Colorado Technical University

Do you need to get a masters degree before you can get a doctoral degree?

I was looking at information for a forensic psychology degree for a college. It said you can apply for both doctoral program and the masters program at the same time. Doctoral you get a PhD, the masters you get a MA. i'm not sure if i need to get a masters first or if i can choose to get a PhD and skip the MA. Does anyone know?

Public Comments

1. Always a master before a Phd
2. The way that works is you'll spend the first two years taking graduate classes and writing a thesis regardless of which program you go for. After you finish, you would graduate (masters program) or in the case of the doctoral program the masters is just given to you as an intermediary degree (this allows you to be a full lecturer instead of just a teaching assistant) The doctoral program student would then continue the next 2-3 years concentrating on their dissertation and comprehensive exams.