Your Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree advisor is your partner in reaching your educational goals. Your advisor will work closely with you throughout your academic career, using the following milestones to ensure you quickly complete your degree:

1. Orientation: You gain information about academic requirements and resources to support your academic experience.
2. Educational Philosophy and Planning Course: You define your education in the context of your life and complete your degree plan.
3. Degree Seeking and Problem Solving: You work with your advisor to complete your degree using your life experience.
4. First College Capstone: You design and complete a project that reflects what you have learned.
5. Graduation: You work with your advisor to plan for graduation.

You and your goals are central in the advising process. An advisor can become a mentor to you, encouraging you to persevere and to succeed in accomplishing your educational, personal, and career goals.

After you design your degree, you will work with your advisor to:

• Change degree plans
• Select courses
• Connect with evaluators for prior learning assessments
• Identify faculty mentors for independent studies
• Get general advising on available resources including career counseling, graduate schools, on campus employment, and more

An Individualized degree program learner has 10 years of business management expertise and is a leader in her company. She also has extensive skills in negotiation, accounting, business law, change management, and team building. She has achieved all of this success without her college degree.

The learner started her college degree long ago, but never finished. She attended three different universities in pursuit of her dream, earning 70 college credits. None of these universities helped her achieve her educational goals. She then found the Metropolitan State University Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program.

She works with her Metropolitan State University faculty mentor to design a degree in Socially Responsible Business Management, which focuses on her career and personal interests. Her degree plan uses her 70 transfer credits and the following creative learning strategies to get her two years closer to her degree:

• A prior learning assessment that documents learning gained during her work life

• CLEP exam credit for learning she has gained while managing a business

These credits shorten her degree program by two years, saving her a substantial amount of money in tuition and book costs. In addition to the time and money saved, the learner appreciates the validation of the substantial knowledge and skills she brought to her education.

She completes her degree with interesting and exciting learning options, such as:

• Self-designed, independent study courses
• An internship at a pioneering non-profit organization that assists the elderly
• Online and on-campus courses in multiple subject areas

The learning you've achieved through careers, community service, family, travel, and military service can translate into college credits using creative learning strategies. These experiences may make you closer to your Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree than you might think.

When you pursue an Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree, you can reach your educational goals with these creative learning strategies combined with on-campus, online, or distance courses:

• Prior Learning Assessment: Get credit for your life experience with a prior learning assessment that evaluates the knowledge you have gained.
• Transfer Credits: Get credit toward your degree by transferring course credit gained from one or more institutions.
• Theory Seminars: Build on your current areas of expertise with seminars that add theoretical knowledge to your practical experiential learning.
• Independent Study: Use faculty- and self-designed independent study to explore a unique interest or project that will build on your prior knowledge.
• Internships: Design your own internship or register for an existing internship to gain new knowledge through work experiences.
• Standardized Tests: Take tests to gain credit for knowledge in an area of study. Approved national testing programs include the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP), Defense Activity for Non-traditional Education Support (DANTES), Advanced Placement (AP), and International Baccalaureate (IB).

The Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree will prepare you to be a self-directed, reflective, and lifelong learner. The Individualized Degree program allows you to:

• Design a degree plan that focuses on your career interests—a feature not offered in traditional, structured programs.
• Combine or integrate multiple subject areas into your degree program. For example, you can combine study in finance and economic history or social justice and community activism.
• Use creative learning strategies to complete your degree, including independent studies, internships, theory seminars, and on-campus, online, or distance courses.
• Gain credit for the learning you have achieved through work, community, or life experience while building on current areas of expertise.
• Pave the way for future graduate studies and improve your career options.

Since 1971, Metropolitan State University learners have been designing individualized degrees to meet their educational, career, and personal goals. Today, First College is the academic home for learners developing Individualized Bachelor of Arts degrees. These learners use courses and other learning opportunities across the university's colleges and curriculum to complete their degrees.

Contact us today by e-mail or phone to begin your Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree at Metropolitan State University.

Contact: Daniel Abebe, Dean
Daniel.Abebe@metrostate.edu

Phone: 651-793-1777

Address:
First College, St. John's Hall
Metropolitan State University
700 East Seventh Street
Saint Paul; MN 55106-5000

We work with you to design a degree plan that will meet your career, personal, and educational goals. Contact us today by e-mail or phone to begin your Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree at Metropolitan State University.

Contact: Daniel Abebe, Dean
Daniel.Abebe@metrostate.edu

Phone: 651-793-1777

Address:
First College, St. John's Hall
Metropolitan State University
700 East Seventh Street
Saint Paul; MN 55106-5000

"The Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program offered much greater flexibility, support, and self-directed opportunities than any other program I could find." Ochen Kaylen Web Producer, American Radio Works BA Individualized Studies '08

To describe Ochen Kaylan's experience as eclectic is an understatement. He has been a circus juggler and light and sound technician for a midnight cabaret, digital artist, conflict mediator, and Web producer for American Radio Works. Only one degree program could encompass such an array of interests— Metropolitan State University 's Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree.

