Admissions

There are no additional requirements for admission into the undergraduate program in criminal justice beyond admission to UCF. Students in the undergraduate program earn either a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice.

Students wishing to enroll in the undergraduate program must complete a Declaration of Major form indicating their chosen major. This can be completed online through the student’s MyUCF account. The form is also available in the Undergraduate Student Services Office - Education Complex Room 110.

There is no program-specific application deadline for this degree as it is an open enrollment program. However, students must comply with all UCF and College of Community Innovation and Education procedures and deadlines.

Apply Online

Online Degree Program

The Online Criminal Justice option is only for students who have completed an Associate of Arts degree from a Florida Community College or State College, or have met all UCF General Education Program requirements (GEP), including the Foreign Language Admission requirement.

In order to complete your Criminal Justice degree online, you must have the following completed:

  • General Education Requirements
  • 1 year college level foreign language (Bachelor of Arts students)
  • 2 year high school foreign language (Bachelor of Science students)

Important Things To Do Prior to Applying to the Program

  • Complete your Associates of Arts degree.  You need to complete your AA, even if you are planning to complete a Bachelor’s of Science in Criminal Justice at UCF.  An AS degree is not the equivalent of an AA degree.
  • Complete your high school level or college level foreign language requirement prior to arriving at UCF.
  • After being accepted at UCF, students are required to successfully complete the UCF, CCIE and Criminal Justice online orientations.  Students may not enroll in classes until this has been accomplished.

Remember:

  • The earlier you make application, the better your selection of Criminal Justice courses for your first term.
  • Only 12 hours of equivalent Criminal Justice course work can be transferred from another accredited institution.  It is the responsibility of the student to provide all requested documentation (course descriptions, syllabi, etc., to respond to questions related to equivalencies.
  • Register for courses with a “W” in the section number to ensure you are enrolling in fully online courses at UCF.
  • All students are required to take core courses in the areas of crime, prosecution, corrections, police, research, and data analysis. Students will also take additional hours of upper-division course work from various criminal justice restricted electives and supporting electives outside the criminal justice program.
  • See program of study

For additional information contact:
Criminal Justice Department
College of Community Innovation and Education
407-823-2603
cjadvise@ucf.edu (Please type the term "Online Student" in the subject line)

FAQs: Prospective Undergraduate Majors

The first step is to make application to UCF. Here is a link to our admissions site. If you are already taking classes at another college or university, you need to pay particular attention to the information for transfer students. Once you are admitted to UCF, you will just have to declare your major as Criminal Justice. There are no additional requirements to be admitted to our program.

There are no specific deadlines for admission to the Criminal Justice Department; however the University honors the following deadlines for application:

Freshmen Applicants
Fall: May 1st
Spring: November 1st
Summer: March 1st

Transfer Applicants
Fall: July 1st
Spring: November 1st
Summer: March 1st

International Applicants
Fall: March 1st
Spring: September 1st
Summer: January 1st

Students seeking a Bachelor of Arts are required to successfully complete one year of one foreign language in college (or equivalent proficiency exam) prior to graduation. Students pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree are required to complete two of high school foreign language. If a student is choosing American Sign Language to fulfill their foreign language requirement, the student must take three semesters of that language.
There are no prerequisites for the program; however, students applying as online-only students must have an AA degree (or equivalent) completed from a Florida state college. AS degrees are not equivalent to AA degrees.
The Criminal Justice BA or BS program can be completed online. Not every elective course is available online, but there are enough electives offered online for students to fulfill degree requirements.

Registration is necessary to intern at a placement site. Please speak to Associate Professor Cory Watkins or your advisor regarding registration.

In order to qualify (academically) to register for criminal justice internship credits, you must meet the following criteria:

