Admissions Policies
See the following links for the minimum university admissions requirements:
In addition, the Minimum University Admissions Requirements Policy provides guidance on admissions regulations. In certain cases, a score on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) or the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) can be used in lieu of the GRE/GMAT. Please check with your admissions counselor for how to make this exception.
Students without a baccalaureate or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution or a recognized foreign institution are not admitted to graduate degree programs, graduate certificate programs, or graduate nondegree status. The College of Business Administration requires that all degrees must have been earned from a regionally accredited institution.
Graduate programs are encouraged to ask for optional application materials and set higher minimum admissions requirements than the university requirements. Some graduate programs may choose to require letters of recommendation, essays, personal/research statements, and resumes. Programs may also choose to conduct interviews, auditions or require portfolios from their applicants. Applicants to doctoral programs must submit completed applications including three letters of recommendation, resume and essay or personal/research statement.
Individual program deadlines can be found at www.graduatecatalog.ucf.edu/programs/ by just clicking on the individual graduate program and then clicking on “application deadlines.” Both domestic and international deadlines are given.
Prospective students must apply online by the stated application deadline for your program, including submitting all supporting documents (with the exception of transcripts and test scores). The graduate online application can be found at www.students.graduate.ucf.edu/gradonlineapp/. Transcripts must be official and submitted directly to the UCF College of Graduate Studies from the university. Test scores must be reported electronically to the UCF College of Graduate Studies by the corresponding testing agency. Under no circumstances should applicants send supporting documents to the faculty or graduate program directly; this will slow down the application process for them. Unofficial supporting documents submitted will not be processed. It is important to advise applicants of these policies when you meet with them so they can experience a smooth application process. Graduate programs are encouraged to have earlier application deadlines.
Admissions Committees
Admissions committees should include faculty that represent different specializations within the department. Admissions committees should also be diverse and include a good mix of faculty by gender and ethnicity. Admissions committees should meet together as a group to facilitate the review of applications and make admissions decisions in a timely manner. Committee meetings should be scheduled ahead of time so that they meet no later than two weeks after the program’s application deadline. Admissions committees do not need to wait for all committee members to be present before a meeting can be scheduled. Committee members should review their program’s admissions requirements in the graduate catalog and develop standard criteria before reviewing the applications. Standard requirements should include criteria for students to be successful in meeting the learning outcomes for the program (institutional effectiveness goals). Requirements and admissions recommendations shall not include preferences on the basis of any category protected by law.
Making Admissions Recommendations
Admissions recommendations should be made by the graduate program committee within two weeks of the application being processed and no later than two weeks after the application deadline for the term (decision deadlines are established by the UCF College of Graduate Studies each academic year). Prospective graduate students often accept the first admission offer that they receive, therefore, it is imperative that files are reviewed promptly and recommendations rendered within two weeks of the application being processed and completed. This is especially true for prospective students seeking fellowships and awards.
Graduate programs should identify strong applicants early in the admissions process and nominate them to the colleges to be considered for fellowship awards. The university begins to award fellowships in late January, so that those students nominated will be considered quickly for fellowships. If you have a particularly talented individual, it is best not to wait until all admissions decisions are made for all students.
Decisions are made by the UCF College of Graduate Studies and an automated admissions letter is sent to the applicant. Programs should not send admissions letters to students, although we greatly encourage you to communicate with students about when they should expect the admissions letter, when you plan on making your recommendations, and also if you need more information before you can finalize an admissions recommendation.
Notifying Applicants of Admissions Decisions
Applicants should never be given their admissions decision verbally. If the need arises, only program directors should be the ones giving applicants information about their decision over the phone. Should an applicant call you to inquire about an admissions decision please refer them to the program director. The College of Graduate Studies provides applicants being offered admission a way to accept/decline their offer. The link to electronically accept/decline is found on myUCF. If an applicant notifies a program directly that they will accept or decline an offer of admission, please notify the College of Graduate Studies by email with this information.
International Admissions
For specific information about visa issues and other information once an admissions decision has been made, please see the section on International Services. International applicants are admissible to master's and doctoral degree programs only. International applicants seeking an F or J visa cannot be admitted as nondegree-seeking. They also cannot be admitted to certificate programs unless they have been previously admitted to a degree program.