Ochen flourished in the Individualized degree program, having been selected as First College 's outstanding student for 2007.

"I very much appreciate the honor, especially coming from a student-oriented institution like Metropolitan State University ," he says. "It's very rare for higher-education institutions to actually live up to that promise of being student-focused."

When Ochen began the Individualized degree program in the fall of 2006, he designed his degree plan to focus on Business and Communication. In addition to credits from other institutions, he transferred 39 college credits he earned through CLEP for his work and life experiences. During the process, he discovered that he was only one year away from completing his degree.

"I was able to fashion an individualized learning plan that was truly about my learning goals, rather than a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all degree," he says. "One year later, I received my degree from Metropolitan State University with honors."

Ochen is using the knowledge and experience he gained from the Individualized degree program to study law at William Mitchell College of Law. "Without the Individualized Bachelor's program, there is no doubt in my mind that this would not have been possible," he says.

The Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program has thousands of alumni. Many have gone on to graduate schools throughout the United States, while others continue to have an impact on their workplaces as well as the communities in which they reside.

"As an older student with a great deal of career and life experiences and wanting to pursue a degree in another field of interest, the Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program provided me with the place and the space to be creative in obtaining my degree." Pat Duffy BA Individualized Studies '08

When Pat Duffy started in the Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program, she faced many challenges. She began her academic career later in life, having only a few college courses in her background. Pat also faced physical challenges, including hearing loss and a vision impairment. Her dream—to create a facility for the elderly where their mind, body, and spiritual needs are met—compelled her to overcome these challenges and complete her college degree.

"As an older student with a great deal of career and life experiences and wanting to pursue a degree in another field of interest, the program provided me with the place and the space to be creative in obtaining my degree," she says.

Pat designed her Individualized degree program around Leadership Service, Health, and Spirituality. When she began the program in the fall of 2006, she transferred credits from a variety of institutions into her degree program. She creatively used theory seminars, internships, independent studies, and courses to complete her degree, including the course Perspectives: Educational Philosophy and Planning .

"The Perspectives course allowed me to review all of my experiences, examine the specifics of what I want my new knowledge to be, and take responsibility for and have authority over my own education," she says. "The theory seminars allowed me to focus more in-depth on knowledge I desired to build on, the independent studies allowed me to be creative in obtaining new knowledge, and the internships provided me with hands-on experiences with the older population."

Pat received the Outstanding Student Award and graduated with honors in 2008. She wants to pursue a Masters degree in the area of Leadership Service, Health, and Spirituality. "The Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program was the right choice for me. I am deeply grateful to the entire First College faculty and staff who supported me through this accomplishment."

The Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program has thousands of alumni. Many have gone on to graduate schools throughout the United States, while others continue to have an impact on their workplaces as well as the communities in which they reside.

"The Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program is perfectly congruent with my philosophy of education—to study that which I am passionate about and inspired by, along with that which is practical and ultimately profitable in the world." Richard Harrison Senior Interactive Designer, Metropolitan State University BA Individualized Studies '02

When Richard Harrison began exploring education opportunities, he quickly realized that his varied interests would not fit neatly into many degree programs.

"The main reason I chose to finish my degree at Metropolitan State was the option to design an Individualized degree program," he says. "I had a strong interest in technology, but I felt I was missing out on important learning opportunities specific to a larger focus—a blend of arts and technology." Being a musician and a creative person, Richard wanted to use his technology skills so that he could be employable and still have an avenue for creativity in his work.

Richard designed his degree program, called Multimedia Design, with the intention of pursuing a career in multimedia creation, including user interface design for applications, web site design, and other forms of new media.

"The limitation I felt in the more traditional computer science program was the requirement to take mostly technical courses with fewer options available for electives and courses outside of the requirements," he says.

The Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program offered Richard flexibility in the courses he could incorporate into his degree plan, including a spirituality course that enhanced his creative development. "The direct relevance of these courses may not be immediately obvious, but, in addition to rounding out my education, they gave me an increased perspective on the world around me which has helped immensely in the work place," he says. "I can think of no other degree program that would have afforded me the opportunity to create this unique blend of coursework."

Richard is using the knowledge and skills he gained from the Individualized degree program in his career as a Senior Interactive Designer. He says, "The Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program is perfectly congruent with my philosophy of education—to study that which I am passionate about and inspired by, along with that which is practical and ultimately profitable in the world."

The Individualized Bachelor of Arts degree program has thousands of alumni. Many have gone on to graduate schools throughout the United States, while others continue to have an impact on their workplaces as well as the communities in which they reside.