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Admission
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The Admissions Office has a very useful web page that you can reach by clicking on the following word: admissions. Many general
questions can be answered by studying the admissions and financial aid web pages.
However, members of the Criminal Justice faculty have been frequently asked the same specific questions at visitation days and in office conferences. Below are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
- I have a physical disability, a drug experimentation history, or an arrest. Can I still major in Criminal Justice?
Yes, you can. Whether you should is another matter. Because they understand the criminal process, Criminal Justice faculty members are sometimes sought out by students in legal scrapes. We always hope the question poser is not one of our majors. While the decision to stay within the major is solely the student's, such an event can be opportunity-killing and should at least be cause for consideration of seeking another major.
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Virtually all Criminal Justice graduates who seek public agency employment are subjected to rigorous background investigations, sometimes including polygraph examinations. Agencies vary considerably in their tolerance for past misdeeds. Although substance abuse is never a plus, a little high school experimentation with marijuana is sometimes tolerated. For some agencies, two speeding tickets are disqualifying on the theory that they indicate a general disrespect for the law. Generally, the longer the applicant has maintained a drug-free, arrest-free lifestyle, the better.
Physical agility standards, visual acuity, color perception, and weight/height ratios are quite variable and still, despite federal legislation protecting the disabled, not wholly rational. Most agencies demand that vision be correctable to 20/20. Standards for vision before correction are quite variable. Be prepared to face preferences for older applicants and veteran's credits—great if you are older or a veteran, a surmountable problem if you are not. Many agencies refuse to hire applicants older than their mid-thirties. For some agencies, any LASIK or other refractive surgery may be disqualifying; others mandate a waiting period to make sure that vision after surgery has stabilized.
- If I'm accepted at Kutztown, will I automatically be accepted as having a major in Criminal Justice?
No. Admission to the Criminal Justice Program is more competitive than admission to the University. This is important to understand. Some students who apply by January 1st of the year in which they plan August enrollment will be accepted into both the University and the Criminal Justice major by the end of January. Other students who apply later or whose SAT scores or class ranks are lower may be accepted by the University as "undeclared" students. Still other students may be wait-listed by the University. Be sure to ask at the time of your application whether the Criminal Justice Program has filled yet.
This is a consequence of a policy of "rolling admissions." Because we have more applicants than spaces in our program, we have to limit acceptances. This is further complicated by competitive internal transfers. "Undeclared" or students from other majors are eligible to declare Criminal Justice as a major once they have:
a. accumulated 30 credits of Kutztown courses,
b. completed Introduction to Criminal Justice or any other CRJ-prefixed course, and
c. an overall quality point average high enough to be allowed into the major but in all cases above 2.0 (where 2.0 = a straight C average).
Requirement (c) is a significant problem because it fluctuates from semester to semester. We allow in only the number of students for whom we have program space. For the past several semesters, this requirement has been in the vicinity of 2.3/4.0 to 2.4/4.0 GPA. We would like to serve all qualified applicants, but we can not. If you are accepted to Kutztown but not into the major, you should think seriously about applying to another institution where admission into the major may be guaranteed.
- I'm a junior in high school. What courses should I take to make my life easier as a Kutztown Criminal Justice major?
Take writing courses or courses that make you write. Whether you are a probation officer or an FBI agent, you must be able to write well. You will have much writing in your Criminal Justice courses at Kutztown. If you know how to write correctly and quickly, you'll be ahead of the game. A common theme that comes up every time we conduct our graduate surveys is that students often resented the writing load while they were here; however, once their careers were started, they wished that we had made them do even more writing.
Second, take as much foreign language as you can. For most Criminal Justice students, that means Spanish—but others are acceptable as long as you can take the intermediate courses at Kutztown (currently available are Spanish, German, and French) or "test out" at the intermediate level. Try to avoid paying college tuition for a competence you can acquire in high school.
- At community college I heard that I'll probably have to take five semesters at Kutztown to finish my bachelor's. Is that true?
This is sometimes true. But it doesn't have to be so. If you achieve an associate's degree from a Pennsylvania community college with which Kutztown has an "articulation agreement," every passed course transfers. BUT: be aware that all courses do not necessarily transfer as courses which meet our graduation requirements. While beginning your community college studies you need to carefully study articulation agreements and the degree requirements of both your community college and Kutztown. Much of this information is now on the Internet, but you should work with your community college counselor as you carefully select courses to maximize transferability.
