College of Health and Human Sciences Graduate Programs

Department of Interdisciplinary Human Sciences
Department of Community, Family and Addiction Sciences
Department of Design
Department of Hospitality and Retail Management

Department of Human Development and Family Sciences
Department of Nutritional Sciences
School of Personal Financial Planning
Program Offerings & Graduate Course Descriptions

The College of Health and Human Sciences offers graduate programs leading to the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The graduate programs in the college are designed to educate scholars and leaders in areas that affect human development: nutrition; family sciences; environmental design; restaurant, hotel, and institutional management; personal financial planning; couple, marriage, and family therapy; and family and consumer sciences education.

Persons successfully completing graduate work in the college have traditionally been prepared to serve as leaders in the business world, private sector organizations, and academic institutions.

Master of Science Degree. The Master of Science degree has majors in environmental design; nutritional sciences; family and consumer sciences education; human development and family studies; human sciences; couple, marriage, and family therapy; personal financial planning; and hospitality and retail management.

Doctoral Degree. The Doctor of Philosophy degree has majors in interior and environmental design; nutritional sciences; family and consumer sciences education; hospitality administration; human development and family studies; personal financial planning; and couple, marriage, and family therapy.

Admission. Admission to master’s and doctoral programs requires the recommendation of the department as well as approval of the graduate dean. Applicants should contact the program director or the chairperson of the department offering the specialization for college and departmental guidelines.

Distance Education. The College of Health and Human Sciences is a member of IDEA (Innovative Digital Education Alliance), formerly named Great Plains IDEA. This online higher education alliance offers students flexible, affordable programs in collaboration with other reputable universities.

The courses are taught by several universities, but students enroll and pay for all their courses through the university where they have been admitted. Students therefore have the advantage of receiving coordinated, diverse, high-quality instruction from topic experts at several universities without the hassle and expense of navigating each institution’s admissions, enrollment, payment, and transcript transfer processes.

Three programs are offered through the collaboration of the IDEA and the College of Health and Human Sciences. Students can specialize in gerontology or youth development within the M.S. in Human Development and Family Sciences or obtain an M.S. in Family Consumer Sciences Education. A graduate certificate in Early Childhood Education and Family Policy is also available.

For additional information, see graduate program listings for the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences or Family and Consumer Sciences.

For more information about the IDEA, its programs, and the participating institutions, visit https://www.depts.ttu.edu/hs/great_plains_interactive_distance_education/index.php.

Graduate students may obtain a teaching certificate in family and consumer sciences by completing coursework that meets the Texas standards for teacher certification.

Post-Baccalaureate Certification. Three post-baccalaureate options are available. The Family and Consumer Sciences Composite Certificate qualifies individuals to teach all family and consumer sciences courses offered in Texas secondary schools. Specialized certificates in human development and family studies and hospitality, nutrition, and food science qualify individuals to teach family and consumer sciences courses in the designated content areas. Post-baccalaureate certification students are eligible to complete a one-year paid teaching internship in lieu of clinical student teaching. Post-bac certifications must be completed as a part of a graduate degree in Family and Consumer Sciences Education. Selected graduate credits earned for certification may be applied toward a graduate degree in family and consumer sciences education (M.S. or Ph.D.). While FCS teacher certification coursework can be completed through distance education, face-to-face components are required, including clinical field experiences and student teaching or an internship. Clinical student teaching must be completed in an accredited Texas school district with a licensed family and consumer sciences teacher who is approved by the FCSE Program for placement supervision. The teaching internship can only be completed in an accredited Texas school district. Students completing the internship are hired by a local school district and are assigned a mentor teacher who is also employed by the same school district. It is the responsibility of the post-bac student to secure an internship through the hiring process with a school district offering the internship. Students who desire to complete clinical student teaching instead of an internship will be placed by the FCSE Program in an appropriate Texas school district. Both the internship and clinical student teaching require enrollment in FCSE 5344 for the appropriate student credit hours, and these placements are supervised by the FCSE Program. Students seeking teacher certification must meet all requirements outlined in the College of Education section of the catalog. Admission to the post-bac program in FCSE requires a 2.75 GPA or higher in an undergraduate degree and at least 15 course credits in family and consumer sciences content.

