a 30-unit program. Eight units per semester is the minimum for financial aid and reporting purposes. For doctoral course load in Educational Leadership, contact that department.

Transferring units

Because at least 70 percent of program units must be completed in residence, transfer credit is limited to the remainder. Units don’t count as resident if taken at other schools, as an undergraduate with permission to take graduate courses, while pursuing an additional baccalaureate in unclassified post-baccalaureate status, while enrolled in another graduate degree program, or through Continuing Education including Open University. Special session courses, such as summer, count as resident units. Some programs require more than 70 percent in residence.

To transfer credit, you must have taken the course after earning a bachelor’s degree and within the five calendar years immediately preceding receipt of your degree; your department must accept the course as relevant to your program; and the institution must customarily grant the level of credit, graduate or upper division, that you want to receive here.

Cal State East Bay generally doesn’t allow credit-by-examination from challenged courses toward master’s degree requirements. Departments may establish exceptions, noted in the degree description in the catalog, under which you must pass the challenge exam with a B− or better, no more than 9 semester units of credit-by-examination apply to the degree, and challenged courses don’t count toward residency.

Graduate certificate programs

Students already enrolled as post-baccalaureates may apply to a graduate certificate program. Students not already enrolled apply to the university as a post-baccalaureate classified student. Applicants meet the minimum requirements for admission to graduate and post-baccalaureate studies and contact the department for additional criteria. Where a degree program in the sponsoring department is appropriate, seeking admission to it lets graduate units count later toward the degree; no more than 9 units, or 30 percent for master’s programs over 30 units, taken in classified post-baccalaureate status apply toward a graduate degree.

A certificate program is a coherent set of academic courses narrower in scope than a degree. Each contains a minimum of 12 units, or 15 where the program includes undergraduate courses, which must be upper division. Only one course below the 600 level may be taken CR/NC, and no graduate course may be taken CR/NC unless that is the only grading pattern. At least 75 percent of the courses and all 600-level courses are taken at Cal State East Bay, through University Extension or as a regularly admitted student. Completion is recognized by the certificate itself; there’s no notation on the diploma or permanent record, though the courses appear on the record.

Change in educational objective

Continuing post-baccalaureate students changing their degree objective or credential program file a Change of Graduate Objective Request with the Office of Graduate Admissions.

Doctoral degrees

Cal State East Bay offers a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership. Policies and procedures for continuing student performance and graduation requirements differ from those for master’s programs. Students in the Educational Leadership for Social Justice program work closely with their academic advisors; contact the Department of Educational Leadership for requirements and complete program information.

Writing proficiency

All students demonstrate competency in writing skills as a graduation requirement. Academic Programs and Services has the current ways to meet it. Some graduate programs require coursework that also fulfills the requirement; students in those programs complete that coursework to earn the degree.

Academic policies

Grading

The typical grading pattern for graduate courses is A–F, and the use of plus and minus is at each instructor’s discretion. Grades lower than C don’t satisfy master’s degree requirements, and some programs require higher; check with your department. A B−, though described as adequate, generates fewer than 3.0 grade points and must be balanced by a B+ or higher to maintain a 3.0 GPA.

Students can’t select CR or NC. Those grades are available only in graduate courses offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis, typically fieldwork and internships, where CR indicates work of at least B− quality. The same holds for post-baccalaureate 500-level courses. Courses taken CR/NC meet degree requirements only where that is the sole grading pattern.

Grades assigned are presumed correct, and anyone appealing one carries the burden of showing otherwise. To correct an error, an instructor may change a grade with approval from the department chair and college dean. Once graduation is recorded, no grade changes are allowed except to correct an error, which students have one term after the degree is awarded to dispute, or as the result of a grade appeal.

Appealing a grade

Students who believe an appropriate grade wasn’t assigned start with the instructor, then the chair of the department offering the course, then the dean or associate dean of that college. If those steps don’t resolve it, contact the Presidential Appointee to the Grade Appeal and Academic Grievance Committee at 510-885-3716. Students who have applied for graduation notify their graduation evaluator that a question is pending.

The Presidential Appointee assists students in exhausting normal channels and, where needed, in filing a Grade Appeal Petition. Petitions and supporting documentation go to Academic Programs and Services. The committee reviews the documentation and the other parties’ responses, and convenes a hearing panel where it finds possible grounds. Under normal circumstances the petition is filed before the end of the semester following the one in which the alleged incident took place. The committee can change or assign a grade after a proper review of the case.

Grade point average

Your GPA is the number of grade points earned divided by quality hours, meaning units attempted excluding CR/NC courses. If you repeat a course required in the major, your department has discretion in specific circumstances to exclude the earlier attempt, submitted by the department to the Office of the Registrar at any time while you’re enrolled but not after the degree is awarded.

The graduate program coordinator or department chair may also request that grades in courses not counting toward degree requirements be excluded, permitted only where those grades would place you on academic probation. These may include courses from a second baccalaureate program or a different graduate degree program. They may not include courses taken after admission to the current program, courses in the program you later elect not to count, or courses used for a conferred post-baccalaureate degree. Requests go to Academic Programs and Services, which makes the final determination.

