i was rejected from a phd program in communications at penn staet. I have a JD and bachelors but my transcripts are mediocre at best. I did not take the GRE's. I want to try and get in through the back door by taking courses as a nondegree student and then reapplying. What are my chances?
119499
Is your undergraduate major in communication?  Most Ph.D. programs require significant familiarity with the field in question.  I hope your nondegree grad courses are in that field.  And why in the world didn't you take the GREs? Very high GRE scores would help.  Your chances are not good with mediocre transcripts, but you can show that you've become a better prospect by earning As in every one of your nondegree graduate courses, getting stellar letters of recommendation from those professors, including in your application a fine example of your work in one of those courses (a 15-20 page paper), and writing a flawless, literate application essay that demonstrates your interest in, familiarity with, and suitability for the field of study.  Oh, and you should describe your particular area of research interest in that essay, with reference to current scholarship in that area.\n\nOne last thing: you should always apply to more than one program.  Faculty make admissions decisions based on students' suitability for the program.  That means that if no faculty specialize in your area of interest and want to work with you, they'll assume (rightly) that you'd be better off elsewhere, and vote against admitting you.\n\nGood luck!  As the above person wrote, it will be an uphill battle for you.
299074
DearDebra dear...they will ask for transcripts, plus, the information is too easy to find out rather than lie about going to a previous school and getting kicked out YET again. Tsk, tsk, tsk.\n\nYou need to go to the office of admissions, or possibly the ombudsman to talk about your chances of re-enrolling. Some colleges will let you back in on a very strict conditional admission. Otherwise, you might have to settle for junior college, until you can prove yourself worthy again.
644815
First, it is unclear if you are asking about admission requirements, or requirements for successful completion of a Ph.D. program.  Second, requirements (in both cases) can vary from field to field.  Third, you have not indicated whether you already have a Master's degree.  However, I'll try to provide you with some basic information.\n\nIf you do not already have a Master's degree, you should apply to (and complete) Master's programs first, or combination Master's/PhD programs.  If you DO have a Master's degree, then of course, you will want to apply to PhD programs only. \n\nIn order to gain admission to a combination Master's/ Ph.D. program, you must:\n- have very good test scores (usually the GRE is the appropriate exam to take, but it depends on the field)\n- have excellent letters of recommendation from your undergraduate professors (most importantly, from those in the field in which you intend to study)\n- have an excellent undergraduate GPA (if there are blemishes on your record, they should be OUTSIDE of your intended field)\n- show, in your application statement, your preparation for graduate study in this field.  You should demonstrate familiarity with current research and especially, current theory in the field.  You should also be clear about your own specific research interests.  It is generally a good idea to submit an example of your recent work (a research paper, for example).\n\nA Master's degree usually takes 2 or 3 years (including coursework and thesis) to complete, again, depending on the field.\n\nA PhD usually requires two years of coursework, a year or so of completing language requirements (usually French, German, and any languages relevant to your specific area of specialization) and qualifying exams, and another year (or sometimes more) of researching, writing, and defending the dissertation.  Some fields also require (or encourage) internships, fieldwork or lab research, which can add another year to the time necessary to complete the degree.\n\nMost successful PhD candidates complete the degree in 5 to 7 years, although many take a few years more, especially if they are working full-time while researching and writing their dissertation.\n\nAs to online PhDs, they are utterly worthless in academia.  I also doubt (although I have no concrete proof) that they have much value in the business world, since it is common knowledge that a PhD requires close mentoring from professors and advisors, guided research, and oftentimes, fieldwork, internship,  and/or lab requirements.  None of this could be accomplished well online.   Most successful business executives do not have PhDs anyway; the terminal degree in business is usually the MBA.\n\nI hope this helps!
48208
Good Luck!  My husband put in his packet and was in school 2 months later.  We actually got his first choice for a recruiting station...only too find out three months after he graduated(and we still had no orders) that a DUI he got 9 years ago came up on his background check and that disqualified him.  People were getting kicked ut throughout the class for things such as BAD credit!  They are allowed to take up to 9 months from the time you graduate until they give you orders.  Good luck!
142626
This varies from program to prorgram at university to university.  For example the PhD program I went through tends to have a very high completion rate, we only had 2 students who did not go on to complete their PhD's while I was there.  Another univsersity's exact same department only about 50% of the students make it to their PhD.
