Degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi
The University of Southern Mississippi appears in our ranking of the Top ten Online Colleges for Active Duty Military.
The University of Southern Mississippi offers more than 180 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialist, and doctoral levels. The university is popular for transfers for Mississippi students who have already attended a state school or community college. The university’s programs are housed under four different colleges that include the College of Business and Economic Development, the College of Nursing and Health Professions, the College of Education and Human Sciences, and the College of Arts and Sciences. The university also offers its programs from the Honors College, Graduate Studies division, and the Center for Gifted Studies.
Highly ranked programs at the University of Southern Mississippi come from the school’s fine arts programs in dance, theater, music, and art, and its graduate programs in English, speech-language pathology, clinical psychology, and history. The university’s online Master of Business Administration and its online nursing programs are also highly ranked and respected by their respective industries. Rankings held by various programs at the university include a top ten rank by the “New York Times Book Review” for programs offered by the Center for Writers and a top ten rank by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for the programs offered by the School of Communications.
Subject areas within business that are available for study at the university include those in accounting, finance, management, and marketing. Options available in the humanities and education include degrees in kinesiology, nutrition, family sciences, psychology, education, and social work. Students interested in nursing and health can earn degrees in nursing, the hearing sciences, and a variety of health professions. Programs within the university’s large College of Arts and Sciences are available in the subjects of earth sciences, communication, computing sciences, construction, design, criminal justice, forensic science, and security. There are also degrees in the humanities, interdisciplinary studies, math, music, ocean science, engineering, the performing arts, polymer science, and the social sciences.
Students interested in online study at the University of Southern Mississippi can choose from many areas for undergraduate degrees including business, engineering, education, management, nursing, and special education. Graduate degrees are available in more than twenty areas and include subjects like music education, library and information science, kinesiology, human capital development, dyslexia therapy, and business administration. Students can also choose from six certificate programs like an Archives and Special Collections Graduate Certificate or a Casino Management Undergraduate Certificate. The university also has three executive format degrees in the areas of human capital development and public health.
About the University of Southern Mississippi
Located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the University of Southern Mississippi is a public college that was established in 1910 as Mississippi Normal College. The university is classified as a research university by the Carnegie Foundation, which means it can award doctorates, as well as degrees at the master’s, baccalaureate, and associate’s degree levels.
The mission of USM’s Center for Military Veterans, Service Members, and Families is to “establish sustainable conditions for a “military-friendly” education support program that provides veterans, service members (active duty, Reserve Component and National Guard), dependents (family members) and survivors (VSDS) the opportunity to pursue a degree at the University of Southern Mississippi.” USM is ranked 15th by Military Times in their Best for Vets: Colleges 2019 survey. Southern Miss is the only school in Mississippi to make the top ten0 in this survey.
The university has a second campus in Long Beach, which is known as the Gulf Park campus. The school’s teams play as the Golden Eagles but were originally known as the Mississippi Southerners before a name change in 1972. The school’s official colors are gold and black, and students participate in NCAA Division I games in the Conference USA group. Overall, there are more than 14,000 students attending classes at the university, which also has nearly 900 academic staff.
University of Southern Mississippi Accreditation Details
The regional accreditor for the University of Southern Mississippi is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which approves the university to award its degrees. The university also holds programmatic accreditations for several programs from accrediting agencies like the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Paralegals Approval Commission, and the American Chemical Society Committee on Professional Training. Other accrediting agencies that have approved programs at the university include the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education, and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Students can contact the program of their interest to inquire about the accreditation status of a program.
University of Southern Mississippi Application Requirements
Applications to the University of Southern Mississippi begin with the university’s official Application for Undergraduate Admission, which may be submitted online or via traditional mail. Applicants must also submit a non-refundable application fee of $40, their official high school transcripts, and their standardized test scores from the ACT and SAT. Students who are transfer applicants must submit all transcripts from classes taken at the collegiate level. To gain full admission to the university, students must complete the university’s recommended College Preparatory Curriculum (CPC) and reach a 3.2 high school GPA in those classes. Graduate admission usually requires additional application materials that vary with each program and include items like letters of recommendation, statements of purpose, and GRE or GMAT scores.
Tuition and Financial Aid
Tuition for residents of Mississippi at the University of Southern Mississippi is $4,109 per semester or $8,218 for the year for undergraduate study. Nonresident tuition includes an extra fee of $1,000 per semester for a total of $5,109 per semester or $10,218 for the year for tuition. Included in the tuition fee is a student activities fee of $20 per semester and a capital improvement fee of $35 per semester. One of the interesting features of tuition at the University of Southern Mississippi is that students can qualify for Academic Excellence Scholarships by attaining certain academic credentials. For example, students who earn a 30 or greater on the ACT and a minimum 3.0 on their core classes will receive a 100 percent scholarship on their tuition bill. Graduate tuition is $8,108 per year for residents and $11,108 for non-residents. Online undergraduate students will pay $359.59 per credit hour, and graduate students will pay $479.12 per credit hour.
The university shares that more than 80 percent of students who enroll receive some type of financial aid, which may come in the form of loans, grants, or scholarships from various sources. Students may qualify for traditional student loans through the federal government’s student loan program and must submit their FAFSA form to gain access to federally backed loans, Work Study awards, and federal grants. Students may also qualify for a variety of awards and scholarships like Alumni Association Scholarships, Golden Opportunity Scholarships, and a variety of international scholarships and National Competitive Awards. Depending on the academic program to which a student wishes to apply, he or she may be eligible for program-specific awards from the University of Southern Mississippi.
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