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PCMS Curriculum

This is a 12-credit-hour program consisting of four online courses. Students will meet program requirements by taking four, strategically selected 3-credit-hour courses: two management courses and two of the three communication courses listed below.

Required:
BUS 501  Strategic Management Foundations
BUS 554 Project Management

Take two of the following:
COM 521 Communication and Globalization
COM 527 Seminar in Organizational Conflict Management
COM 530 Interpersonal Communication in Science/Technology Organizations

Standards for the certificate: Students must complete the required credit hours for the certificate program with an overall 3.0 grade point average (GPA). Credit toward the certificate in a particular course will be awarded only if a grade of B- or better is given in the course. All classes in the program must be taken for a letter grade. No transfer credits will be accepted and it must be completed within four years. A student may obtain more than one graduate certificate; however, each certificate must have at least nine (9) credit hours which are unique to the program.  This particular certificate requires 12-credit-hours. All courses must be distance education sections to qualify for the certificate.

Relationship to Master’s degree programs: Academic success in the graduate certificate coursework may have a bearing on admission to a degree program; however, completion of a certificate program in no way guarantees entry into a graduate degree program, which is done through a separate application process.

Transfer Credits and Double-Counting Courses: The following regulations are from the NC State Graduate School’s Handbook, Section 3.14: Graduate Certificate Programs  D.  Graduate Certificates and Degrees

Transfer Credit

  • Transfer credit from other institutions is not allowed for GCP. All course work must be registered for through NC State University.
  • Up to six (6) hours of PBS coursework, if not already used in another graduate program, may be transferred into a certificate program.
  • Up to six (6) hours of coursework taken while in undergraduate status at NC State may be transferred into a certificate provided that the credit was not used for an undergraduate degree.
  • The limit for transfer credit into a certificate program is six (6) hours from all sources. All transfer credit must carry a grade of B or better (B- is not allowed).
  • Up to twelve (12) hours of certificate credit taken prior to enrollment in a degree program (either master’s or doctoral) may be transferred into that degree program (note: transfer totals into degree programs shall not exceed twelve (12) hours from all sources) so long as eighteen (18) hrs remain unique to the master’s and thirty-six (36) hrs to the doctorate.

Double-Counting

  • Graduate certificate courses taken while enrolled in a degree program may be double-counted with the degree courses to the extent that the courses unique to the degree remains eighteen (18) hours for each master’s or thirty-six (36) hours for a doctorate.
  • Courses used in a previous undergraduate degree shall not be used in a certificate.
  • Certificate and graduate minor coursework shall not be shared. A student getting a minor using a set of coursework may not also get a certificate using that same coursework.
  • Up to nine (9) hrs of coursework taken in a previous degree program may be used in a certificate (to the extent allowed by the double-counting rules in sub-section D), provided that there is no break between the degree and the certificate. Where there is a break of at least one term, only six (6) hrs taken while in the degree program may be used in the certificate. The time limit noted in C. 8 still applies [see page link above for C. 8 text].