Professional Licensure Disclosure

This program is designed to prepare students to sit for applicable licensure or certification in Ohio. If you plan to pursue licensure or certification in a state other than Ohio, please review state educational requirements for licensure or certification and contact information for state licensing boards at Kent State's website for professional licensure disclosure.

Admission Requirements

The university affirmatively strives to provide educational opportunities and access to students with varied backgrounds, those with special talents and adult students who graduated from high school three or more years ago.

Admission to this certificate is selective. Applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university
• Minimum 2.000 undergraduate GPA on a 4.000-point scale
• Official transcript(s)

International Students: All international students must provide proof of English language proficiency (unless they meet specific exceptions to waive) by earning a minimum 71 TOEFL iBT score, minimum 6.0 IELTS score, minimum 47 PTE score or minimum 100 DET score, or by completing the ELS level 112 Intensive English Program. For more information on international admission visit the admissions website for international students.

Program Requirements

Certificate Requirements

Graduation Requirements

• Delivery:
  • In person
• Location:
  • Kent Campus

The Paralegal Studies certificate is approved by the American Bar Association (ABA).

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of this program will be able to:

1. Bring together the different fields in which they have been working.
2. See the advantages of doing so.
3. Continue to pursue the knowledge they entered the program to acquire.

For more information about graduate admissions, visit the graduate admission website. For more information on international admissions, visit the international admission website.

Admission Requirements

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university
• Minimum 2.750 undergraduate GPA on a 4.000-point scale
• Official transcript(s)
• Goal statement
• Three letters of recommendation
• English language proficiency - all international students must provide proof of English language proficiency (unless they meet specific exceptions to waive) by earning one of the following:¹
  • Minimum 102 TOEFL iBT score
  • Minimum 7.5 IELTS score
  • Minimum 73 PTE score
  • Minimum 130 DET score

¹

International applicants who do not meet the above test scores will not be considered for admission.

Application Deadlines

• Fall Semester
  • Rolling admissions
• Spring Semester
  • Rolling admissions
• Summer Term
  • Rolling admissions

Program Requirements

Major Requirements

¹

Of the 27 credit hours of electives, students must select 12-15 credit hours of courses from a single department/school or program and 12-15 credit hours of courses from at least one other departments/schools or program. In addition to standard classroom courses, a maximum 3 credit hours of internship or practicum and 3 credit hours of research may be selected. Courses may be taken in any college in the university.

Graduation Requirements

• Some graduate courses may require prerequisites.
• Students will complete a program of study document in which they develop a theme (title) and choose coursework in the major and minor areas. In developing a program of study, students must adhere to several fundamental principles that the program of study must (1) emphasize interdisciplinary perspectives to learning and (2) be integrated.

• No more than one-half of a graduate student’s coursework may be taken in 50000-level courses.
• Grades below C are not counted toward completion of requirements for the degree.

• Delivery:
  • Fully online
  • In person
• Location:
  • Kent Campus

Program Requirements

Minor Requirements

Graduation Requirements

• Students may not select more than two courses from one subject area.
• Students must complete any prerequisites required for courses in this list.

• Minimum 6 credit hours in the minor must be upper-division coursework (30000 and 40000 level).
• Minimum 6 credit hours in the minor must be outside of the course requirements for any major or other minor the student is pursuing.
• Minimum 50 percent of the total credit hours for the minor must be taken at Kent State (in residence).

Admission Requirements

Admission to a minor is open to students declared in a bachelor’s degree, the A.A.B. or A.A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree (not Individualized Program major). Students declared only in the A.A. or A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree in Individualized Program may not declare a minor. Students may not pursue a minor and a major in the same discipline.

• Delivery:
  • In person
• Location:
  • Kent Campus

Full Description

The Women’s Studies minor offers both diversity and depth of coursework, ranging from feminist humor to feminism as serious theory and world-making practice. Students can immerse themselves in experiential learning via internships and applied work.

Through inventive classes, facilitated engagement in discussion and carefully crafted opportunities for guided independent work, the minor embraces a logic of study initiated from many start-points; grounded in cores of feminist thought, substance and practice; enriched by multiple disciplines and capped by challenge.

The minor's curriculum aims to satisfy students' desire for both a solid foundation in women's studies and a taste of the diverse, complex and often contentious field. The minor's aim is to deliver coursework that speaks to students' very specific scholarly interests as well as to their passions and persuasions, both personal and political.

Admission Requirements

Admission to a minor is open to students declared in a bachelor’s degree, the A.A.B. or A.A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree (not Individualized Program major). Students declared only in the A.A. or A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree in Individualized Program may not declare a minor. Students may not pursue a minor and a major in the same discipline.

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of this program will be able to:

1. Acquire and employ new lenses of study into subjects and experiences and very names of "woman" or "women" in contexts wherein such a designation matters.
2. Employ new approaches to knowledge, new strategies of engagement with "others" as well as peers, new methods of research, new approaches to critical analysis and appraisal and new forms of praxis.
3. Converse — and become conversant — with multiple feminisms; divergent purposes; and the positions and directions of variant studies, histories and commentaries through aptly selected/combined lenses and filters born of women's studies traditions.
4. Interrogate and be able to continually interrogate the expansive lexicon of sexed- and gendered-terms to which "woman" as a question and "man" as a given gave rise.
5. Deepen, expand and invigorate the "thought and theory" that inform the several key fields that continue to inform, challenge and shape the unstaid, unstill universe of women's studies (e.g., sex, gender, feminism, intersectionality, identity politics, sisterhood, womanism).
6. Understand and build skills to engage in both feminist perspective-taking and actual praxis: the techniques and tools of navigating difference, seeking transversals, meeting demands of fieldwork and attaining goals.

Program Requirements

Minor Requirements

Graduation Requirements

• Minimum 6 credit hours in the minor must be upper-division coursework (30000 and 40000 level).
• Minimum 6 credit hours in the minor must be outside of the course requirements for any major or other minor the student is pursuing.
• Minimum 50 percent of the total credit hours for the minor must be taken at Kent State (in residence).

• Delivery:
  • Fully online
  • In person
• Location:
  • Kent Campus
  • Stark Campus

Program Requirements

Minor Requirements

¹

Students may petition to substitute a relevant course in some discipline other than Africana studies, anthropology or geography for one of the designated electives.

Graduation Requirements

• Minimum 6 credit hours in the minor must be upper-division coursework (30000 and 40000 level).
• Minimum 6 credit hours in the minor must be outside of the course requirements for any major or other minor the student is pursuing.
• Minimum 50 percent of the total credit hours for the minor must be taken at Kent State (in residence).

Admission Requirements

Admission to a minor is open to students declared in a bachelor’s degree, the A.A.B. or A.A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree (not Individualized Program major). Students declared only in the A.A. or A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree in Individualized Program may not declare a minor. Students may not pursue a minor and a major in the same discipline.

• Delivery:
  • In person
• Location:
  • Kent Campus

Program Requirements

Minor Requirements

Graduation Requirements

• Minimum 6 credit hours in the minor must be upper-division coursework (30000 and 40000 level).
• Minimum 6 credit hours in the minor must be outside of the course requirements for any major or other minor the student is pursuing.
• Minimum 50 percent of the total credit hours for the minor must be taken at Kent State (in residence).

Admission Requirements

Admission to a minor is open to students declared in a bachelor’s degree, the A.A.B. or A.A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree (not Individualized Program major). Students declared only in the A.A. or A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree in Individualized Program may not declare a minor. Students may not pursue a minor and a major in the same discipline.

• Delivery:
  • In person
• Location:
  • Kent Campus