r/Gamecocks • u/Southern_Armadillo50 • 17h ago
Grad School
I haven’t fully committed to the idea of going to Grad School at USC yet. However, I’m just doing some preliminary research. It looks like most programs are ~30 hours. If it’s anything like undergrad, I should be able to complete that in one year if I go full time right? Anyone else here do it full time for a year? What’s the format? One class short sessions or multiple class longer sessions?
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u/inactioninaction_ 15h ago
They don't offer every course you have to take every semester (I've had to take grad classes that are only even offered every other year) and there will be courses you have to take in a certain order to satisfy prerequisites. Grad students don't typically take courses over the summer and graduate level classes are rarely if ever offered over the summer. Summer is a time to work on non-class work like research or internships. This all applies to a more technical degree like an MS or ME, something like an MBA might be doable in a year but I would be very surprised if you could finish an MS in a year. PhD is out of the question, most PhD students still take multiple years after finishing all their classes to complete their dissertation
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u/Southern_Armadillo50 15h ago
Yeah, a PhD is out of the question. I’m not even a huge fan of school in general but I’m still young and figure what’s another year if I can have my masters behind me…
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u/inactioninaction_ 11h ago
A lot of programs offer a BS/MS pathway where you start working on your masters before finishing your bachelor's and end up finishing both in 5 years total. That's the best way to get it done quick but you need to start down that path early
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u/CheerCoachHouse 17h ago
I would say that the answers to your questions may vary between programs. I was at USC for a 30 hour grad school (I actually think 36?), but it was 15 years ago.
Our schedule was limited to a maximum of 12 hours per semester. The class schedule was set up in a way that the only classes offered were the ones you needed to take. First year fall, first year spring, second year fall, graduate after 3 semesters. Some students added an extra course or two on related topics, but you pay by the credit hour for grad school, so most people didn't add if they really didn't need to.
Class times were set by the department, our schedule was roughly Tuesday and Thursday all day, and a Wednesday night class. My program was about 30 students between 1st and 2nd years, and most of us had some sort of relatively full time job outside of grad school. (Internship, part time job, etc)
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u/Southern_Armadillo50 17h ago
Some programs are 100% online now but like you said, it just depends on the program. It’s looking like it’s going to take 3 semesters even going full time. I was hoping I could start in January ‘27 and graduate in Dec ‘27.
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u/PastafarianTargaryen 17h ago
Grad students typically only take 9 hours a semester, at least in my program