Ãå±±½ûµØ

Complete your bachelor’s and master’s in one accelerated pathway

East Bay FAST (Falcon Accelerated Success Track) programs join a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree into one pathway. You finish the bachelor’s in four years and, in most programs, the master’s one year later, taking graduate and undergraduate courses together in your fourth year. Other universities call programs like these 4+1, accelerated, or blended programs.

• You apply through Cal State Apply once, for the bachelor’s. You don’t file a separate Cal State Apply application for the master’s.
• You take graduate courses while you’re still an undergraduate.
• Up to 12 units count toward both degrees.

You earn the same bachelor’s and master’s as students who complete the degrees one after the other. Your transcript shows the two degrees and doesn’t mention FAST. Once admitted, you’re a FAST Scholar.

Eligibility

Every student enters East Bay in an undergraduate program, as a first-year or a transfer student, and applies to a FAST program later. To apply, you need:

• at least 60 and no more than 90 program-applicable units at the time of admission;
• all lower-division general education and all lower-division major courses completed before you apply;
• a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5 at the time of admission.

Program-applicable units are the units that count toward your major, general education, and university requirements. Your FAST program advisor calculates them with you before you apply. Once you’ve reached your first semester as a senior (90 program-applicable units), you’re no longer eligible to enter a FAST program.

These are the university minimums. Many programs set higher GPAs or other admission standards, and admission follows the standards each program has approved. Programs don’t grant exceptions or conditional admission, so check your program’s requirements with your FAST program advisor before you apply.

How to apply

1. Meet with the FAST program advisor for your program to confirm your eligibility and learn the program’s requirements. Contacts are on the graduate program coordinators page.
2. By the end of the seventh week of the semester, submit your program’s departmental interest form, if it uses one, or meet with your FAST program advisor to say you’re interested.
3. Your FAST program advisor reviews your record and submits the FAST application form for you by the end of the ninth week.
4. You, your FAST program advisor, and a representative of the department offering the undergraduate degree approve the application, along with International Programs if you’re an international student.
5. The Office of the Registrar moves you onto the FAST academic plan for your major. Admission takes effect as soon as the application is approved, the same way a change of concentration does.

Applications are accepted in the Fall and Spring semesters only, from the first day of the semester. Registration for the next semester opens in the tenth or eleventh week, and you register for it as a FAST Scholar.

Moving into a FAST program can clear course substitutions and exceptions approved in your previous program, as with any change of major. Review your degree audit report (DAR) with your FAST program advisor in your first FAST semester, and your advisor re-enters anything missing.

International students

If you’re on an F-1 visa, contact the Center for International Education (CIE) before you apply.

• When you move to graduate status, CIE issues a new I-20 for your change of educational level, and your minimum enrollment changes from 12 units to 8. Graduate Admissions notifies you, your advisor, and CIE once you’re accepted into graduate status for the following semester. You then contact CIE to have the I-20 changed before that semester begins.
• Curricular Practical Training (CPT) is available at the undergraduate level after you meet the one-year F-1 status requirement. At the graduate level, it’s available from your first semester in graduate status if your program requires an internship course and you meet the other immigration requirements.
• You can apply for Pre-Completion Optional Practical Training (OPT) while completing the bachelor’s, followed by Post-Completion OPT after completing the master’s.

Meet with an F-1 advisor at CIE for the details of each.

Tuition and financial aid

You pay the undergraduate State University Tuition Fee while you have fewer than 120 program-applicable units. Once you move to graduate status, you pay the graduate fee, even if your bachelor’s hasn’t been conferred yet, and summer courses are charged at the graduate rate too. Current estimates of the cost of attendance can be found on the Tuition and Fees page.

Contact the Office of Financial Aid about how the change to graduate status affects your aid.

• Complete the FAFSA or the California Dream Act Application every year with your current status, undergraduate or graduate. Funding allowances are different in graduate status.
• As an undergraduate, you enroll in 12 units to be full-time, even if some are graduate courses. As a graduate student, you enroll in 8 units to be full-time, even if some are undergraduate courses.
• If you move to graduate status during the academic year, ask the Office of Financial Aid whether adjustment paperwork applies.

Once you’re in graduate status, you’re eligible for Graduate Equity Fellowships. Contact the Office of Graduate Studies for details.

Moving to graduate status

You move to graduate status in the semester after you complete 120 program-applicable units. Once you’re in FAST, that count includes your graduate course units. The Office of the Registrar makes the change, and you don’t file a second application. CSU policy requires the move in the semester after you reach 120 program-applicable units.

Before you move, you complete every university-wide undergraduate requirement: upper-division general education, the overlays, the Code requirement, and the University Writing Requirement. If you reach 120 program-applicable units with any of these outstanding, your FAST program advisor notifies you. If they’re still incomplete at the end of the following semester, you’re removed from FAST and complete the standalone bachelor’s. You can then apply to the standalone master’s program through the regular graduate admissions process. With the graduate program’s approval, up to 12 units of graduate courses you completed in FAST can count toward that master’s. Courses more than five years old need validation by both the program and the Director of Graduate Studies or designee.

