For current students: INFORMATION AND RESOURCES
Program Quickview
All the programs described below lead to a master's in educational administration with specialization in one of the following areas of higher education (higher education administration, student affairs administration, and academic and career advising).
If you are interested in other educational leadership programs, check our Related Programs.
Prerequisites:
- A bachelor’s degree.
Key Program Features:
- Minimum Credits: 36 graduate credits.
- Customizable: Includes a mix of rigorous core/specialization courses and elective courses to enable you to tailor the program to your career interests and needs. Opportunity to complete an Advanced Certificate in Program Evaluation or Online Teaching for a few additional required credits.
- Career-Related Experiences: Includes a supervised internship in a local higher education institution and opportunities to pursue assistantships.
- Culminating Experience: Choose to participate in either a master’s thesis or comprehensive exam, allowing you to choose how to exhibit your mastery of the coursework.
- Flexible: Program can be completed in as little as one calendar year full-time or two years part-time. You can also start during any semester and go at your own pace.
- Hybrid-Online Offerings: Option to take some required and elective courses fully online or hybrid-online.
- Supportive Environment: Engage with full-time faculty and peers at the master’s and doctoral levels, both inside and outside the classroom. Work with a dedicated faculty advisor to tailor the program to suit your academic and career goals.
Warner Master's Programs in Higher Education
All of the following options lead to a 36-credit MS in Educational Administration:
Higher Education Administration (HE1): For students interested in beginning or advancing their career in the administrative and operations side of higher education. Core coursework centers on leadership and management, critical issues facing higher education, and an understanding of how universities work.
Student Affairs Administration (HE4): For students interested in beginning or advancing their career in the student affairs side of higher education in areas with high student contact. Core coursework centers on the administration of student affairs and student services, critical issues facing higher education, and theories underlying college students’ development.
Student Affairs Administration and Academic and Career Advising (HE5): For students interested in beginning or advancing their career in the student affairs side of higher education in the specific areas of academic and career advising. This program is unique in that it has a dual core comprised of administration of student affairs and student development coursework within the higher education program and academic and career counseling coursework within the counseling and human development program.
Opportunities for Additional Specializations
Higher Education Administration (HE1): For students interested in beginning or advancing their career in the administrative and operations side of higher education. Core coursework centers on leadership and management, critical issues facing higher education, and an understanding of how universities work.
Student Affairs Administration (HE4): For students interested in beginning or advancing their career in the student affairs side of higher education in areas with high student contact. Core coursework centers on the administration of student affairs and student services, critical issues facing higher education, and theories underlying college students’ development.
Student Affairs Administration and Academic and Career Advising (HE5): For students interested in beginning or advancing their career in the student affairs side of higher education in the specific areas of academic and career advising. This program is unique in that it has a dual core comprised of administration of student affairs and student development coursework within the higher education program and academic and career counseling coursework within the counseling and human development program.
Opportunities for Additional Specializations
-
Advanced Certificate in Program Evaluation: To strengthen your research and skills in planning and conducting evaluations of existing programs.
- Advanced Certificate in Online Teaching: To be more competitive for positions that may involve teaching online.


Our Approach
Creating Effective Higher Education Leaders Who Can Inspire and Lead Change
As advocates for thoughtful leadership, our graduates understand how to motivate others, make decisions, manage people and processes, and enable individuals to reach their highest potential. They also become thoughtful leaders with a comprehensive understanding of the institutional and cultural world of higher education.
Throughout the program, students learn to use intellectual skills to approach the challenges of academic life with creativity and a deep appreciation of the fundamental purposes and ideals of higher education.
Throughout the program, students learn to use intellectual skills to approach the challenges of academic life with creativity and a deep appreciation of the fundamental purposes and ideals of higher education.

