Our stackable credentials help you strengthen your résumé with graduate certificates, recognizing the new skills and knowledge you’ve gained while pursuing your master’s degree. You can earn one or more graduate certificates while working toward your degree. Whether you apply to the master's program first, or start with a certificate, you'll only need to pay one application fee for credentials that fall in the same stack. Please note: You must apply and be accepted to each program individually.
Certificate earners are awarded a digital badge for each certificate they complete. Badges can be digitally displayed anywhere to recognize attaining a new level of knowledge. Courses are offered in convenient, seven-week sessions, which are available in several delivery modes: in-person, hybrid, or online.
Please note: A maximum of 15 credits earned as a certificate student may be applied to a graduate degree program. If you are interested in the graduate degree program associated with stackable certificates, please apply to the degree program before completing 15 credits. Once admitted to the master’s program, you can progress through the stackable certificates at your own pace. No additional application fees will be charged for programs within your stack, and future courses will automatically count towards your master’s degree.
Certificate Offerings
Artificial Intelligence Stackable Certificates
- Foundations of Artificial Intelligence - A 12-credit certificate covering AI disciplines, focusing on modeling, designing, developing, and testing data-centric AI systems.
- Natural Language Processing - A nine-credit graduate certificate on the interaction between computers and human language.
- Computer Vision - A nine-credit certificate on designing and applying machine-vision systems to interpret visual information and make decisions.
Data Analytics Stackable Certificates
- Data Analytics - A nine-credit certificate covering how to present data in visual and meaningful ways, create analytics solutions for business problems, and use quantitative methods to support business decisions.
- Data Engineering for Analytics - A nine-credit certificate focused on programming skills, data management, and software lifecycle methodologies.
- Foundations of Data Science - A nine-credit certificate covering machine learning, deep learning, statistical analysis and computing, and processing large amounts of data.
Engineering Management Stackable Certificates
- Technical Management and Leadership Essentials - A 12-credit certificate covering effective team management, negotiation, ethics and legal issues, business contracts, and more.
- Quality Management Across Product Lifecycle - A nine-credit certificate covering product, service and process improvement; Lean Six Sigma; test analysis techniques; and performance optimization.
- Quantitative Decision-Making for Engineering Managers - A nine-credit certificate focused on skill sets including product, service, and process development and analysis; risk analysis; decision models; and more.
Information Science Stackable Certificates
- Business Process Integration - A nine-credit certificate covering business process management, integration patterns, IT systems management, and continuation integration and deployment.
- Cyber Threat Analytics and Prevention - A 12-credit graduate certificate focused on cybersecurity, IT systems architecture, information assets, and data management and privacy.
- IT Analytics - A nine-credit certificate covering IT analytics, socio-technical IT systems, and predictive analytics.
Software Engineering Stackable Certificates
Systems Engineering Stackable Certificates
Penn State's schedule of courses lists availability.
To be awarded the graduate certificate, students must successfully apply for and complete the required course work. All courses must be completed with a minimum grade of C or better and an overall GPA of 3.0. If you have issues viewing any of these documents or have any questions, please contact the division at [email protected].
Admission Requirements
Applicants must hold either (1) a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or (2) a tertiary (post-secondary) degree that is deemed comparable to a four-year bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution. International applicants may be required to satisfy an English proficiency requirement. The successful applicant is generally expected to have a minimum combined junior/senior grade-point average of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale.