Admissions

Admission Requirements

Deadlines: Fall Admission Only

Admission Deadline – February 15, 2009 - U.S Citizens

January 15, 2009 – International

Applicants must meet the minimum admission requirements for full graduate standing. The minimum requirements are stated below:

Application materials

Master’s degree, with a recommended GPA of 3.5 or above
GRE scores, students admitted over the past four years have averaged over 550 verbal, over 600 quantitative, and 4.5 analytical writing.
Three letters of recommendation (two of the three from academic sources, i.e., professors)
Personal statement of purpose for pursuing the Ph.D. degree and an indication of the faculty sponsor.

Faculty Sponsor – Ph.D. students are not admitted into the program without a faculty sponsor

Prospective Ph.D. students should review the research interests of the faculty on the departmental web site and determine which faculty have interests similar to their own. Once similar interests have been identified, the student should contact the faculty member directly to discuss the possibility of working with them as a doctoral student

Whenever possible it is advisable to arrange a personal visit with the potential faculty sponsor and the Director of the Graduate Program (DGP)

Sample of scholarly writing (submit a 2-3 page sample or summary of your work directly to the Director of the PRTM Graduate Program (DGP)

Admission to the Doctoral program is very competitive and also depends on:

Availability of a faculty sponsor
Availability of funding
Teaching, research and other departmental needs

Review Procedure

All graduate applications are received online by the NC State University Graduate School (Do NOT send copies to the department). You can access the application on the site NCSU Graduate School Online Application.
The Graduate School notifies the department when an application has been received.
The departmental review process begins after your application has been completed and you have obtained a faculty sponsor.
The PRTM Graduate Admissions Committee, consisting of five faculty members, reviews all applications.
PRTM Graduate Admission Committee members recommend for or against admission to the doctoral program.
Based on the PRTM Graduate Admissions Committee recommendation, the Director of the Graduate Program (DG) notifies the NC State Graduate School of your acceptance into the program.
You are notified of acceptance into graduate school by the NC State University Graduate School and not by the department.
If you have applied for financial assistance from the department and funding is available, you will receive additional information from the department.
The departmental admission review process typically begins the last week of January and ends the last week in June of each year.
The departmental financial aid review process occurs after the student has been admitted and typically awards occur from March -June.

International Students

In order to be eligible for admission to the Graduate School all international applicants, regardless of citizenship, must demonstrate proficiency in English at a level necessary to be successful in a graduate program at NC State. For the requirements please read further on the site: http://www.ncsu.edu/grad/handbook/section2_3.php