The master's program is in criminal
justice in administration which combines
both criminal justice and then public
administration.
Which is focused on helping people go out into the community and for those who are already working in
criminal justice. It becomes a way to help them get promoted to go into more of a management area.
The program's inception was 97 and we just had that 20th anniversary
It's a really good program for people like myself in the field that desire at a later date
possibly either move up in the field or for me maybe when I retire to get into teaching.
the program can be done in one calendar year for students who go full-time, and if you go full-time you
take four classes in the fall and four
classes in the spring, two in the summer
and so theoretically you are done in ten months.
Our program is very competitive students that get into our program we have requirements we do have a lot of
success with students into the program. Is it easy? No.
What I like about Ferris State University is just the environment and the culture surrounding around the
seriousness of the criminal justice system because that is one of the most relevant issue in today's society.
I did a lot of looking and I think the program is very very competitive. I looked at the the national reputation
that Farris has for the criminal justice
program and the value by far outweighed
any other advantages or any other
positives that other programs had.
At the same time we do give high graduation
rates and again I tribute that to the
people that enter the program are
top-notch people
I think Faris is the best place to
receive a master's program simply
because of the professor's is what I
will say we have professors who truly care about you.
Dealing with the staff I
mean you're talking about
years and years of experience you build
a relationship with some of these
professors who works in law enforcement
and you have a resource now I've got a
problem I've got a concern you know who
can I reach out to and that's what I've
done and befriended a lot of these these
professors.
And I think that well-rounded experience of our faculty really is pushed forward with the students and it allows
them an avenue to say these people know
what they're talking about
and then when they have issues they 
come to the faculty.
a lot of masters programs in PhD programs you get people have never done what they're teaching ever in
their life even in law school you find law professors who never practice law, and our case we've all done it
A lot of jobs in the public service sector
require a lot of practitioner experience
working in the field being a police
officer being a corrections officer to
be successful for that mid-level
experience in the mid-level jobs a
master's degree often helps the
individual it limits the pool of people
they're competing with.
I chose the master's program at Ferris because the
former director of Public Safety in
Big Rapids had attended and graduate from the master's program and as my mentor she strongly recommended
that I take this next step one of the things that that it did for me was it gave me a better
perspective on what what the police do
and why we do it.
I'm choosing to go to law school which is my next step
and what I find interesting about that
is that I'm getting a preview of this now as
far as I study and what I have to do my
law firm is where I was briefed in the
case or a Memorandum of law so really
this is just a preview of what's to come next.
People should come to Ferris to get their masters because it's just a great program
if you really want to climb that ladder if you really want to be a professional this is the only way to do it.