Your move to graduate status waits if:

• you drop or don’t pass courses and fall short of 120 program-applicable units;
• transfer courses you’re counting toward the 120 haven’t been received and recorded by East Bay.

Tell your FAST program advisor if you have to drop a course or aren’t passing one.

The move to graduate status and the bachelor’s degree are independent. You can move to graduate status before your bachelor’s is conferred, and the bachelor’s is conferred when you finish its requirements. If you complete the bachelor’s before reaching 120 program-applicable units, you stay in undergraduate status until you reach them.

Your DAR shows your undergraduate requirements while you’re an undergraduate and your graduate requirements after the move. When you move to graduate status, you lose undergraduate registration priority.

Academic standing

As a FAST Scholar, you maintain good academic standing under the University Catalog and meet with your FAST program advisor every semester to review your progress.

In undergraduate status, you’re removed from FAST and return to the undergraduate program alone if:

• your cumulative GPA falls below 2.5;
• your GPA in upper-division and graduate courses falls below 3.0;
• you fall below a higher GPA your program requires;
• you’re on academic or administrative alert in the semester before you complete 120 program-applicable units, and your bachelor’s hasn’t been conferred.

Removal can’t be appealed. After removal, you can apply to the master’s once you complete the bachelor’s, and you’re no longer eligible for any FAST program.

In graduate status, if you’re placed on alert for falling below the graduate minimum GPA of 3.0 or for other standards, you clear it under the same policies that apply to your department’s graduate program.

Leaving a FAST program

You can leave a FAST program and complete only the bachelor’s. To return to the standalone undergraduate program, file a Change of Major, Minor, or Concentration form, and work out a plan for your remaining undergraduate requirements with your advisor. Graduate course credit you use to complete the bachelor’s can’t also count toward the master’s units.

If you leave in good standing after moving to graduate status, up to 12 units of graduate courses completed in FAST can count toward the master’s with the graduate program’s approval. Courses more than five years old need validation by both the program and the Director of Graduate Studies or designee.

Courses and grades

FAST degree roadmaps place undergraduate and graduate courses in the same semesters. Your plan also ends with at least one semester of 8 or more units of graduate courses only, after the bachelor’s is awarded. In graduate status, you can continue to take upper-division undergraduate courses.

In your final undergraduate semester, you can take graduate courses beyond your program’s double-counted courses with a Petition for Graduate Credit, on the Student Records Forms page. Those courses can’t count toward the bachelor’s.

Graduate courses require a grade of C or better, and some graduate programs require B- or better in all coursework applied toward the degree. If you earn a C- that counts in a course required for your undergraduate major, your FAST program advisor can request a grade exception, if your program accepts one.

While in a FAST program, you can’t pursue a minor unless it’s approved by exception. A double major (two undergraduate degrees) is possible; contact the Office of Graduate Studies first. If the bachelor’s in your FAST program is the B.S. in Business Administration, you can pursue only the concentration your FAST program names.

Graduation and catalog rights

You apply to graduate separately for each degree.

• Apply for the bachelor’s once you’ve completed 90 or more undergraduate units. If you haven’t applied by 100 units, the Office of the Registrar applies for you.
• Apply for the master’s in MyCSUEB the semester before you expect to finish. You’re eligible to apply from your first term in graduate status.

Graduation application deadlines and instructions are on the Office of the Registrar’s Graduation page.

For your master’s requirements, you can follow the catalog year in which you were accepted into FAST, the catalog year in which your graduate status began, or the catalog year in which you graduate with the master’s.

Advising

Each FAST program names a FAST program advisor, usually the graduate program coordinator for the master’s portion. Your FAST program advisor confirms your eligibility, submits your application, and meets with you at least once every semester about your undergraduate and graduate requirements, including general education. Where the bachelor’s and master’s sit in different departments, other faculty or staff may advise you on the undergraduate side as well.

The Office of Graduate Studies supports FAST program advisors and promotes FAST programs to undergraduates considering graduate study. The Office of the Registrar tracks your move to graduate status and notifies your FAST program advisor.

For faculty and departments

FAST programs follow CSU Coded Memorandum and CIC policy , Blended Programs (Bachelor’s + Master’s). Programs change their admission standards through Curriculog. A change to the undergraduate or graduate program in a FAST program goes in Curriculog as a program revision proposal, marked as affecting the FAST program and submitted with an updated roadmap. A change to the double-counted courses alone goes in as a program revision proposal for the graduate portion, describing the change and submitted with a new roadmap. Departments update their FAST program advisor listing every academic year.

Programs

Not every department offers a FAST program. The complete list is in the University Catalog. Descriptions of active FAST programs, those with currently enrolled FAST Scholars, list the course requirements for both the bachelor’s and master’s portions. Descriptions for the 25–26 and 26–27 catalog years are linked below, and from 27–28 on they’re in the catalog. Degree roadmaps show which courses to take each semester across both degrees.

Information sessions

The Office of Graduate Studies holds information sessions for interested students. Slides from the most recent session are available, and recordings follow.

• Presentation Slides, Fall 2026

Upcoming sessions appear on the graduate events page.