A Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice is generally a "four year" degree. That is, you average five classes per semester in each Fall and Spring and at the end of four years you have the 120 hours it takes to graduate. Follow the math: five three credit courses = 15 credits. Earning 15 credits per semester means Fall = 15 + Spring = 15 which is 30 for your first year. You are now no longer a "freshman." If you take five 3 credit courses for the Fall and Spring of your sophomore year, you then have 60 credits which makes you a "Junior." Then 30 more your "Junior" year, 30 more as a "Senior" and you graduate! Few people do it quite so neatly. If, for example, your have some notoriously hard courses to take, your might register four only four in a semester. This is a "light" normal load. Under normal circumstances you should take 15 credits (5 courses). If you are doing well and finding that you have time on your hands, you can take six courses and it is still counted as a heavy, but "normal" load. If your overall GPA is less than 2.00, your should take only four classes per semester.

When you declare yourself to be a Criminal Justice major, your will be assigned one of four full time criminologists as your academic advisor. They all have voice mail, email, and standard officer hours that are posted on their office doors in Crawford Hall and can be found on the Campus Directory. As a University Professor, your academic advisor has a number of other professional responsibilities that take him/her away from campus from time to time. It is always best to make an appointment by email or voice mail rather than just popping by in hopes that they might be sitting in their office. However, should you need to talk to an academic advisor and are having difficulty contacting the one you were assigned, all of the full time Criminologists here can help you and you can almost always contact one.

Your academic advisor can help you choose your program of study, as well as counsel you on careers and academic matters. You academic advisor is not a financial aid counselor (they can be found in our Financial Aid Office) nor are they psychological counselors (they can be found in the Student Affairs Office). You academic advisorÌ-s main role is to make sure you register for the classes you need to graduate. However, once you have earned more than 30 credits towards your degree, you may register yourself (as well as drop/add specific courses) on the computerized registration system - eLion. The University Catalog specifies exactly what you need to graduate and you should ask your academic advisor if you are unsure about a particular course.

The criminal justice curriculum has been designed to be flexible. This was done so that you can choose the courses that your find most useful, interesting, or appropriate for your career goals. You must take five of the following course, but the specific choices are yours. The CRM 300 Special Topics courses cover a variety of new and specialized issues related to the profession. The topics change over time, but examples are: Serial Homicide, Advanced Forensic Techniques, Interview and Interrogation, and Critical Incidents in Policing.

CRM 300 Special Topics in Criminal Justice

CRM 225 Criminal Investigations

SSC/SOC 328 Drugs and Society

CRM 330 Organized Crime

CRM 331 White Collar Crime

PSY 330 Forensic Psychology

CRM 322 Terrorism

CRM 333 Violent Crime

CRM 419 Police Organization and Administration

CRM 422 Law Enforcement Systems

CRM 430 Correctional Systems

At present we have various criminal investigation courses that cover basic forensic techniques and are now offering forensics courses as special topics. We will soon offer a Forensics Concentration as part of the B.A. in Criminal Justice program.