Degrees & Majors

What Is Criminal Justice?

Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, sanctioning those who violate laws and delivering penalties and/or rehabilitation efforts.

Why Study Criminal Justice?

Criminal justice courses offer a balanced introduction to the three facets of the criminal justice system: policing, courts and corrections. Students gain insight into criminal courts, security, police and corrections operations. They identify the legal, social and technological challenges in the criminal justice field. The study of criminal justice often serves as an introduction for students planning to attend law school.

A note on pathways: A pathway is an advising guide to help students prepare for their intended bachelor’s degree major. By following the course of study outlined in the appropriate Associate of Arts or Associate of Science pathway, students will have the necessary prerequisite courses to continue in their chosen disciplines. A pathway is not a major and will not be represented on the diploma.

Crime and criminal justice are at the forefront of national policy and practice. The increasing emphasis on professional preparation in criminal justice careers places additional academic demands on the in-service professional. To meet this need, Georgia State’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology offers a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree in criminal justice, as well as a Doctor of Philosophy degree in criminal justice and criminology.

The Big Data and Machine Learning (BDML) concentration of the Master of Science in Data Science and Analytics is a three-semester program designed to train professionals in the rapidly growing field of data science. Data science lies at the intersection of computer science, statistical methodologies, and a wide range of application domains. It focuses on the generation, processing, and analyzing of vast amounts of data.

The BDML concentration responds to the growing need for highly qualified professionals who can transform big data into practical and valuable insights. In general terms, data scientists create actionable and valuable insights from data. Students in this program will gain the technical and soft skills that industry increasingly expects from data scientists. The concentration targets employment for students in industries related to the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, health and remote‐sensing data, as well as top research and development (R&D) labs.

The BDML concentration offers strong preparation in statistical analysis, machine learning, information retrieval, and the management and analysis of massive data sets. The courses in the concentration focus on topics such as reproducible data analysis, collaborative problem solving, data and knowledge visualization and communication, as well as privacy and ethical issues that arise in data science.

What is Dental Hygiene?

Dental Hygiene encompasses the relationship between oral health care and total body health. Providing individualized oral hygiene care requires knowledge in the application of principles of biomedical, clinical and social sciences. The profession demonstrates ethical principles of health care, appropriate communication skills and critical thinking skills while delivering consistent, safe clinical treatment to patients, families, groups and communities in a variety of health care settings.

Accredited by the American Dental Association, the Perimeter College Dental Hygiene guided pathway is a two-year, five-semester course of study that begins each fall. Graduates who earn an associate degree are eligible to join a preventive oral health profession that promotes quality health and education in a variety of practice settings.

Why Study Dental Hygiene?

A dental hygienist has the opportunity to influence a patient’s overall health by providing knowledgeable oral hygiene treatment. The profession requires an interest in science and health care and, equally important, a desire to work with and help people.

Perimeter College’s Dental Hygiene guided pathway is approved by the Georgia Board of Dentistry and accredited by the American Dental Association. The pathway offers a dynamic and licensed faculty, advanced training in dental technology equipment, service learning opportunities and the potential for advanced degree transfer.

Admission to the Dental Hygiene Program

This program requires special admission. The Dental Hygiene sequence of professional courses starts only in the fall semester, and enrollment is limited. Official notification of acceptance to the program is confirmed by the Department of Dental Hygiene. Admission requirements include the following:

• Acceptance to Perimeter College of Georgia State University
• Satisfaction of all Learning Support requirements
• Additional requirements as defined by the Department of Dental Hygiene

Applicants should visit the Dental Hygiene website for additional information.

Launching in fall 2022, the new Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Digital Filmmaking program and its Filmmaking concentration leverage the rich curriculum of the School of Film, Media & Theatre to create an ethically sustainable and socially engaged future for film and media production. The program cultivates diverse perspectives in an active and demanding learning environment within Atlanta’s vibrant cultural and historical traditions.

The Filmmaking concentration prepares candidates to produce documentary, fiction, experimental, community-based and advocacy media, and 16mm and 35mm filmmaking through a combination of rigorous practice, collaboration and study. The program shapes candidates into well-rounded and skilled individuals with a thorough knowledge of film and media production and may contribute to the ongoing social justice work while developing distinctive styles of visual expression attractive to industry, artistic and activist communities.

Georgia State has been teaching film production at the graduate level for over 25 years, making it the longest-running graduate film school in Georgia.

