Office of Graduate & Professional Studies admission information

Applicants must have earned a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution and a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 out of a 4.0 scale to be considered for regular admission. To enroll in a NAU graduate program, you are expected to have undergraduate educational experiences, including general education studies that are similar to those required for the baccalaureate at Northern Arizona University. Students holding a cumulative GPA below a 3.0 may be considered for graduate school admission through a recommendation and rationale from the academic program.

Academic programs, departments, or colleges may have admission requirements in addition to those of the Office of Graduate & Professional Studies. These may include, but are not limited to: the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), a portfolio, letters of recommendation, or a personal statement. For these specific requirements, contact the specific academic program and/or refer to the academic catalog.

Applications are processed by the Office of Graduate & Professional Studies as they are received. However, please be aware that many academic units have specific deadlines [insert link to Deadlines page on “deadlines”] and the program’s review of applications varies by unit. Please contact the academic unit for questions about their application review timeline.

If your program does not have a deadline, you are encouraged to apply as early as possible and a minimum of six weeks before the semester or summer session in which you wish to enroll.

Only the Office of Graduate & Professional Studies can make formal offers of admission. Academic programs make admission recommendations to the Office of Graduate & Professional Studies based on their review of all required application materials. While departments and programs may notify applicants that they have recommended their admission, the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies notifies all applicants in writing of the final graduate admission decision.

Admission to many academic master’s programs is on a competitive basis, and those programs frequently set higher standards and evaluation criteria than the Office of Graduate & Professional Studies. Therefore, meeting the minimum Office of Graduate and Professional Studies requirements does not ensure admission to a program.

Regular Admission

If an applicant meets all admission criteria, have been evaluated and recommended for admission by the academic program, and have been evaluated and approved by the Office of Graduate & Professional Studies, the applicant will be granted regular admission, barring any extenuating circumstances.

Conditional Admission

If an applicant is not qualified for regular admission status, they may be granted conditional admission. Reasons for conditional admission vary and may include, but are not limited to:

• Bachelor’s degree is not complete or posted to your transcript;
• Minimum admission standards were not met;
• Programmatic or discipline-specific requirements are deficient or the applicant lacks certain pre-requisites;
• Began a graduate program as a “Preplan” student*.

To change from conditional status to regular status, you must complete all admission requirements and remove all deficiencies noted in your admission letter. Students who fail to meet conditional admission requirements may be denied regular admission upon department and Office of Graduate & Professional Studies review and will not be allowed to progress in the degree. For more information, please see NAU Policy 100319: Academic Continuation, Probation, Dismissal, and Readmission – Graduate.

* Only certain graduate degrees are considered “Preplan” programs. Students who apply for a “Preplan” degree program are given the opportunity to take courses soon after the submission of their application. Students who fail to meet Office of Graduate & Professional Studies or programmatic admission requirements may be denied regular admission and will not be allowed to progress in the degree, despite any courses that may have been completed.

Non-degree Admission

If you are interested in personal enrichment or not ready to apply to a degree program, you may apply for admission as a non-degree student. The application process is streamlined and does not require you to submit transcripts or test scores.

Graduate non-degree seeking students are allowed to apply up to 12 units of appropriate and approved course work toward a graduate degree upon admission to a program.

Change of Enrollment Term

If you are offered admission to a graduate program at Northern Arizona University and decide not to attend in the term in which you are admitted, you must contact your academic department to request a change to your term of enrollment. The department will notify the Office of Graduate & Professional Studies, and your admission term will be updated.

Change of Graduate Program/Plan

If you wish to switch to a different graduate program, please contact the Office of Graduate & Professional Studies to determine what steps are needed to facilitate this change. Students who switch graduate degree programs may have to reapply to their new program.