About the Degree

Do you want a degree that allows you flexibility and choice?

Do you want to focus on building the credentials you need for a professional resume?

You sound like a Professional Studies student. 

Professional Studies is a practical degree designed by faculty in partnership with employers to help you stand apart in a competitive job market. Instead of focusing on a particular field or discipline, Professional Studies takes an interdisciplinary approach with classes from Communication, Writing, Humanities, Social Sciences, Art/Design, and more.  In addition, you’ll earn marketable certificates in areas such as Leadership, AI and Technology, and Global Collaboration. The degree is focused on real-world experience with an Experiential Learning requirement to give you options for internships and employer mentorship while you’re still in college.  

The Professional Studies Major is available on both of our New Jersey campuses.  

Convert your talent into marketability.

Skill-Based and Resume-Ready

You’ll gain practical knowledge, experience and skills through a degree that focuses on:

  • Hands-on projects
  • Professional internships
  • Mentorship and networking
  • Multiyear portfolio that highlights your accomplishments

Flexibility

We built this degree with flexibility and customizability in mind—which is ideal for transferring in credits, selecting a second major, or minor.

Built-in Certificates

Earn marketable certificates as part of your degree. Certificates are offered in areas such as Leadership, AI and Technology, and Global Collaboration.

They’re built into your studies and LinkedIn-ready as soon as you earn them. They’ll be on your official transcript when you graduate, too!

Employer-Informed Curriculum

This degree was created with input and collaboration from regional and national employers from a range of industries, so you’ll have the skills employers value most: the ability to communicate, problem solve, adapt, lead, and collaborate as a member of a team.

We also have a dedicated Professional Studies Employer Advisory Council, which includes a wide variety of industry professionals. The Employer Advisory Council will provide real-world feedback to keep this degree aligned with industry needs and will also help open doors to internships and apprenticeships for students.

Degree Overview

As a Professional Studies student, you’ll work with faculty and dedicated advisors to personalize a plan of study that connects to real-world careers. Your degree will include a minimum of 27-31 credits in the following six key areas in addition to the required General Education requirements (42 credits), and ample room for adding a second major, minor, or transfer credits (47-51 credits):

  • Oral Communication/ Public Speaking (6 credits)
  • Professional Writing (3 credits)
  • Inquiry and Analysis (6 credits)
  • Quantitative Reasoning (3 credits)
  • Leadership, Ethics, and Cultural Competency (3 credits)
  • Experiential Learning – that includes internships, apprenticeships, and community-based learning! (6-10 credits)

As you take classes in these six areas, you can choose courses that also count toward earning those built-in, resume-ready certificates along the way.

Upon completion of the Professional Studies major, you will be able to:

  • Evaluate information from multiple sources to support evidence-based decision-making in the workplace.
  • Synthesize information using quantitative research and analysis methods and techniques.
  • Explain how identity, values, and diversity shape human experience.
  • Communicate in written and multimedia modes as appropriate to professional contexts and audiences.
  • Communicate orally as appropriate to professional contexts and audiences.
  • Apply ethical frameworks to analyze and resolve problems in the workplace.

About the Degree

The Bachelor’s in Professional Studies degree is designed for students seeking to build their professional “tool-kit” by developing widely applicable skills in critical and ethical thinking, written and oral communication, business and collaboration, Artificial Intelligence, and quantitative analysis. The degree helps students build critical skills that are consistently named as top competencies by employers in the United States and recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as crucial for employability training.

Degree designed for:

  1. Incoming, first-time full-time students
  2. Students transferring in from 2- or 4- year institutions
  3. Current students changing their major

Degree Plan

General Education Requirements (42 credits)

All students are required to complete the General Education Requirements in fulfillment of their Bachelor degree requirements

Oral Communication / Public Speaking (6 credits)

Select from:

Professional Writing (3 credits)

Select from:

Inquiry and Analysis (6 credits)

Select from:

Quantitative Reasoning (3 credits)

Select from:

Leadership, Ethics, and Cultural Competency (3 credits)

Select from:

Experiential Learning (6-10 credits)

Select from:

  • Apprenticeship (1 at 4000 level)
  • APEX 3943 FDU Global Career Accelerator OR Internship (1 at 2000- or 3000- level)
  • CGD_2218 / FILM_2218 / COMM_2218 – Content Creation for New Media
  • Community-based learning (1 at 1000-level)
  • MGMT_3620 – Leadership/Personal Development
  • Multi-year Portfolio (with reflection on NACE competencies and building professional network)
  • OLSN_4001 – Senior Project in Artificial Intelligence

Free electives (47-51 credits)

Contact Information
Stacie Lents, Professor of Theater and Communication
Lents@fdu.edu
Director, Professional Studies