  • Criminal justice major in last 30 hours of study
  • All CJ core courses complete, with a grade of C or better in each core course. These are
    • CJE3001 (Careers in Criminal Justice)
    • CCJ3014 (Crime in America)
    • CCJ3024 (Criminal Justice System)
    • CJL3510 (Prosecution and Adjudication)
    • CJC3010 (Corrections and Penology)
    • CJE4014 (Police and Society)
    • CCJ4701 (Research Methods in Criminal Justice)
    • CCJ4746 (Data Analysis for Criminal Justice) this applies only to those students who are enrolled under the catalog year of 2012 or later
  • An overall GPA of 2.5 or better
  • Individual agencies may add their own criteria
Yes. Although there are a few exceptions, internships may be completed in most states and with the federal government. The internship coordinator can provide further information and help online students find suitable placements.
No. Students are not allowed to intern with their family members and family members cannot be preceptors to students as this is a conflict of interest. Any student discovered to be interning with a family member will automatically fail the internship course.The Scholars Track is for students who maintain a GPA of 3.2 or better and have met the entrance requirement of having achieved a grade of B or better in both ENC1101 and ENC1102. Scholars Track candidates must make application to the Track. The Criminal Justice Scholars Track prepares students for graduate study. This track introduces exceptional students to specialized topics and provides the opportunity for select students to work closely with Criminal Justice professors who will mentor them in nine hours of small, seminar-style classes.
Undergraduate Criminal Justice majors who have completed all of their core courses, and 90 hours of study, and who maintain a 3.0 overall OR Criminal Justice GPA, may take up to 9 credit hours of 5,000-level graduate course work, to be transferred into the Master’s program upon acceptance. The senior scholar course work counts as upper-level Criminal Justice elective credit, as well as credit toward the student’s graduate work.

Yes, and they are open to all majors. Please note the certificates are not stand-alone programs. Only UCF undergraduate degree-seeking students may apply for certificate programs. Here is a listing of certificate programs:

Students must declare these certificates in their student centers (MyUCF). Certificate courses may be used to fulfill upper-division CJ requirements.

Online Criminal Justice majors may earn certificates in one of the following only:

Criminal Justice Bachelor’s degree program graduates can become police, correctional or probation officers, justice system administrators, crime analysts, private security administrators, superintendents, county sheriffs/deputies, program directors or elected officials. Many program graduates go on to graduate school and get involved with academic criminal justice; or professional school, like law school, and take positions in the legal aspects of the justice system as prosecutors or defense attorneys.

The outlook for students entering law enforcement or the correctional fields is expected to be good. Although the level of government spending influences the employment in these areas, the recent support of more professionals in these areas is a trend that is expected to continue. The need to replace currently employed professionals who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force, coupled with rising employment demand, should generate thousands of job openings each year. With experience and additional education, qualified professionals may advance to supervisory, administrative or counseling positions.

FAQs: Prospective Graduate Majors

Applications are completed at applynow.graduate.ucf.edu. Supporting documents can be submitted there as well.

Fall semester deadline:
January 15th (priority deadline)
February 1st - Ph.D. program
June 1st- MPA/CJ Dual degree
July 1st- Criminal Justice MS program

Spring semester deadline:
November 1st- MPA/CJ Dual degree
December 1st- Criminal Justice MS program

Summer semester deadline:
April 1st- Criminal Justice MS program

The Criminal Justice master’s, Police Leadership certificate, Corrections Leadership certificate, and Juvenile Justice Leadership certificate accept applications for all three semesters.

The dual Public Administration/Criminal Justice master’s program accepts application in the fall and spring semesters.

The doctoral program and Crime Analysis certificate accepts applications for the fall semester only.

There are no degree or course prerequisites. There is a 3.0 undergraduate GPA requirement.
The GRE is not required for general admission. It is suggested for students not meeting the 3.0 undergraduate GPA requirement. The GRE is required for students wanting to be considered for department assistantships and for Ph.D. applicants.

Each semester we are able to admit an extremely limited number of applicants to the program on a provisional status. What that means is if you do not have a 3.0 GPA in your undergraduate coursework you may still be admitted and placed on a probation period. Since these spaces are very limited the Graduate Committee reviews and selects those students on a competitive basis. Applications as a whole are reviewed to include, a well-written goal statement, resume, and letters of recommendation to determine competiveness. Submitting a GRE score is also strongly encouraged to increase the competiveness of the application.

Another option to increase competitiveness is to do one of the graduate certificates. The Criminal Justice department has four- Crime Analysis, Police Leadership, Corrections Leadership, and Juvenile Justice Leadership. After completion of the certificate you would need to apply for the master’s program to be considered for admission. Performing well in these graduate courses will add to the competiveness of your master’s application by having grades in graduate level courses. This is not a guarantee of admission, just a way to show your academic ability at the graduate level when the admission committee reviews provisional applicants.

The Criminal Justice master’s, dual Public Administration/ Criminal Justice master’s, and all criminal justice certificates (police leadership, corrections leadership, juvenile justice leadership, crime analysis) can be completed online.
The doctoral program does not offer online classes.

Currently most criminal justice course are offered online. The dual degree program may be completed partially face-to-face with public administration courses.

The Ph.D. program is entirely face-to-face on the main UCF campus.