Home of Consciousness-Based Education®Accredited

An accredited non-profit university
with on-campus & online degrees >

Founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

A non-profit university with on-campus and online degree programs

Home of Consciousness-Based Education®

Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission

Visit Us > Apply > Request Info >
Founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

A non-profit university with on-campus and online degree programs

Home of Consciousness-Based Education®

Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission

Request Info > Apply > Visit Us >
Request Info > Apply > Visit Us >

Consciousness & Human Potential
BA or Bachelor’s Specializationonline or on-campus

Ancient wisdom and modern science

Our goal for every student is enlightenment – the systematic development of full potential from within. This is the key to true fulfillment in daily life and any career. In this program, you’ll learn:

  • The philosophy of Yoga as found in Maharishi’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and how Yoga practice enhances your life
  • How to accelerate personal growth through the Transcendental Meditation® technique, yoga asanas, retreats, and other practical approaches
  • The latest scientific research on brain functioning and how meditation leads to clearer thinking
  • Strategies for social transformation leading to a more peaceful world
  • Modern perspectives on consciousness in the light of Maharishi Vedic Science
Consciousness & Human Potential can be studied at MIU as a BA (48 core credits) or Bachelor’s Specialization (32 core credits). Learn more >

Making it easy for transfer students

If you transfer in 60 or more credits, your degree can be completed in as little as four semesters. Transfer students can inquire with their admissions counselor to learn the exact number of credits needed to graduate.

While we’ve designed our bachelor's degrees to accommodate transfer students, we also welcome new undergraduates with no prior college education. We do require a high school diploma or equivalent with a minimum 2.5 GPA for entry to our bachelor’s programs.

Dive within and find yourself

As a student at MIU, you’ll learn the Transcendental Meditation technique, an evidence-based technique that promotes inner peace and wellness, enhances clear thinking, improves learning ability, and boosts creativity.

Learn more about Consciousness-Based Education >

Get started by contacting Jess

Jess Nohle, admissions counselorJess Nohle is this program’s admissions counselor for US students. Jess will provide you with all the details of becoming a student, including connecting you with the program director or faculty.

Contact Jess >

International applicants may connect with us through our international inquiry form.

Next entry: Aug 2025Apply to MIU >Next entry: Aug 2025Apply to MIU >

Two paths to mastery: BA or Bachelor’s Specialization

At MIU, you can study Consciousness & Human Potential through two options:

  • The Bachelor’s Specialization includes 32 program credits. Students can take a Specialization as part of a Bachelor of Applied Arts & Sciences degree, or any other degree program, to broaden their expertise with a greater range of courses.
  • The BA program, includes 48 credits of required core courses, as well as a 4-credit prerequisite course. This option provides greater depth and scope within the field of Consciousness & Human Potential.

Degree requirements

A minimum of 128 credits (semester hours) is required for students to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. This may include up to 90 transfer credits.

Undergraduate degree students can apply transfer credits to cover electives, some general education requirements, and up to half the course work in the major, for a maximum of 90 total credits. General transfer credits are accepted for courses completed with a grade of “C” or higher.

Only two courses are required of all undergraduate students

  1. Exploring Consciousness
    2. This course is your entryway into MIU and Consciousness-Based Education. We dive into an ancient yet radically new framework for understanding the universe and our place in it. This model holds that consciousness, not matter, is fundamental. With this in mind, we look at some of life’s big questions: How can we develop our fullest potential as human beings? How do art and stories help us understand that potential? How can our own growth help create a more just and peaceful society? What do the world’s great wisdom traditions have in common? How can we improve education and healthcare? The new paradigm we explore in this course infuses all your classes at MIU. In this course, you'll learn the Transcendental Meditation® technique to awaken the full potential of consciousness in your life. Comments from students
    • “I truly had a significant experience every single day in class.”
    • “I’m hesitant to even call it a class; it felt more like a philosophical playground. Not only do I feel like the course has primed me well for the rest of my time at MIU, I feel that the information covered in class will be extremely relevant for the rest of my life.”
    • “It was easily digestible, deeply engaging (edge of my seat in pure focus many days), and incredibly enjoyable.”
  2. Writing
    3. Writing is a crucial skill not only for college but for life. Students are required to complete at least one writing course; a second writing course may be required depending on an entering student's skill level.

