Introducing Graduate Early Admission Pathways!
Now, an Otterbein education is worth even more.
Otterbein University is making history as a co-founder of a groundbreaking, new national coalition of universities known as The Coalition for the Common Good.
This national collaboration means Otterbein students have broadened opportunities to achieve more of their dreams. Now, your education, your experiences, and your options are even bigger and bolder than when you smartly applied to Otterbein.
One of the most exciting new benefits available to you as an Otterbein student is our Graduate Early Admission Pathway (GEAP).
The Graduate Early Admission Pathways give you the chance to get started on an Antioch University graduate degree while you’re finishing your Otterbein University undergraduate degree by taking three graduate courses (9 credits) during your senior year. These 9 credits will count towards both your undergraduate and your graduate degree.
Otterbein students will apply to the GEAP program by November 15 of their junior year to take the three graduate courses beginning the fall semester of their senior year.
Read on to learn more about the programs already available and how this Otterbein benefit will shorten the time and expense to completing a graduate degree.
Partner Campus Locations
Partner Campus Locations
Graduate Early Admission Pathways (GEAP)
Providing more students with access to the power of a graduate degree is an important part of Otterbein’s commitment to the Coalition for the Common Good. We know companies and communities alike will benefit from the knowledge and experience you’ll secure with an advanced degree. The following GEAP programs are currently available:
Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Never has the need been greater for skilled and compassionate counselors. If you’re interested in this critically important field, and want to make a difference, career and job opportunities are plentiful.
Antioch’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling master’s degree program trains students to work as counselors. Counselors support people’s behavioral and emotional function, serving a range of clients in diverse contexts including private practice, schools, and hospitals.
Antioch’s CACREP-accredited MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program accepts students from all undergraduate degrees looking to learn how to make a positive impact. Students majoring in Psychology will substitute the three Antioch CMHC courses for Otterbein courses in their major. Non-Psychology majors can count the CMHC courses as electives, and are encouraged to take PSYCH 1000 before beginning the CMHC GEAP.
This program prepares you to work as a professional counselor to promote mental health, well-being, and social justice for a diverse, multicultural and global community.
Art Therapy
If you are seeking the opportunity to make a difference while utilizing art therapy in a clinical setting, Antioch’s program is nationally distinguished in its training.
Art therapists work in private practice and/or in clinical, educational and rehabilitative settings such as hospitals and clinics, residential treatment centers, long-term care facilities, community centers, shelters, schools, and mental health and social service agencies.
The Art Therapy GEAP has several prerequisite requirements in both Art and Psychology. Students interested in this GEAP are encouraged to meet with their academic advisor during their first or second year to plan their coursework.
As an art therapist, you will be prepared to empower your therapy clients to express themselves verbally and through visual art to treat a multitude of developmental, emotional, psychological, and medical problems or disorders.
MBA/Management
An MBA is a critical credential for those looking to excel in the field of business. The industry expects professionals who are innovators and entrepreneurs, leaders who are problem-solvers and critical and creative thinkers, and effective communicators. If you know where you want to go, put your energy and passion to work here. Antioch’s MBA focuses on Leadership and Sustainability and includes a focus on what’s known as the triple bottom line: people, profits, and planet.
Your training in the Antioch MBA/Management GEAP also includes options to pursue a concentration that aligns with your career goals and passions. They include Leadership and Teams, Healthcare Leadership, Nonprofit Leadership, Sustainable Business, and a Self-Designed concentration.
Antioch offers you three distinctive graduate-level management programs. Each equips you with the business acumen, financial literacy, global perspective, marketing insights, analytical skills, critical thinking abilities, communication competencies, and leadership mindset you’ll need to effectively build successful, sustainable organizations and communities in the 21st century.
The Master of Business Administration (MBA) program grounds your business education in a triple bottom line approach highlighting the importance of people and planet, not just profit. The Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management program prepares you to design and evaluate impactful, mission-driven programming and to develop sustainable funding streams to deliver and grow them. The Master of Human Services Administration program incorporates a blend of management studies and social services courses to help you effectively lead, manage, evaluate and meaningfully interact with others in your organization and community.
All Antioch’s graduate management programs are taught by expert faculty who are practitioners in their field. Each of your professors shares a mission to empower you – whatever your undergraduate major may be — with the knowledge and skills you’ll need to contribute to building and leading organizations that enrich people, support the planet, and drive prosperous, sustainable economies while building a meaningful life and advancing social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Graduate Early Admission shorten my time and costs for a graduate degree?
If accepted into the graduate degree program of your choice, you will be able to take three graduate courses during your senior year at Otterbein.
Depending on the graduate program, and your undergraduate major, your courses also fulfill Otterbein undergraduate degree requirements:
- For related and/or specified majors, courses fulfill core major curriculum requirements.
- For non-related majors, courses can fulfill elective requirements.
Great news! Your Otterbein undergraduate tuition covers the cost of the graduate courses during your senior year. All merit and need-based aid can be applied to this opportunity. (Graduate coursework is always a higher rate per credit hour. This represents a significant savings for three courses worth of credit.)
Looking ahead! When you continue your program AFTER earning your bachelor’s degree, you will also be eligible for a 15% discount per credit hour because of your Otterbein alumni status.
When can I apply?
As an Otterbein student, you can apply for Graduate Early Admission Pathway Programs during the Junior Year of your undergraduate study. Applications are due by November 15 to start select graduate coursework during the fall of your Senior Year.
What does the application process entail?
All students will be asked to complete an Antioch University application for the graduate degree program they are applying for. On the Antioch application, Otterbein students will be able to note their status as a GEAP applicant. Please note that each academic program has specific additional application requirements. GEAP applicants will also be required to submit an additional form, completed by their advisor, that confirms academic qualifications and readiness for graduate study. A minimum 3.0 GPA is required.
Do I have to be a specific major as an undergraduate student to apply for the Graduate Early Admission Pathway Programs at Antioch?
The short answer is NO, GEAP programs are open to students of all majors. You do not have to have a certain major to be eligible to APPLY for any GEAP program.
Some GEAP programs may require certain pre-requisite courses to ensure you have some foundational knowledge for your studies. Requirements for the Art Therapy GEAP include an art portfolio and additional psychology coursework.
Additionally, your major will shape if the Graduate Early Admission Pathway courses are able to fulfill academic major core curriculum coursework or if they are able to be applied to your elective requirements.