The Warner Advantage
Preparing Graduates to Innovate, Advocate, and Elevate.
Warner will give you the highest-quality preparation for a career in higher education administration or student affairs.
- Be challenged to become an innovator and a thought leader by learning the necessary dispositions and skills to be an effective, evidence-based practitioner.
- Leverage the reputation of a leading research university to give your degree even more recognition.
- Utilize the supervised internship and culminating experience to develop and demonstrate your skills to employers and/or doctoral-level programs.
- Network with the best and the brightest peers at the master’s and doctoral levels.
- Learn from an accessible, supportive faculty of researchers and accomplished practitioners who will prepare you to think critically, promote inclusivity, and utilize theory and evidence to adapt to and address ever-changing challenges in higher education.
- Leverage Warner’s relationships with a rich array of higher education institutions in the Rochester region to find opportunities for internships, paid assistantships, and career placement upon graduation.
- Shorten your path to a doctoral degree by earning transferable credits.
Our affordable and flexible programs are designed to meet the needs of working professionals.
- Program can be completed in as little as two years of part-time study while working part time.
- Start the program in any semester and go at your own pace.
- Take advantage of online learning options to reduce trips to campus.
- Customize your program by choosing elective courses that align with your academic and career goals or enable you to add an advanced certificate to your degree program.
- Are you a University of Rochester employee? Make sure you make full use of your tuition benefits.
All About Experience

Motivation and College Success
An interdisciplinary team of Warner faculty with expertise in motivation and higher education has developed a new model to explain college students’ persistency and achievement. This work is expanding the cultural motivation theory model to incorporate cultural orientations to explain students’ intent to persist and GPA.

Uncovering the impact of trauma, mentorship on college student development
What do traumatic experiences and great mentors have in common? Both have the potential to inform and shape the development of young adults studying in a higher education institution.

ACPA Names Tricia Shalka as Emerging Scholar Designee
Warner School faculty member Tricia Shalka has been selected as a 2019-21 Emerging Scholar Designee by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA).
Career Opportunities
Advancing Education and Your Career to the Next Level.
Our graduates are prepared to assume entry-level and middle-management positions in a variety of settings in higher education administration (i.e., academic departments, administrative and operations offices) and student affairs areas (i.e., admissions, residential life, academic advising, athletics).
There are a wide range of these types of positions, and the need for skills specific to supporting, managing, and leading the operations associated with the campus community is growing more quickly than for other sectors. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that jobs for post-secondary educational administrators will grow by 15 percent by the year 2020.
Some of our graduates have also transferred their knowledge and skills to positions in state and federal agencies, coordinating boards and system offices, as well as other higher education-related enterprises and nonprofit organizations in the United States and abroad.
International students have found many opportunities to apply what they have learned in this program to international settings.
There are a wide range of these types of positions, and the need for skills specific to supporting, managing, and leading the operations associated with the campus community is growing more quickly than for other sectors. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that jobs for post-secondary educational administrators will grow by 15 percent by the year 2020.
Some of our graduates have also transferred their knowledge and skills to positions in state and federal agencies, coordinating boards and system offices, as well as other higher education-related enterprises and nonprofit organizations in the United States and abroad.
International students have found many opportunities to apply what they have learned in this program to international settings.

Faculty
An Accessible, Supportive Faculty of Researchers and Accomplished Practitioners.

Higher Education Program Director
LeChase Hall 416
(585) 275-1007
abarrett@warner.rochester.edu
Scholarships
Making it Affordable to Make Warner Possible
Many of our higher education students benefit from merit-based scholarships that significantly decrease tuition costs.
Contact Admissions for more information about merit-based scholarships.
Are You a UR Employee? Inquire about your tuition benefits. If eligible, up to 95% of your tuition costs can be covered depending on your position. Contact the UR benefits office at benefitoffice@rochester.edu.
Contact Admissions for more information about merit-based scholarships.
Are You a UR Employee? Inquire about your tuition benefits. If eligible, up to 95% of your tuition costs can be covered depending on your position. Contact the UR benefits office at benefitoffice@rochester.edu.

Try Us Out
A Warner Degree Opens Doors. Open Ours to See Why.
Do you want to have a taste of what Warner can offer, before committing to one of our programs?
We invite you to come and observe one of our higher education courses. Or even better, take a Warner course for a highly discounted price.
Contact admissions to arrange for a visit or learn more about opportunities for non-matriculated students.
We invite you to come and observe one of our higher education courses. Or even better, take a Warner course for a highly discounted price.
Contact admissions to arrange for a visit or learn more about opportunities for non-matriculated students.

Testimonials
Meliora Means 'Ever Better.' To Our Graduates, It Means Making a World of Difference.
Contact Admissions
The admissions team looks forward to assisting you as you explore graduate education at the Warner School. Please feel free to use the form below to contact us with any questions. You can also email us at apply@warner.rochester.edu or call (585) 275-3950.