One of the major barriers to four-semester graduation
has been Kutztown's "50% rule." Half (or more) of your major has
had to be taken at Kutztown. With Criminal Justice requiring 42 credits, you must take seven 3-credit Criminal Justice courses at KU. If more than seven Criminal Justice courses have been taken elsewhere, the excess
may not count toward KU graduation.
Many community colleges have criminal justice degree requirements that require between eight and ten criminal justice courses. This poses a problem. One solution is to leave community college prior to achieving the degree and then to transfer credits back from Kutztown for the courses needed to complete the associate's degree.
In general, take as many of the general education course requirements as possible at the community college and as many as possible of the Criminal Justice major requirements at Kutztown.
Finally, be aware that the transfer credit situation is changing rapidly in Pennsylvania as this is written (9/2006) and that you need to check frequently for changes in both University policies and general State System of Higher Education policies that may make it easier to fully use community college courses toward a B.S. degree.
Although it is still important to take no more major courses at
community colleges than absolutely necessary, we expect that
changes are in process that may reduce the impact of the "50%
rule."
- I want to be an FBI agent. Can Kutztown's Criminal Justice Program help me get in?
Actually, after an undergraduate criminal justice education, the FBI is not one of the common career paths. We are aware of only a few of our past students who are working for the Bureau. "The Profiler," "Millennium," Thomas Harris' "Silence of the Lambs," and books by profiler John Douglas and others have glamorized the FBI. According to a recent speech by John Douglas at Kutztown, there are only about 25-30 profilers working at any given time. You'd have a better chance of becoming an NBA superstar. For information on the current qualifications needed for becoming a Special Agent, go to the FBI employment page https://fbijobs.com/.
Don't be discouraged. There are at least 50 other kinds of federal investigators and for most of the non-FBI agencies a degree in criminal justice coupled with a minor in some relevant area (e.g. accounting, computer science, chemistry, or the foreign language of the ethnic group that is giving the agency the greatest trouble at the time of your graduation) makes more sense. Get out your crystal ball and predict whom the terrorists of a few years from now will be! Despite the intention of most entering freshmen to seek careers in law enforcement, our graduate surveys suggest that about one-third of our graduates are working in law enforcement, one-third in corrections—primarily community corrections—and one-third are working in non-justice system jobs. Approximately 20% have entered law school or graduate school within five years of graduation. Whether you seek employment or graduate education, Kutztown's Career Services department will assist you.
- Your program size cap and competitive admissions are discouraging. Where else can I apply?
We think that our program is one of the most coherent, best-organized in the country and that our reasonable class sizes and faculty quality are important advantages. At Kutztown you will NOT find assembly-line education.
Several other State System of Higher Education campuses have Criminal Justice programs as do a number of private colleges within the region. Instead of attending another four-year college, you might consider taking one or two years at a community college, then transferring to Kutztown.
If you explore alternatives to Kutztown, you would be well advised to assure
yourself that a real program exists at the institution you are considering, not just a collection of scattered courses that someone has called a major. Look for professors who teach ONLY criminal justice courses and who have advanced degrees in Criminal Justice or Criminology. If you find these in a program, it may be worth exploring further.
- Will I have to do a foreign language?
Yes. See General Education for details of the requirement.
Although university requirements are satisfied by "two semesters at the intermediate level," Criminal Justice majors are encouraged to take total immersion programs that typically result in better verbal skills than classroom instruction spread over a semester. Kutztown has collaborative programs with universities and language institutes in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Spain where students can study Spanish in a "Spanish-only" environment. These programs are quite reasonable in cost and we have received very favorable feedback from students who have been enrolled in them.
Spanish is the language most commonly chosen by Criminal Justice majors, but others are acceptable.
Federal agencies are, of course, looking for those with
competence in several Middle Eastern and Asian languages.
Although Kutztown does not offer these languages we have (or can
arrange) semester-abroad programs and summer programs that would
allow you to develop skills in these highly marketable
languages.
- Do Criminal Justice graduates go to law school? To grad school? How do they do?
Of 50 to 70 graduates per year, usually one to three immediately enter law school. However, by five years after graduation approximately 20 percent of Criminal Justice graduates have either obtained or are working on graduate degrees.
Past students have obtained doctoral degrees in counseling, sociology, and psychology as well as master's degrees in forensics, criminal justice, education, social work, human resource management, and public administration.
Faculty members are extremely supportive of qualified students going on for advanced studies and graduates tell us that they have found themselves better prepared for graduate work than the majority of their peers who graduated from other colleges.
What are current Criminal Justice majors saying about Kutztown? Click on
student comments for a selection.
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