Research Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition

Fred Travis mentoring studentDr. Fred Travis, Department Chair and Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition is the author of over 80 published papers in:

  • Psychophysiological correlates of higher states of consciousness
  • Investigation into the brain patterns of world-class performers
  • Effects of the Transcendental Meditation practice on child development
  • Effects of the Transcendental Meditation practice on promoting healthy aging

Brain research can be used to test theoretical concepts and give insight into your own questions about the inner working of the brain while meditating, performing cognitive tasks, listening to sounds, and more.

Courses may include

  • MVS 241 Models of Development: Frontiers of Human Potential
    • This course will explore models of human development across the lifespan. You will examine Piaget’s model of cognitive development; Loevinger and Cook-Greuter’s models of ego or self-development; Kohlberg’s model of moral development; and the Science and Technology of Consciousness of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
  • SL W200 Change Begins Within
    • If one wants to change the world, what better way than to start with oneself? This is the simple premise of the course. It is part study and part personal challenge. We will learn about the science of well-being, health, and wholeness from modern science and Vedic Science, and about the dynamics of behavioral change. We will then apply what we learn to our own lives. For the challenge part of the course, students will select two or more behaviors they wish to change. With the support of a small team, you will try to make these changes, applying the lessons of the course.
  • MVS 210 Veda: Fabric of Consciousness
    • Is human knowledge inevitably partial or can we fathom complete knowledge? How are insights of ancient seers into the nature of reality relevant to our contemporary lives? This course examines questions such as these in light of Maharishi Vedic Science (“Vedic” is from “Veda,” meaning knowledge). You will learn about Vedic literature — including Yoga, Vedanta, and the Upanishads — in light of the direct experience of consciousness. From time immemorial, Vedic literature has been studied for its enlightening wisdom; this course explores Maharishi’s unified structure of Vedic literature as the dynamics of consciousness knowing itself. Qualities of consciousness — such as expanding, unifying, and analyzing — are explored in the branches of Vedic literature, in human physiology and in the structure of the universe.
  • MVS 300 Science of Being and Art of Living
    • The Science of Being and Art of Living was Maharishi’s first book, published in 1963. In this course, both through reading and through studying Maharishi’s videos, students investigate the main themes of the book — Being, the essential constituent of creation; how to contact and how to live Being; how to live one’s full potential in thought, speech, action, and relationships; and God-realization.
  • MVS 370 Maharishi’s Yoga: Theory and Practice
    • This course explores themes related to Yoga philosophy in light of the effortless, natural practice of Transcendental Meditation. The course introduces Yoga both as a settled inner state of mind and a path of development, as brought out by Maharishi in his books and lectures. Topics include Yoga and the brain, Yoga and health, development of full human potential, Yoga and Dharma, and the role of Yoga Asanas in the eight limbs of Yoga brought out in the traditional Yoga text, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra.

More courses

  • SL S300 Using Holistic Thinking to Understand and Address Complex Problems
    • How can we understand large, multi-disciplinary problems like climate change, food insecurity, and income inequality? By applying interdisciplinary, systems-based, integrative thinking — or holistic thinking. This is the starting point of this course. Using big and small, fictional and real, situations and formal problems, we practice looking at problems from multiple angles, with the aim of integrating what we know and finding holes in our own understanding. This thinking is further enhanced through the introduction of a number of Consciousness-Based® principles that are transdisciplinary in origin and help us see larger patterns in the dynamical systems that make up problems. From applying these principles students gain a systematic and practical approach to understanding and approaching problems.
  • MVS 309 Social Transformation and World Peace
    • Course participants study how Maharishi applied the ancient knowledge of Yoga technologies to create contemporary solutions for world peace. This includes a focus on the principles of and published scientific research on creating coherence in the collective consciousness. There is an in-depth review of Maharishi’s historic unfoldment of this knowledge from 1960 to current strategies to create permanent world peace in this generation. By way of comparison, there is also a brief review of other peace-creating strategies. The course includes both theoretical understanding and direct experience of peace-creating programs, with emphasis on the relationship of personal inner peace and peace creation in the public domain.
  • MVS 302 Dharma: Insights from Maharishi’s Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita
    • What action in life is best for your personal development – your “Dharma”? How does this relate to family, social, and global responsibilities? How do we make the right decisions for ourselves and others, and act in a way that is enjoyable, not stressful and exhausting? This course studies timeless questions and dilemmas such as these, discussed in the Bhagavad-Gita — using as a guide Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s translation of and commentary on chapters one to six.