Department of Interdisciplinary Human Sciences

The Department of Interdisciplinary Human Sciences administers the graduate programs in the area of Family and Consumer Sciences Education and Human Sciences.

Department of Community, Family, and Addiction Sciences

The Department of Community, Family, and Addiction Sciences supervises graduate degree programs in couple, marriage, and family therapy and addictive disorders and recovery studies. Applicants seeking information about admission requirements, programs of study, and financial assistance should contact the graduate advisor in the individual program. Admission to a graduate degree program requires both the recommendation of the department and the Graduate School.

The graduate degree programs in couple, marriage, and family therapy provide clinical and academic training to students who will function as couple, marriage, and family therapists at the highest level of clinical competence and who will make unique contributions to the field of couple, marriage, and family therapy through research, teaching, clinical practice, and other professional activities. For more information please go to www.depts.ttu.edu/hs/mft/.

The graduate degree program in addictive disorders and recovery studies is designed to produce graduates who will excel in academic, government, and private sector careers while fulfilling the increasing need for addiction recovery scientists. Of note, the graduate degree program in addictive disorders and recovery studies is not designed to produce clinicians. For more information please go to www.depts.ttu.edu/hs/cfas/addictive-disorders-recovery-studies.php

Department of Design

Admission into the master’s and doctoral programs requires submission of the following:

Grade point average
Copy of official transcripts
Three letters of recommendation
A statement of intent including current research interests
A design portfolio or examples of scholarly writing
A resume
TOEFL scores for international students

The master’s and doctoral degrees are research- and studio-based programs; students entering without undergraduate degrees in interior design or architecture are advised that the graduate programs in the Department of Design do not prepare students for professional practice. Students who wish to practice as interior designers should enroll in the CIDA-accredited Bachelor of Interior Design degree program offered by the Department of Design.

To obtain departmental procedures and guidelines, students should contact the director of graduate programs or refer to www.course.ttu.edu/hs-DesignGrad.

Department of Hospitality and Retail Management

The department offers accelerated bachelor’s-to-master’s programs, graduate certificates, on-campus and online master’s degrees, and an on-campus Ph.D. program. The on-campus Master of Science in Hospitality and Retail Management is offered in both a thesis and non-thesis option. The thesis option is research-oriented and designed to prepare the student for their next step in pursuing a Ph.D. The Ph.D. program is research intensive and requires the completion of a dissertation. The master’s programs are designed to advance students’ careers in buying, planning, category management, market research, sales management, hotel administration, restaurant management, corporate management, and as trend analysts, marketing managers, resort directors, event managers, food service managers, operations directors, and more. The Ph.D. program is designed to prepare the student for a career as a professor in academia or in marketing research. Applicants for the graduate programs should contact the department concerning admissions requirements, programs of study, and financial assistance. Admission to a graduate degree program requires the recommendation of the department and the Graduate School.

Two graduate certificates are available through the department, and both are available online. One certificate is in Wedding and Conference Management. The other is in Advanced Entrepreneurship. Both certificates are designed to provide advanced knowledge and skills to individuals looking to start or build their own businesses. The on-campus master’s program is technology intensive featuring collaborative work focused on problem solving with our industry partners. The department also offers an online Master of Science in Hospitality and Retail Management. This master’s degree offering is provided in 8-week semesters. Both master’s programs require the completion of 33 credit hours. The Doctor of Philosophy in Hospitality, Tourism, and Retail Management is taught by an experienced faculty in both hospitality and retail. Students select the concentration that they will follow (hospitality, tourism, or retail) and focus on developing skills in their selected area. The concentration is noted on the student’s diploma.