If your GPA falls below 3.00, consult your graduate program coordinator or department chair immediately.

Registration

Master’s students follow the same registration policies as undergraduates; see Registration and Enrollment in the catalog. Thesis and project courses differ: complete a Special Registration Petition for each semester you enroll in one, submitted to the department office before the add/drop deadline, and check on its progress yourself. Independent study, individual study, capstone project, departmental thesis, and university thesis typically require a petition.

Withdrawal from the university

Students cancelling registration or withdrawing from all classes after enrolling follow the university’s official withdrawal procedures. Skipping them can mean an obligation to pay fees, failing grades in all courses, and applying for readmission before enrolling again. Students who fail to fulfill enrollment or matriculation requirements, or otherwise fail to follow academic or university regulations, are subject to administrative action including Administrative Probation or cancelled enrollment.

During the add/drop period, dropping all courses in MyCSUEB requires no withdrawal form. After add/drop ends, from the third through the twelfth week of instruction, complete a withdrawal form, obtain approval signatures from each instructor and department chair, and return it to the Office of the Registrar. A semester you withdraw from doesn’t count as an interruption of enrollment for matriculated status. An approved late withdrawal petition doesn’t produce a fee refund, and withdrawal doesn’t automatically result in one; contact Student Financial Services about refunds.

Financial aid recipients consult a financial aid counselor before withdrawing, since withdrawing during a term or payment period may require returning or repaying funds and may create a debt to the institution.

Matriculated students who don’t enroll for two consecutive semesters, not counting summer or winter, and don’t enroll in the third, are discontinued and submit a new application for readmission.

Declassification

A student may be declassified from a graduate degree or credential program for reasons including unprofessional conduct, failure to maintain professional standards, behavior that interferes with the learning of others, failure to progress toward the degree as set out by university and program policies, failure to complete required components such as fieldwork or practicum courses, failure to meet grade requirements for good standing, or a determination by program faculty that the student can’t complete degree requirements at the level expected in the discipline even with a GPA above 3.0.

The major department initiates the request with support from the chair and the college dean or designee. Requests go to Academic Programs and Services for final action and official notification to the student and the Registrar. That office also determines whether the student is academically or administratively disqualified from the university. A declassified student who isn’t disqualified and wants to continue applies formally to another graduate program, and can’t enroll through the university or Open University in any undergraduate or graduate course in the program they were declassified from. Unless the declassification involved conduct that interferes with campus interactions, declassified students may apply to a new program and be accepted by it. Acceptance must come no later than two semesters after declassification; otherwise the student reapplies to the university.

Research with human subjects

The university has policies and procedures protecting human subjects in research, development, and related activities. An Institutional Review Board reviews research protocols to determine whether human subjects would be at risk and to protect their rights and welfare. Protocols are approved before research begins. The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs has the policy document.

Capstone

Every graduate program ends in a thesis, a project, or a comprehensive examination. The quality of the work, expression included, is the major consideration in judging it.

Thesis

A thesis is the written product of a systematic study of a significant issue. You identify the issue, state the major assumptions, explain the significance of the project, detail your sources and methods of obtaining data, analyze the data, and offer conclusions. A thesis demonstrates original critical and independent thinking, appropriate organization and format, and thorough documentation. Research involving human subjects requires protocols approved by the Institutional Review Board.

Cal State East Bay offers two kinds of master’s thesis: the University Thesis, numbered 691, and the Departmental Thesis, numbered 699. Students required to write a thesis, or electing to, register for at least one unit of 691 or 699 to receive credit toward the capstone. Check with your department for the number of units to enroll in.

The following holds for both kinds. You must be a graduate student, admitted to a master’s degree program, to enroll in a thesis course, and the department may add requirements. A departmental committee supervises the work and includes at least one Cal State East Bay faculty member from the major department; the Thesis Committee Policy carries the rest of the committee requirements. You can’t receive credit for more units of thesis work than the degree program allows, and no more than 6 units count for either kind, with some programs setting a lower limit given in the catalog. Each semester you receive a grade of RP, Report in Progress, for units in 691 or 699 until the thesis is finished, at which point you receive a final grade for the entire course; RP units count toward neither the degree nor the GPA, and if the thesis isn’t approved within five years of initial enrollment in a thesis course, the RP grades become F or NC depending on the course’s grading pattern. A degree candidate is normally required to present an oral defense.

The two kinds differ in who sets the standards and what happens to the finished work. The Office of Graduate Studies establishes the format of a University Thesis, which is formal, and an electronic copy goes into the Institutional Repository. The department determines the standards and format of a Departmental Thesis, which is usually less formal, and retains the thesis.

For a University Thesis, the approval process, the required format for the structural elements, and the deadlines are in the University Thesis Writing Guide. Contact your department advisor or graduate coordinator about selecting a topic, establishing a thesis committee, and research protocols, and ask whether the department requires a bound copy. Questions about formatting and submission that the guide doesn’t answer go to the University Thesis Editor at thesiseditor@csueastbay.edu. For a Departmental Thesis, the department’s guidelines, acceptable topics, and committee procedures come from your department advisor or program coordinator.