Featured faculty

Keith Wegman

Keith Wegman

Keith Wegman

Keith Wegman received his PhD in Maharishi Vedic Science from Maharishi International University in 2004, his MA in Science of Creative Intelligence from Maharishi International University in 1993, and BA in Philosophy/Art from St. Olaf College in 1991. Dr. Wegman has taught numerous undergraduate and graduate level courses in Sanskrit and Maharishi Vedic Science and has researched and lectured in these subjects both nationally and internationally over the last 25 years. He is also a Certified Teacher of Transcendental Meditation and is the Director of TM instruction at the Raj Ayurveda Health Spa.

All Department Faculty

Cost & Aid for bachelor’s degree, 2025-26

  • US On-Campus Students

    • US On-Campus Undergraduate

    This estimate is based on one year for a typical on-campus Federal Pell Grant recipient (represents 75% of our onsite undergraduates). File your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), using our FAFSA code 011113, and then contact our financial aid office for questions on other variables.

    Annual Cost and Typical Financial Aid
    Tuition and fees$18,530
    Housing (single room) and meals$7,400
    Grants and Scholarship (typical)-$16,600
    Net cost per year$9,330
    Federal student loans-$9,330
    Your payment$0

    Additional Financial Aid Information

    • Personal Expenses and Books
      • $2,400 Federal Work Study is available toward your estimated $4,800 out of pocket costs.
    • Scholarships and Grants
      • Scholarship from MIU described above consists of the Federal Pell Grant and the Federal Supplemental Education Grant and is based on (1) full-time enrollment and (2) financial need based on expected FAFSA outcome.
    • Federal Student Loans
      • Repayment begins after your enrollment ends. Unique repayment plans are available such as income-based, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and deferments based on low income or unemployment.

    • Education Tax Incentives
      • There are a variety of money-saving tax benefits to assist in reducing the cost of education expenses. More about education tax benefits.
    • Veterans
      • For questions regarding Veterans Benefits, please contact Tal Ron, our Veterans Certifying Official and Director of Financial Aid, at tron@miu.edu or 641-472-1156.

    Loan Repayment Options

    • Standard
      • Payments are a fixed amount that ensures your loans are paid off within 10 years (within 10 to 30 years for Consolidation Loans).
    • Extended
      • Payments may be fixed or graduated and will ensure that your loans are paid off within 25 years.
    • Graduated
      • Payments are lower at first and then increase, usually every two years, and are for an amount that will ensure your loans are paid off within 10 years (within 10 to 30 years for Consolidation Loans).
    • Income-Based
      • Your monthly payments will be either 10 or 15 percent of discretionary income (depending on when you received your first loans), but never more than you would have paid under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan.
    • Income Contingent
      • Payments are recalculated each year and are based on your updated income, family size, and the total amount of your Direct Loans. Any outstanding balance will be forgiven if you haven’t repaid your loan in full after 25 years.
    • Income Sensitive
      • Your monthly payment is based on annual income, but your loan will be paid in full within 15 years.
    Tuition, other fees, scholarships, and financial policies are subject to change prior to the entry date. For more information, contact us at awardofficer@miu.edu for a quick reply — normally one business day — or see more about financial aid.

  • US Online Students

    • US Online Undergraduate

    This estimate is based on one year for a typical online Federal Pell Grant recipient (represents 90% of our online undergraduates). File your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), using our FAFSA code 011113, and then contact our financial aid office for questions on other variables.

    Annual Cost and Typical Financial Aid
    Tuition and fees$18,190
    Grants and scholarship (typical)-$11,700
    Net cost per year$6,490
    Federal student loan-$6,490
    Your payment$0

    Part time online enrollment is available. Tuition is $600 per credit with normal load of 9-11 credits. Federal student loans are available and the federal Pell Grant is proportional to the credit load.

    Additional Financial Aid Information

    • Scholarships and Grants
      • The grants and scholarship described above consist of the Federal Pell Grant, the Federal Supplemental Education Grant, and institutional scholarship based on (1) full-time enrollment and (2) financial need determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
    • Employer Waiver Program
      • Many companies offer tuition assistance programs to their employees. If you’re currently employed, we encourage you to check on this. If they offer assistance, please contact MIU’s Financial Aid office.
    • Federal Student Loans
      • Federal Student Loans have limits based on lifetime usage, annual limits, and limited to the educational costs for each semester. Here are the annual maximum limits:

      • $5,500 per year for first-year dependent
      • $6,500 per year for second-year dependent
      • $7,500 per year for third, fourth, fifth-year dependent
      • $9,500 per year for first-year independent
      • $10,500 per year for second-year independent
      • $12,500 per year for third, fourth, fifth-year independent
    • Federal Student Loan Repayment
      • Federal Student Loan Repayment is postponed as long as you are enrolled at least half-time each semester. If your enrollment drops below half-time, you have a six-month grace period before repayment begins. There are also postponements for low income and unemployment, as well as repayment based on income and Public Service Forgiveness.