Faculty research interests in the HRM department are myriad and multidisciplinary, providing excellent support for graduate students to pursue their personal research interests. Faculty in the HRM department are skilled in both qualitative and quantitative research methods and have specialized skills in exploring our discipline through the use of big data, survey data, experimental design, fMRI research, interviews, focus groups, and more. Faculty research interests focus on consumer behavior, shopper behavior, social media, online retailing, sustainability, tourism, wine marketing, place branding, management and organizational behavior, cultural heritage, and more. Doctoral students will receive sophisticated and specialized training in theory, advanced statistical methods, software, and analyses, qualitative research methodologies, and curriculum development.

Department of Human Development and Family Sciences

The department offers on-campus master’s and doctoral degrees (including a post-baccalaureate Ph.D. option and an accelerated bachelor’s-to-master’s program) in human development and family sciences (HDFS). These research-oriented on-campus graduate programs require a thesis and dissertation, respectively, although the thesis requirement is optional for accelerated bachelor’s-to-master’s students. These graduate programs prepare students for careers as university faculty, full-time researchers, data scientists, applied researchers in corporate and government settings, and human service providers. Applicants for the graduate programs should contact the department concerning admissions requirements, programs of study, and financial assistance. Admission to a graduate degree program requires the recommendation of the department and the Graduate School.

The department also offers completely online master’s degrees and graduate certificates in gerontology and youth development through its membership in IDEA (Innovative Digital Education Alliance), formerly named Great Plains IDEA, a multiple-university association with online graduate programs .

Faculty research interests in the HDFS department are broad and multidisciplinary, with many areas of specialization for graduate students. Faculty in Human Development and Family Sciences conduct research that examines human development throughout the lifespan in the context of romantic relationships, families, and communities. Graduate students are able to study psychosocial and emotional development in children; positive youth development; educational attainment and cognitive abilities for typically and atypically developing children and youth; transitions and milestones for adolescents and emerging adults; gender and sexuality; development of and transitions within romantic relationships; parenting and intergenerational patterns; communication and stressors in close relationships and families; the impact of gender, socioeconomic, and racial/ethnic inequities and disparities on individuals and families. Graduate students receive sophisticated training in theories, statistical methods and analyses, and qualitative methodologies in addition to their area of specialization.

Department of Nutritional Sciences

The department supervises degree programs leading to the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees described below. Applicants should contact the program graduate advisor concerning admission requirements and programs of study. Admission to a graduate degree program requires the recommendation of the department as well as the approval of the Graduate Dean.

Internship Program. The department offers an eight-month dietetic internship program, with an optional online M.S. in Nutrition and Dietetics . Completion of the M.S. degree, if completed concurrently with the dietetic internship, takes 18 months. This may vary depending on course load per semester. Participants are selected yearly via a national computerized selection process. Selected credits earned during the program may apply to an optional master’s or doctoral degree. Eighteen hours of graduate credit are required in supervised experience in health and foodservice facilities. Upon completing the internship, the student is eligible to take the Commission of Dietetic Registration written examination to become a registered dietitian. Visit www.depts.ttu.edu/hs/intern/index.php for more information.

School of Personal Financial Planning

The School of Personal Financial Planning supervises degree programs leading to the Master of Science degree in Personal Financial Planning and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Personal Financial Planning.

M.S. students must earn a C or better in all courses unless otherwise noted. Students must average a 3.0 program GPA in order to maintain good standing with the Graduate School and to graduate. Up to 6 hours of PFP courses can be transferred into the M.S. degree from another university. Ph.D. students are required to earn a B or better in all courses counted toward their degree.

Admission. Applicants may apply to a graduate program by visiting the Graduate School website or by visiting the School of Personal Financial Planning website.

Program Offerings & Course Descriptions

Programs

Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s Degree

Intra-institutional Dual Degree

Master’s

Doctoral

Graduate Minor

Nutritional Sciences Graduate Minor

Graduate Certificates

Courses

ADRS - Addictive Disorders and Recovery Studies (Graduate Courses)

CMFT - Couple, Marriage, and Family Therapy (Graduate Courses)

ENVD - Environmental Design (Graduate Courses)

FCSE - Family and Consumer Sciences Education (Graduate Courses)

HDFS - Human Development and Family Sciences (Graduate Courses)

Page: 1 | 2 | 3