Project

A project, numbered 693, is a significant undertaking in a fine or applied art or in a professional field. It provides evidence of originality, independent thinking, and appropriate form and organization. You describe the project in a written abstract addressing its significance, objectives, methodology, and conclusions, and in some cases present an oral defense.

The criteria match those for a Departmental Thesis with two exceptions. An RP grade in a project course becomes an F, with no NC option, after one year if the project isn’t completed. And while a project needn’t serve as a research resource, it should be of a caliber to constitute a valid terminal activity in a master’s program, and is permitted only where a thesis isn’t appropriate.

A student who changes from a program requiring a thesis to one requiring a project, or the reverse, may count a combined maximum of 6 units of 691, 693, and 699 toward the degree.

Comprehensive examination

A comprehensive examination assesses your mastery of the relevant subject matter, your ability to analyze and integrate the knowledge of your field, your skill in critical and independent thinking, and your use of appropriate organization and accurate documentation. The department retains a record of the examination, both questions and responses. Some departments grant unit credit for exam preparation, numbered 692, and others don’t.

Dual and second master’s degrees

To pursue two master’s degrees at the same time, apply to your primary degree through Cal State Apply and file a Change of Graduate Objective Request with the Office of Graduate Admissions for the second. You fulfill all prerequisites and requirements for each degree.

To pursue a second master’s degree after earning one, apply and gain admission to the department offering it, fulfill all its prerequisites and requirements, complete at least 70 percent of its units in residence after admission to that program, and earn all units within the five calendar years immediately preceding receipt of the degree. Up to 30 percent of units from the first degree may apply to the second where the second program accepts them; where none are accepted, all units for the second degree must be completed. A second degree in the same field, business administration for instance, must be in a different concentration, with all units from different courses.

Graduate study completion

Students who have finished all units required for the master’s degree but are still working on the capstone, whether a thesis, a project, or studying for a comprehensive examination, can keep access to university facilities by registering for XXXX 890 Graduate Study Completion through Continuing Education. Register under your major prefix: a graduate chemistry major registers for CHEM 890. It’s a 1-unit course, and the fee is $134 and subject to change.

Registration gives you a valid student ID card, the ability to check out library books, remote access to the library’s databases, use of campus computer labs, the ability to keep working on projects in science labs, eligibility to buy a parking permit, and other benefits regularly registered students have. Enrollment also counts as enrollment for students serving as teaching associates.

Register by submitting the Graduate Study Completion Contract Registration Form, with a signature from your major department. XXXX 890 doesn’t satisfy any unit or course requirement for the master’s degree.

Probation, disqualification, and reinstatement

Maintain a 3.00 GPA in all units attempted after admission to your graduate program, prerequisite courses included, to stay in good standing. Below 3.00 you’re placed on Academic Probation and consult your graduate advisor before registering for the next semester. You may be academically disqualified if you don’t reach a 3.0 GPA during a semester on probation, if you don’t meet your department’s academic criteria, or, immediately upon notice, if a campus administrator finds behavior so contrary to the standards of the profession you’re preparing for as to render you unfit for it.

Administrative Probation applies if you withdraw from all courses for two consecutive semesters or any three semesters, don’t progress toward your degree while enrolled, don’t comply with academic requirements, or earn only IC, F, WU, or NC grades for two consecutive or any three semesters. Administrative Disqualification follows if you don’t meet the conditions for removing Administrative Probation, are placed on it twice for the same reason, or are placed on Academic Probation while on it.

Students disqualified academically or administratively may apply for reinstatement to their graduate program by completing a Petition for Graduate Reinstatement. The petition is approved by the graduate program coordinator or the department chair, then forwarded to the Director of Graduate Studies, who has final authority. Reinstatement is approved only where the student provides compelling evidence of the ability to complete the degree. A student disqualified a second time normally won’t be considered for reinstatement.

Career readiness

The Next Step: CSU Graduate Career Readiness is a free, self-paced micro-credential program open to CSU graduate students. It’s built on the NACE Career Readiness Competencies and asks students to reflect on their academic and professional experience and describe it in the terms employers use. Modules combine guided reflection, examples, and applied activities.

Students work at their own pace and earn eight LinkedIn-shareable competency badges, which stack into the full CSU Graduate Career Readiness micro-credential. The modules cover identifying the skills built through coursework, research, internships, and employment, and putting them into resumes, CVs, portfolios, interviews, and professional conversations.

The eight competencies are career and self development, communication, critical thinking, equity and inclusion, leadership, professionalism, teamwork, and technology.

Cal State East Bay faculty contributed to module design and content development. Thomas Padron, of the Department of Hospitality, Recreation, and Tourism, developed the Professionalism module, which covers workplace expectations, professional behavior, communication, accountability, and the habits that support long-term success across industries.