International applicants have additional requirements and must follow earlier deadlines due to the amount of time it takes to process their immigration paperwork in order for them to be able to obtain a student visa. International students who cannot prove that they are from a country where English is the only official language or establish that their previous bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree was earned from a country where English is the official language or that the university where they earned their previous degree used English as the official language of instruction, must submit a qualifying score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or a score on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to prove their English proficiency. For all doctoral and master's applicants to programs that require the GRE, the applicants must also submit official transcripts to be evaluated by our college. The College of Graduate Studies employs two International Credential Evaluators that review the academic credentials of applicants (excluding applicants to master's programs in the College of Business Administration and Rosen College of Hospitality Management) that receive their undergraduate degree at a college or university outside of the United States. They conduct a complete assessment of all required credential documents (official transcript(s) and official certification of degree) submitted by the applicant, including the record of all academic course work.
The International Services Center handles the visa documents checklist for each international applicant. International applicants face additional challenges and need sufficient time to obtain appointments to receive their visa. Therefore, it is extremely important in making admissions recommendations for these applicants as soon as their files are completed and before the international decision deadline for the term.
Please refer to the International Services chapter of this guide for additional information about international admissions.
International Transcript Evaluations
The College of Graduate Studies offers transcript evaluations at no cost that provid U.S. degree equivalence of foreign education, for all international applicants to our doctoral and master's programs that require the GRE (excluding those applicants to master's programs located in the College of Business Administration and the Rosen College of Hospitality Management).
For master’s programs that do not require a GRE, a course-by-course evaluation is required from an evaluation service. If a more in-depth analysis of the applicant's transcript is needed or for a course-by-course evaluation, applicants will need to contact World Education Services, Inc. (WES) or Josef Silny.
Graduate programs should prioritize requests for evaluations. Prioritizing the best applicants will help with the fellowship nominations process and the admissions decisions. Please see your program director if you would like a high priority for a particular applicant. Doctoral fellowships are awarded through a university committee starting in January, therefore, it is important to submit requests as soon as possible so transcript evaluations can be done for the best applicants prior to this time.
Please see the International Services section for more information on International Admissions, particularly with regard to visas and other concerns of international applicants.
Admissions to Graduate Certificate Programs
All students, including current UCF master’s, specialist, or doctoral students, must complete an application that designates the graduate certificate. The student should apply online (www.students.graduate.ucf.edu/gradonlineapp/) as soon as possible, preferably as soon as they begin taking the required courses. Students who do not submit an application and gain admittance to the graduate certificate program will not be processed for graduate certificate completion.
Appeals of Admissions Decision
Programs should never deny an admission based on criteria that are not stated in the Graduate Catalog. The College of Graduate Studies notifies applicants that are denied. Applicants denied admission, who meet the minimum university admission requirements to graduate status but who do not meet the more stringent program requirements, may request reconsideration by written request to the program director within thirty days of the date of denial, as required by university regulations (UCF 2.003 (7)).Applicants with disabilities may take the GRE or GMAT under special conditions to compensate for the disability. Scores obtained in this manner may then be used in the same way as scores for any other students, because the compensation would have already been taken into account.
The appeal process begins when an applicant completes a Graduate Petition Form (ADV-Graduate Petition Form at www.admin.graduate.ucf.edu/formsnfiles)and gives it to the program director. At this point, the program director should explain the entire appeal process to the applicant along with their rights during this process. The program director may ask the department or graduate program committee to examine the necessary information and recommend a response to the appeal. If feasible, it is often best for the prospective student to be invited before the graduate program committee to make an oral appeal. In many situations, if applicants feel that their complete situation has been heard and understood, then further appeals are unlikely, even if the appeal is denied at the program level.
The Vice Provost and Dean of the UCF College of Graduate Studies may ask the Graduate Council to examine the necessary information and recommend a response to the appeal. The UCF College of Graduate Studies and Graduate Council Appeals Subcommittee do not normally assess the academic judgment of an admissions decision, which is the province of the graduate program. The UCF College of Graduate Studies does investigate admission appeals to ensure that the admission process has been conducted fairly. The UCF College of Graduate Studies usually asks the graduate program for information regarding its admission process, as well as the number of applicants and admitted students for the semester in question, and the average GRE and GPA for applicants and for those who were admitted. The decision of the Vice Provost and Dean of the UCF College of Graduate Studies is final.
Faculty and Staff 
