Prospective students who have been denied admission to the College of Graduate Studies have the right to appeal the decision—which first goes to the Department Level. If the appeal is successful, the student must be willing to enter the program under a conditional acceptance and must show mastery of the content of the first three courses with a minimum of a 3.0 grade-point average to remain in the program. Appeals must be submitted within 60 days of the admission decision. Beyond that point, students will need to reapply to the program through ApplyTexas.
As of June 23, 2022, candidates with a GPA below 2.5 are required to submit their GRE scores with the appeal documentation.
An applicant who does not meet the minimum GPA requirement must perform at or above a score equivalent to a 2.7 GPA on the Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytic Writing sections of the GRE® (Graduate Record Examinations) revised General Test.
1 GRE Verbal and Quantitative scores are reported on a 130 to 170 scale.
2 GRE Analytical Writing scores are reported on a 0 to 6 scale in half-point increments.
Step 1: Read and complete the documents listed below.
The Admission’s Faculty Representative in the department reviews the appeal documents. If the decision to deny admissions is upheld, the appeal moves to the college level. The college committee considers appeals on an individual basis and makes recommendations to the dean of graduate studies.
Step 2: Level 1
Candidates will receive an email within 2 business days confirming that the appeal has been received and the date of the appeal review. All three documents must be completed in order to be reviewed by the committee. Appeals are reviewed by the Associate Dean in conjunction with the department chair and/or the department committee. Candidates will receive a decision on the Department Level within 10 business days from the receipt of the appeal.
Step 2: Level 2
Candidates who have been reviewed on Level 1 and want to continue the appeal process to Level 2 must send notice to the Coordinator of Admissions (see below). If the denial to admit was for GPA or professional reference reasons, the appeal process ends after Level 1. Candidates will receive an email notice of the final admission decision. If the denial to admit was due to the department application essay, students have the opportunity to take the appeal to Level 2, which is the College Student Relations Committee who meets monthly.
Step 2: Successful Appeals
If the decision is to overturn the admission decision and accept the student to the program, the student must be willing to take the first three courses under a conditional acceptance and score an overall 3.0 GPA within this time frame in order to be fully admitted to the program.