Students in the Filmmaking concentration will:

• Gain a thorough grounding in the strategies, complexities and varieties of contemporary filmmaking and creative mediamaking.
• Be exposed to new storytelling perspectives to challenge traditional filmmaking structures and realize alternative possibilities to represent the human experience and condition.
• Engage in mentorship with award-winning and internationally recognized faculty filmmakers.
• Become adept in a diverse and expressive range of approaches to do work that synergizes arts-based and industrial practices.
• Partner with critical studies and scholarship in the School of Film, Media & Theatre, including the internationally renowned research group liquid blackness
• Leverage creative opportunities with other arts disciplines across the College of the Arts, including theatre, music, visual arts and design.
• Discover and hone an artistic voice through courses in directing, producing, screenwriting, cinematography, editing, sound design, documentary and experimental media in preparation for each candidate’s thesis project.
• Explore filmmaking in multicultural Atlanta, the third-largest media capital in America in the heart of Georgia’s booming film and television industries. This unique environment provides filmmakers with access and experience to navigate the demands of a fast-changing and competitive film industry.
• Engage in rigorous, hands-on learning and professional training and develop a rich understanding of cinema and media history, theory and aesthetics while anticipating and developing future media practices.
• Gain practical teaching experience through funded teaching assistantships that prepare candidates for a career in education. The M.F.A. degree is a terminal degree required for most college/university teaching positions in film/media production.
• Acquire industry experience through Georgia Film Academy and Trilith Studios (formerly Pinewood Studios) for specialized technologies and crafts such as post-production, lighting and art direction, etc.

The M.F.A. in Digital Filmmaking offers two concentrations. The Filmmaking concentration is administered through the School of Film, Media & Theatre. The Visual Effects & Virtual Production concentration is offered through the Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII). Applicants applying for the Visual Effects & Virtual Production concentration should visit CMII.

For those called to seek the highest level of clinical nursing practice, the Georgia State doctor of nursing practice (D.N.P.) hybrid program is your solution. You will finish the program ready to lead others to implement cost-effective practices that also improve outcomes.

One hundred percent of our D.N.P. students work full-time, and still, they are preparing for work in:

• healthcare administration;
• professional nursing organizations;
• higher education; and
• many practice settings throughout Georgia.

You will move through the program as a cohort of colleagues, allowing you to network with industry leaders and build relationships that last well beyond graduation.

*The hybrid program combines online (web-facilitated) classes with a limited number of on-campus sessions. Students attend on-campus sessions (also known as intensives) one day at the beginning of each fall and spring semester. The web-facilitated classes are a combination of real-time and on-demand courses.

Is a Ph.D. or D.N.P. degree right for me?

The Drawing and Painting concentration hosts diverse media-specific and conceptually focused classes, dedicated classroom studios and a project/critique space. A stylistically diverse faculty offers courses in specific media and material content—oil-based, water-based, life drawing, digital possibilities—as well as concept-driven courses such as “Figure as Content,” “Sound and Radio,” “Anthropocene Studies,” “Research Methodologies,” “Maps and Messages,” “Science + Art” and more. Philosophically, the faculty engender a range of visual expression, media experimentation, social practice and conceptual art—all grounded in traditional technical training.

Faculty areas of expertise include classical drawing, mixed-media, collage, video, sound, animation, trompe l’oeil /ultra realist and abstract painting, sculpture and installation. A range of international travel programs have been hosted by area faculty and student internships are supported by faculty.

The Printmaking curriculum introduces students to cross-disciplinary modes of working while enhancing their understanding of foundational principles of design and the importance and beauty of method, process, discipline, repetition and perseverance.

Emphasis is placed on mastering the elements of mark-making while encouraging variation and risk-taking with the tools at hand. Stressing the notion of drawing and the formal elements of process and design as a language, the faculty encourage students to broaden their vocabulary and fluency in the medium, honing and translating their perceptions of a tangible world into legible and poetic works. Students look at the history of art and the tradition of printmaking in order to trace the evolution of the medium to the position it now enjoys as a vibrant and viable means of creating contemporary art. They are taught technique and concept through discussions, demos, examples, museum/studio/gallery visits and readings that demonstrate the uses of print-based techniques for image-making, which serves as a vehicle for learning and the proliferation of meaning and messages, taking cues from all aspects of the contemporary political, philosophical and social sphere. Students gain technical skill and are shown methods of employing the techniques unique to printmaking’s fundamental processes to make work that marries form and content in meaningful ways and when appropriate reaches beyond the confines of the traditional print.

The Printmaking area cultivates a culture of collaboration and is enhanced by a student-run organization, Printmaker’s Workshop, which organizes trips to conferences, museums and studios in Atlanta and beyond.

Our early childhood and elementary education program will prepare you to be researchers and teacher educators in areas such as applied research, curriculum development, teacher education, literacy/digital literacy, multicultural education, science education, math education and more.

Our doctorate degree prepares you to move into various roles and content areas in the early childhood and elementary education fields.

You will learn to be active scholars informed in the historical, political, developmental and theoretical paradigms that shape education in today’s rapidly changing world. Through coursework, research and teaching apprenticeships and individual mentoring, you can become inquisitive researchers and reflective teacher educators equipped to affect the lives of children, their families and the larger society.