Matriculation Processes

All provisionally admitted students must be fully admitted by the end of the first year of enrollment or as noted on their offer of admission in order to continue with their program of study. Only fully admitted students are eligible to receive federally funded financial aid. Please address all questions regarding this requirement to the Office of Financial Aid.

After the third semester in which a student’s program runs, a student who has not registered must comply with the normal admissions process. If admission is granted, students will be asked to provide the reason for not continuing their studies and indicate their plan to succeed in the program. Please note the student must be in an unconditional admissions status.  Student should seek application assistance from the Graduate Admissions Office since the student may not have to provide all required documents. The Program Director/Department will follow all normal admissions processes to determine if a student will be readmitted to his or her program. The student will follow the regular admissions process and may be subject to all applicable application fees. Additionally, students that desire to change programs must do so by completing the Change of Program form.

All masters programs must be completed within 5 years of initial enrollment including the transfer of any courses towards the current program of study, while all doctoral programs must be completed within 7 years of initial enrollment. Students with extenuating circumstances may petition their Advisory Committee for an extension. The committee will convene, render a decision and forward their recommendation to the Dean, School of Graduate Studies and Research. If the recommendation is to grant an extension, the recommendation will be accompanied with a review of any coursework outside the time limit and a recommendation on how the student will bridge this gap. The committee may recommend retaking any coursework that has changed during the student’s enrollment, require completion.

The program director or assigned advisor should review the general program of study with each student. An individual plan should be submitted to the School of Graduate Studies and Research by the end of the student’s first semester of enrollment. This document should be signed by the student, program advisor, program director and chairperson prior to submission to the Dean, School of Graduate Studies and Research. This signifies that the student is aware of all requirements for successful matriculation. This document will be used for audit purposes as the student matriculates through the program of study. Students requesting transfer of credit should utilize this form as well accompanied by an official transcript. Transfer of credit is reviewed by the Department prior to submission to the School of Graduate Studies and Research for approval.

The program director (or designated advisor) is responsible for fostering the committee appointment process. The committee should be formulated no later than the end of the 2nd semester of enrollment for masters programs, the end of the 3rd semester of enrollment for the doctor of education program, or the 5th semester of enrollment for doctor of philosophy programs. The program director (or designee) will schedule an initial meeting with the student during the first semester of enrollment to develop a plan of study at which time the process for establishment of an advisory committee will be discussed. A meeting will be called in which all committee members will assemble to discuss the responsibilities of the committee, the student’s capstone project, and frequency (and mode) of meeting. The Chair of the Advisory Committee should hold faculty rank in the same Department/Program of the student. All committee signatures are will gathered at this meeting; a copy will be submitted and to The Office of Graduate Studies and Research Office, one retained by the student, and one copy retained in the Department Office. The Program Director will monitor student progress via this committee once established.

All graduate students must petition their program administrators for permission to advance to candidacy status. Students must be fully admitted and in good standing academically in order to meet this milestone. Timelines and requirements for admission to candidacy vary by program however general requirements include: proposal or prospectus development for programs requiring completion of a project, paper, or a thesis; successful completion of comprehensive or qualifier examinations for all doctoral programs. Masters students generally request admission to candidacy following successful completion of the required core curriculum and completion of any activities related to the culminating requirement, such as submission of a research proposal or prospectus for a thesis program. Non-thesis programs generally place this requirement on the culminating activity itself; such as completion of a comprehensive examination. Doctoral students are admitted to candidacy following successful completion of qualifier or comprehensive examinations. Whatever the timeline defined by the program, a student will not be allowed to matriculate past this point without meeting this milestone.