    • Education Tax Incentives
      • There are a variety of money-saving tax benefits to assist in reducing the cost of education expenses. More about education tax benefits.
    • Veterans
      • For questions regarding Veterans Benefits, please contact Tal Ron, our Veterans Certifying Official and Director of Financial Aid, at tron@miu.edu or 641-472-1156.

    Loan Repayment Options

    • Standard
      • Payments are a fixed amount that ensures your loans are paid off within 10 years (within 10 to 30 years for Consolidation Loans).
    • Extended
      • Payments may be fixed or graduated and will ensure that your loans are paid off within 25 years.
    • Graduated
      • Payments are lower at first and then increase, usually every two years, and are for an amount that will ensure your loans are paid off within 10 years (within 10 to 30 years for Consolidation Loans).
    • Income-Based
      • Your monthly payments will be either 10 or 15 percent of discretionary income (depending on when you received your first loans), but never more than you would have paid under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan.
    • Income Contingent
      • Payments are recalculated each year and are based on your updated income, family size, and the total amount of your Direct Loans. Any outstanding balance will be forgiven if you haven’t repaid your loan in full after 25 years.
    • Income Sensitive
      • Your monthly payment is based on annual income, but your loan will be paid in full within 15 years.
    Tuition, other fees, scholarships, and financial policies are subject to change prior to the entry date. For more information, contact us at awardofficer@miu.edu for a quick reply — normally one business day — or see more about financial aid.

  • International On-Campus Students

    • International On-Campus Undergraduate

    Annual Cost and Typical Financial Aid
    Tuition and fees$18,530
    Housing (single room) and meals$7,400
    Health insurance (estimate)$2,004
    Personal expenses, books, unexpected needs (estimate)$3,500
    Cost Per Year$31,434

    Full-time students may apply for up to $6,000 scholarship based on qualifying level of documented family income. Our undergraduate scholarship application form will be available upon application to the university.

    Tuition, other fees, scholarships, and financial policies are subject to change prior to the entry date.

  • International Online Students

    • International Online Undergraduate

    Typically, online enrollment is two courses at a time (17 credits) or one course at a time (9-11 credits), per semester (two semesters per year).

    Tuition and Fees per Semester
    Full-time (12 or more credits)$9,095
    Fewer than 12 credits$600 per credit

    Tuition, other fees, scholarships, and financial policies are subject to change prior to the entry date.

FAQ

  • How many hours per week should I expect to spend on this program?
    • You should plan to spend 12-14 hours per week for a 4-credit eight-week course. If you are taking 2 courses during an eight-week period, you should plan to spend 24-28 hours per week reading, creating assignments and discussion forum posts, and studying course materials. The time it takes to complete an online course successfully depends on your willingness to stick to a regular schedule and learn to study effectively, more than on any other factor.
  • How do you make the online learning experience effective and fulfilling?

    • We accomplish this by using an online learning platform that students find highly engaging. The program also features an extensive collaboration between students and one-on-one interaction between our faculty and each student.

  • What is the difference between a major and a specialization?
    • An undergraduate major is a primary field of study during your undergraduate years. This major defines the actual degree and specifies core courses, electives, and the foundational knowledge that you will acquire. An academic specialization is a more concentrated area of courses which you can choose in addition (32 additional credits) to your major field, which may be in the same disciplinary area or something different.
  • Do I need to have transfer credits or an associate’s degree to enroll in this program?
    • No, we do not require students to have transfer credits or an associate’s degree from a prior college. We’ve designed our online bachelor’s programs to accommodate transfer students, but we also welcome new undergraduates with no previous college education. We do require a high school diploma or equivalent with a minimum 2.5 GPA for entry to our bachelor’s programs.

Next Steps

Request info

Get your questions answered
and download our free booklet.

Request info >
visit us

Sign up for one-on-one virtual visits,
Visitors Weekend, or Visitors Saturday.

Learn more >
Apply to MIU

Our next entries:
Aug 2025 • Feb 2026

Apply > Apply >
X

Follow MIU