Apply to Graduate School
Information on Applying to Graduate School
Application Deadlines
The application deadline for the Ph.D. program for Fall semester admission is January 1 for all applicants. For Spring semester admission, the deadline (file completion) is September 1 for international applicants and November 15 for domestic applicants. Please note that graduate assistantships are generally available only to applicants seeking admission for the Fall semester.
The application deadline for the MA program for Fall semester admission is January 1 for all applicants. However, the department will continue to accept MA program applications completed by April 15. For Spring semester admission, the deadline (file completion) is September 1 for international applicants and November 15 for domestic applicants.
A person not enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who desires admission to the graduate program in Political Science should obtain a Graduate School Catalog and read carefully the full description of the admission procedure. Specific department admission requirements are as follows:
- An applicant must normally have earned at least a 3.0 overall GPA in all undergraduate work;
- An applicant must normally have earned at least a 3.2 GPA in all Political Science courses during the last two years of undergraduate study;
- An applicant to the Ph.D. program, must normally have earned at least a 3.5 overall GPA in all work taken for graduate credit;
- An applicant must normally have scored at least 302 combined on the verbal and quantitative sections of the Graduate Record Examination.
- Three letters of recommendation from individuals familiar with the applicant’s potential for graduate study should be sent to the department of political science
International applicants must, in general, meet the requirements stipulated above. In addition, international students may need to submit TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) scores totaling at least 550 (or 80 on the TOEFL iBT or 6.5 on the IELTS) to be considered for admission. Please click here for specific details on which international students must supply TOEFL scores.
NOTE: You must be accepted by the Graduate School as well as the department of Political Science in order to enroll.
More Information
Most information on applying can be found at the University of Tennessee Office of Graduate Admissions website.
Questions?
Contact our director of Graduate Studies, Wonjae Hwang.
Wonjae Hwang
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Political Science
1019 McClung Tower
Knoxville, TN 37996-0410
Phone: (865) 974-0608
Email: whwang@utk.edu