Doctoral Program Admission Requirements

Doctoral programs admit students to begin in Fall semester only. The application deadline for the doctoral programs is April 1 for the following Fall.

In considering applications and making admission decisions for the Ph.D. programs, the School of Urban and Public Affairs is guided by a holistic approach based on the following sets of factors and decisional criteria.

Admission Criteria:

Section A: Sets of Factors considered for admission to Ph.D. programs:

1. Basic Factors:
a. Grade point average (GPA): GPA based on the graduate course work completed.
b. The Graduate Records Examination (GRE) scores: verbal and quantitative.

2. Determinative Factors:
a. Letters of Recommendation
b. Personal statement
c. Field of study: For the doctoral programs, the master’s-level field of study.

3. Enhancing Factors (for all programs):
a. Community Service, especially volunteer service in disadvantaged areas and for disadvantaged people.
b. Multilingual proficiency.
c. First Generation graduate student from family.
d. Work experience, publications, and/or level of responsibility.
e. Geographic diversity.

Section B: Decisional Criteria for admission to Ph.D. programs:

Level 1: Applicants will be unconditionally admitted with a graduate GPA of 3.6 or above, a Verbal GRE of at least 500 and a Quantitative GRE of at least 500, strong letters of recommendation, and a strong personal statement, except for international applicants who will also be required to have a score of 550 or higher on the TOEFL (213 or higher on the computer-based TOEFL).

Level 2. Applicants will be unconditionally admitted with a GPA above 3.7, only one of the Verbal or Quantitative scores greater than 500 with combined GRE score of 900-999, strong letters of recommendation, and a strong personal statement.

Level 3: The Graduate Advisor may admit on probation applicants with a GPA of less than 3.6 and/or a Verbal GRE score of less than 500 and a Quantitative GRE score of less than 500 based on a majority of enhancing and determinative factors. The Graduate Advisor will set the probationary standards.

Level 4: Applicants who do not meet the standards of Level 3 will be referred to the Admissions Committee for final adjudication. If admitted on probation, the committee will set any probationary standards.

Section C: Other Types of Admission:

1. Deferred: A deferred decision may be granted when a file is incomplete or received after the deadline, or when a denied decision is not appropriate.

2. Provisional: An applicant unable to supply all required documentation prior to the admission deadline but who otherwise appears to meet admission requirements may be granted provisional admission.