President's Report Masthead
March 31, 2017

New Master of Arts in Applied Liberal Studies recruiting students for fall

With recent approval to offer a Master of Arts in Applied Liberal Studies (MAALS), Binghamton University is focused on recruiting its first cohort of 25 new graduate students to begin in the fall.

The three-semester master’s program is geared toward individuals with a liberal arts undergraduate degree, though others could also benefit, said Beau Brammer, the program’s administrative director. “It answers the question of ‘What am I supposed to do with my degree?’”

“The MAALS program is intended to take a student with a Binghamton University undergraduate degree who has a great deal of knowledge, skills and ability to think, and add to that an advanced level, finishing graduate program to prepare them to be successful in any number of professional careers,” said Susan Strehle, dean of the Graduate School where the program will be housed. Once the program is fully established, it will look beyond the Binghamton campus for students.

This is the first graduate program in the nation delivering applied liberal studies for traditional students at the graduate level, said Strehle. There are Master of Liberal Studies programs that let lifelong learners study what they missed the first time they attended college, but what makes Binghamton’s program unique, she said, is that “we didn’t find any other program that takes exceptional undergraduates and prepares them for a range of professional positions.”

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