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Before Applying

If you will be awarded a Master’s degree by the time you would begin graduate study at the University of Maryland, or your 3 year Bachelor’s degree was earned in a country with 13 years of pre-university formal education, then you are eligible for graduate study.  We will also consider those with a 3 year Bachelor’s and a Post Graduate Diploma from a nationally recognized institution to be eligible.  If your sole qualification is a 3 year Bachelor’s from a country with 12 years of pre-university education, and your degree would not qualify you for admission to an academic graduate program in this country, then you are not eligible to apply to the Graduate School.  If your 3 year Bachelor’s would qualify you for admission to academic graduate programs in the country in which it was earned, then you are welcome to submit an application which will be reviewed by the department to determine whether you are a strong enough candidate for an exception to be made.  The 3 year Bachelor’s must already have been earned at the time of application.  It needs to be in a field closely related to the field of study that you are applying to with strong grades in order to be considered for an exception.

No, do not upload an encrypted transcript to the application. It will upload as a blank document. The program will not be able to use it for its evaluation. Please print the document out, scan it, then upload a scanned version.

The University of Maryland is dedicated to maintaining a vibrant international graduate student community. The International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) is a valuable resource of information and assistance for prospective and current international students. International applicants are encouraged to explore the services they offer, and contact them with related questions. As an international applicant, there are a few additional requirements you must satisfy to be considered for admission. Please see the Graduate Admissions Process for International Applicants for more information.

The University of Maryland Graduate School waives application fees to eligible students in participating programs.  If you have participated in any of these programs, simply follow the instructions at the bottom of the page and The Graduate School will prompt you with an email asking for verification of participation when and if needed. Always contact The Graduate School (gradschool@umd.edu) with questions about fee waiver eligibility or to obtain additional information about the programs listed below.

The Graduate School waives the application fee for applicants from the following organizations and/or preparatory programs:

To obtain the application fee waiver:

  1. Applicants need to start their online application, but they must not submit the application until their application fee has been waived.
  2. The Graduate School is sent a request for the waiver (choose ‘Diversity Program Application Fee Waiver’).
  3. The applicant sends proof of participation/membership in that organization/program (typically a letter from the program/organization director, documentation, verification form, etc).
  4. The Graduate School will send verification of the waiver by email.
  5. This should be done well in advance of the program’s application deadline (application deadlines vary)
  6. The applicant can submit the application without paying the $75 fee once an email receipt has been sent stating that the application fee has been waived.

Please note: Any student that has attended IRT, ABRCMS or SACNAS, should send an email to gradschool@umd.edu with subject: [conference name] attendee fee waiver. In the event that proof of participation may be needed, the Graduate School will inform the applicant. 

Follow-up questions regarding application fee waivers can be sent to Office of Graduate Diversity and Inclusion (OGDI) Program Director Christopher Pérez (cperez6@umd.edu).

fee waiver

Detailed information regarding tuition costs can be found on the Student Financial Services and Cashiering website.

The University’s policy on collecting and using Social Security numbers is outlined in IT Policies, Standards & Guidelines.

This depends on the program. Some academic departments allow spring admissions, while others do not. Programs with current spring semester start availability will have upcoming spring semester options listed in the "Application Deadlines" section of the program's Admissions Requirements page.

The online application accepts documents up to 4 MB in size. If your document is larger than this, please try scanning and uploading the document as a black and white PDF. International students must upload transcripts and diplomas in one combined PDF. If you are still experiencing difficulty, please email gradappsupport@umd.edu.

Please follow the directions in these two cases:

  1. Calculation from letter grades/marks 
  2. Calculation from numerical grades/marks

You may also submit your GPA using your own institution’s grading scale.

Your bank or credit card statement will say ‘UMCP Bursar Net Pay.’

If you are unable to select the department and term to which you wish to apply, this may mean one of two things:

  1. The academic department or program does not offer admission for the term that you have selected
  2. The department’s application deadline has passed

In either case, you should double-check the department’s application deadline to be certain they are still accepting applications.

Application deadlines for each program are listed on the respective program's Academic Catalog page.

You will be required to submit TOEFL, IELTS or PTE scores if you do not hold a degree from a U.S. institution or from an exempt English-speaking country. If you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident with international credentials, you will still be required to submit English test scores if you do not hold a degree from one of these countries.

For further information on providing evidence of English proficiency, including the list of exempt English-speaking countries, see English Language Proficiency Requirements.

To be reconsidered for admission you will need to complete a new application, pay the application fee, and upload materials again. If you previously mailed in an official hard copy transcript you do not need to submit an official transcript again, unless you had not yet completed the degree when you first applied, in which case you will need to submit an updated transcript. Additionally, the system will still require you to re-upload an unofficial/scanned copy of the transcript in the application portal for each new application. This allows the department to view the transcript information when they download your application as a PDF. Valid, official test scores do not have to be submitted again unless they will have expired by the time you are reapplying.

To be reconsidered for admission you will need to complete a new application, pay the application fee, and upload materials again. If you previously mailed in an official hard copy transcript you do not need to submit an official transcript again, unless you had not yet completed the degree when you first applied, in which case you will need to submit an updated transcript. However, the system will still require you to re-upload an unofficial/scanned copy of the transcript in the application portal for each new application. This allows the department to view the transcript information when they download your new application as a PDF. Valid, official test scores do not have to be submitted again unless they will have expired by the time you are reapplying.

If you are experiencing difficulty with the application fee website in the application portal, please email gradappsupport@umd.edu for guidance.

The online application can only accept PDF files, with a maximum file size of 4MB. Printing and re-scanning the PDF only in black and white, and/or removing graphics may reduce the size of your upload. Please do not mail or email duplicates of documents that were successfully uploaded to the online system.

You can try three things: first, you can attempt to search for keywords of the ‘School Name’ instead of the institution’s entire name (for example: just ‘Maryland’ instead of ‘University of Maryland’). If you do not find an exact match, please verify your spelling carefully. Second, if you cannot find the institution in the list, please check the "Institution Not Found" box. A dropdown menu will appear, asking for the country in which the institution is located, as well as a text box where you can enter the name of the institution. If you attended a college that is affiliated to a university, please use the name of the university/institution that awarded or will award the final degree certificate.

If you are applying to multiple departments or programs offered in the Graduate School, you would need to submit multiple applications through the same online application portal. You may use the same login information, but must finish and submit the current application before beginning another one.

Deferred applications generate a new decision letter. If you have questions about your post-deferral status, please contact the department with which you have a deferral agreement. International applicants need to contact ISSS regarding visa documentation.

If you are applying to multiple departments or programs offered in the Graduate School, you would need to submit multiple applications through the same online application portal. You may use the same login information, but must finish and submit the current application before beginning another one.

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