Central to this program is that a qualified student may take up to nine hours of approved graduate courses for their senior undergraduate electives and have them count toward both the BS degree and the MS degree. Students will be considered for conditional admission to the program during, or immediately following, their junior year of undergraduate study at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Because the MS program requires that students write a thesis based on their original research, students in the BS/MS program must start working on their research project no later than immediately following the junior year of undergraduate studies. For each student in the program, a graduate advisory committee composed of a minimum of three faculty members must be established before completion of the BS degree.???

To be considered for conditional admission to the program:

• A student must be a declared Food Science major with a minimum GPA of 3.4, must have completed at least 15 hours of credit in Food Science, and must have completed at least 90 hours of the 120 hours of coursework required for the BS degree with a major in Food Science.
• A student must provide three letters of recommendation and complete a personal interview with individuals comprising the Graduate and Undergraduate Committees in the Department of Food Science.?
• A student must obtain a commitment from a Food Science graduate research faculty member to serve as his/her graduate mentor-advisor (i.e., major professor) and at least two other graduate research faculty members to serve on his/her graduate advisory committee.

Applicants are required to have completed?FDSC 241 - Food Preservation and Packaging. The Department may consider other relevant factors such as an applicant's work experience and level of maturity before conditionally admitting a student to the BS/MS program. Conditional admission of a student into the Five-Year BS/MS program must be approved by both the Department of Food Science and the Graduate School. Students will be typically informed of the outcome of their application before the beginning of their senior year of undergraduate study.