Stanford
Student Services

Coterm Program Changes

Adding or Changing Master’s Degree Programs

If you want to change from one master’s degree to another before the conferral of your bachelor’s degree, you must first meet with the Coterminal Advisor in Academic Advising to discuss next steps and ensure your programs can be changed.

All courses, including any prior course transfer from the undergraduate career, remain in the graduate career. The new degree program may choose not to approve all courses towards the new master’s degree program requirements. If your bachelor's degree has not yet been conferred, you may elect to transfer courses back to your undergraduate career. 

Making changes with an active undergraduate degree

If, as a coterminal student, you want to change from one master’s degree program to another before the conferral of your undergraduate degree, you may do so by taking the following steps: 

  1. Contact a coterm advisor in Academic Advising to discuss plans for your coterm program change. 
  2. Apply to the new coterm program. (Refer to the Coterm Admissions for additional information.) You should secure admission to the new program before proceeding with the change.
    • ​If admitted, you should review your transcript. You should transfer any courses that are assigned to your graduate career from the previous program that are no longer applicable to the new coterm program via the Coterm Course Transfer process.
  3. Submit an approved Permanent Withdraw from a Degree Program eForm.
    • After the eForm has been submitted, please email degreeprogress@stanford.edu to inform them of the intent to switch and provide the eForm submission number. 

 

Please be aware of the following when considering switching coterm programs:

  • All programs that you discontinue appear on your transcript in a “Discontinued” status. 
  • Under no circumstances can you be active in multiple (more than one) coterm programs at a time while the undergraduate degree is open.

Making changes with a conferred undergraduate degree

Once your coterm's undergraduate degree is conferred, you can request graduate program changes (including switching from one master's degree program to another and/or adding another graduate degree, such as a Ph.D.) via the Graduate Program Authorization Petition process.