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Find the official policies that govern our student and academic community.
Coterm students may change, withdraw from, or reinstate a master’s program only through approved processes, and may pursue only one active coterminal master’s program until the bachelor’s degree is conferred.
Coterm students who wish to change from one master’s degree to another before conferral of the bachelor’s degree must first apply and be admitted to the new coterminal master’s program. The new coterminal master’s program must overlap with the active undergraduate career by at least one quarter.
Once admitted to their new program, the student must submit the Request to Permanently Withdraw from Degree Program opens in a new tab form for their current master’s program, indicating the withdrawal to be effective at the beginning of the quarter in which they plan to start the new program.
The permanent withdrawal form should be submitted before the admission decision deadline, so that the Office of the Registrar can perform the withdrawal concurrently with matriculation into the new program.
Approval of courses towards the new master's degree program requirements is at the discretion of the new master’s degree program. The student may elect to transfer courses back to the undergraduate career if the bachelor’s degree has not yet been conferred.
Students wishing to add a second graduate program to their academic plans may only do so after the conferral of the undergraduate degree.
A student who wishes to withdraw from coterminal graduate study may submit the Request to Permanently Withdraw from Degree Program opens in a new tab form to discontinue their master’s program. This must be done, at latest, before the quarter in which they will confer their bachelor’s degree.
If the student is currently in the graduate coterminal billing group at the time of withdrawal, they will be immediately reverted to undergraduate tuition assessment and considered a full-time undergraduate student thereafter.
Coterminal students who have been discontinued from their undergraduate and graduate careers due to non-enrollment must submit both the undergraduate Request to Return and Register, and the request for graduate reinstatement. Graduate reinstatement will be considered once the undergraduate return has been approved.
Coterm applications for reinstatement are reviewed by both the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and the coterminal master’s department, and are further subject to the approval of the Faculty Senate Committee on Undergraduate Standards and Policy or its designees
Students who have withdrawn from a coterminal master’s program while remaining an active undergraduate, and who later wish to resume study in their original coterminal master’s plan, may request graduate reinstatement. Students who permanently withdraw from a coterminal master’s degree, then reinstate, may not request coterminal course transfer of credit taken during the terms in which they had no active graduate career.
Coterm students may only pursue one master’s program while their undergraduate career is active. If a student withdraws from their coterminal master’s program and subsequently completes their bachelor’s degree, then wishes to resume study in their previous master’s program, they must reapply for admission as an external applicant.
A coterminal graduate student who has completed their bachelor’s degree may add an additional degree program via the graduate program authorization petition, if utilized by the intended new program, or by applying through graduate admissions.
For more information, see the following pages on the Student Services website:
Stanford undergraduates with strong academic records can apply for admission to a Master of Arts (M.A.) or Master of Science (M.S.) program through a coterminal admission process, provided they meet certain conditions.
By the end of their first graduate quarter, coterm students must be assigned a master's advisor and submit a program proposal for a master's degree.
Once per quarter, continuing graduate students may submit a Graduate Program Authorization Petition in Axess to request additions or changes to their graduate program, rather than applying through Graduate Admissions.
Former students who were discontinued may apply for reinstatement into their degree program. The University is not obliged to approve reinstatements of students.
