Complete your bachelor’s degree while preparing for today’s fast-paced careers. Benedictine University’s bachelor’s in general professional studies features fully online, asynchronous courses that hone your skills in emotional intelligence, change management, relationship development, problem solving, decision making and more. As you complete your degree, you’ll build professional competencies that apply to nearly every career.
Discover Engaging, Fully Online Professional Studies Courses
In your online general professional studies degree, you’ll learn from videos, podcasts, personalized content and other interactive media. Each course in the degree completion program helps you develop targeted professional competencies. Then, your instructors will help you assemble a comprehensive portfolio showcasing resilience, adaptability and readiness to thrive.
Course Highlights
- GPS 3200 Sustainability and Citizenship
- GPS 3400 Cognitive Flexibility and Problem Solving
- GPS 4000 Emotional Intelligence, Collaboration and Success
- GPS 4100 Language and Culture: Navigating Differences
Boost Your Career Prospects and Salary Potential
The competencies you acquire during your online bachelor’s degree in general professional studies can transfer to diverse industries and fields, such as business, communications, education, government, health care and social services.
Your bachelor’s degree also leads to a higher salary potential. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, individuals with an associate degree made $1,058 per week in 2023, while those with a bachelor’s degree made $1,493.1
Potential Jobs for Professional Studies Graduates
- Health Education Specialist
- Human Resources Specialist
- News Analysts, Reporters and Journalists
- Project Management Specialist
- Public Relations Specialist
Admission Requirements
Benedictine University offers a simple, supportive admissions process for the online B.A. in General Professional Studies program. There is no application fee, and you can transfer your previously earned credits to earn your degree on a faster schedule. Eligible students can also receive credit for up to 12 semester hours for work/life experience.
The admission requirements include:
- Online Application Form: Apply now at no cost
- Degree and Minimum GPA: An associate degree is preferred but not required. A cumulative GPA of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale or better from all colleges and universities previously attended is required.
- Transcripts: Official transcripts from all previously attended colleges and universities.
- Transfer Credits: Students can transfer their previously earned credits to this online program.
- Credits transferred from other institutions are evaluated based on their equivalents at Benedictine University. Awarding of credit is determined through the process of transfer credit evaluation and program/departmental approval.
- Note that students transferring to Benedictine University’s undergraduate programs must have at least 12 transferable semester credit hours. If a student has fewer than 12 semester credit hours of transfer credit, freshman requirements apply.
- Credit for Work/Life Experience: Students can submit Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) portfolios for a maximum of 12 general elective semester credit hours.
- Students must complete all requirements of the PLA program within one year of starting their degree program.
- Only portfolios that demonstrate sufficient mastery of a course’s learning outcomes can earn credit.
What You’ll Learn
Because each professional studies course is structured around competencies, you’ll focus on building specific capabilities. You’ll be able to create tangible artifacts showing mastery of those competencies and collect them in a portfolio.
Program Outcomes
Benedictine’s online B.A. in General Professional Studies helps you achieve the following competencies for each course.
- GPS 3000: Prioritize resources to meet commitments. Anticipate and persist through difficult and complex situations.
- GPS 3100: Embrace change, manage multiple demands and adapt ideas or different approaches suitable to changing circumstances.
- GPS 3200: Assess the significance and the impact of decisions on individuals, communities and the natural world both now and into the future.
- GPS 3300 and GPS 3800: Distill large amounts of disparate and/or complex content into refined information and good design.
- GPS 3400: Evaluate and apply appropriate decision frameworks based on assessing the task at hand.
- GPS 3500: Seek relevant, credible background knowledge to support critical thinking and decision making.
- GPS 3600: Lead, cultivate and participate actively with diverse groups of people toward a shared goal. Communicate effectively and seek a variety of perspectives.
- GPS 3900: Read carefully, raise important questions, develop and take a position and hear and respect the positions of others.
- GPS 4000: Understand, examine and cultivate the feelings, attitudes and practices that enable individuals and teams to collaborate and flourish.
- GPS 4100: Focus on enriching the lives of individuals, building better organizations and promoting the common good in morally responsible ways.