60264
There is no university on US or in the world that will evaluate you only by your GRE score, this is rather impossible. I have seen people with 1520 GRE and 293 TOEFL not being accepted on MIT and others with 1200 and 230 being accepted. The letters of recomendation and your academic honors and publications are MUTCH MORE important. The GRE and TOEFL scores works for a competitive basis, if you get a too low score they are not even going to review your application. But if you get high scores they´ll probably review, but with no STRONG letter of reccomendations, honors or publications at undergraduate work they will probably disconsider you as a candidate. If you have a low GPA this is not the end of the world, since you complete the other requirements above average. Good luck.
526639
Its all about contacts really.   If you work in the parking garage i doubt it will help your chances :D.  If you work with a department chair (or some other role where you are involved with some of the faculty) I'm sure his/her word is better than many letters of reference that could be written from outside sources.  Don't forget the power of office/academia politics.\n\nIt also depends on the difference in GPA from the cut off.  If you got like a 1.9 you have a very slim chance.  If the cut off is 3.5 and you had a 3 something you should be alright.  \n\nSee if you can schmooze your way into an introduction or chance meeting with the admissions people in the department you are applying for and see if that helps.\n\nSome times it helps if your going to the grad school where you got your undergrad sometimes it doesnt.
30776
Very nice GPA, let me tell you, I have a nice GPA too, and I have a withdraw on my record.  Don't worry about it that much if you have two on your record, but if you have a ton, then be worried.\n\nMany withdraw from classes for various reasons, my reason is that my professor told me in a meeting that while the class did not have any minimal requirements, he highly recommended a certain "starter" class that everyone else took, except myself.
2065
I am assuming that you are applying for graduate school. I got all the info I needed from the source website.\nGood luck!
511587
In order to apply to a college or university (the difference is that a University offers a MS or a PhD in addition to a BS or BA) you need to fill out an application and send in your transcript.  They look at grades from all four years of high school and in the United States there are two grading systems, the 100 scale and the 4.0 scale.  For the first, a 100 is a perfect score and usually it goes down from there (so 90-100 is an A, 80-89 is a B, 70-79 is a C, 60-69 is a D, below that is failing).  You can also be graded on the second scale, which counts As as 4 points, Bs as 3, Cs as 2 and Ds as 1 although some schools divide that out even more for A+, A and A-.\nYou will also need recommendation letters from teachers that know you.\nFinally, you can either take the SAT or the ACT and each college will tell you which to take or if they will accept both.\nI would recommend looking online at US News rankings (see link below) or the other two links which list several colleges.  Once you know what your interest is (engineering, science, business, humanities, ect) you can narrow down the choices and pick several to apply to.  There is usually also an application fee involved.\nIf you only want to apply to Montgomery college then you can ignore the above and go to the last link I've listed.\nGood luck.
135759
I assume the deadlines you mention are the deadlines for YOU to respond to the offers you receive.\n\nI also assume the deadlines for application to these various programs were back in December, January, or February.\n\nNotification of admission or denial of admission cannot happen until all applications are received, and the departmental admissions committee meets a few times to make decisions on all applications.\n\nUsually, these decisions are then sent to the administrative part of the graduate school, and these administrators then send admission or denial letters out to the applicants. \n\nIn the graduate program I direct, we sent the last of our decisions to the administration last week.  It took us a bit longer than usual because of the large number of applications we received.  \n\nI'm guessing that since you appear to have reply deadlines in June, July, and August, you should hear from these programs by the first or second week of May.  At this point, however, it couldn't hurt to contact the director of graduate studies in each program and ask about their timetable.
409828
My daughter is a college freshman this school year. We did a lot of research and visited several colleges, private and state-funded along the way. We also found out a lot as her senior year went on and we waited for her acceptance letters. \n\nThese are the common themes we discovered along the way - and it applies to all colleges and universities. Colleges will look at your entire 4 years but they mostly care about your core courses: math, English, science, history/government. They do not care about Creative Writing, Journalism, or any electives. In fact, most colleges recalculate your GPA based solely on your core courses. This may or may not work to your advantage. \n\nBut we also found out that if you have a high enough SAT, you will get accepted to any college, even if your GPA is 2.0 like my daughter's boyfriend's GPA was. This last point was very painful for my daughter as she had a solid 3.4 in her core courses (but scored below 1000 combined math/English SAT) and was rejected everywhere she applied. We finally forced the last college that rejected her to reconsider their rejection and she has been doing fine her first semester. This very same college that rejected my daughter's 3.4 accepted my daughter's boyfriend's 2.0 right from the start!\n\nOne last point -- we also found out that most colleges/universities ask about extra curricular activities but they really don't care! \n\nSo enjoy your high school years -- make sure your SAT scores are stellar, don't sweat your grades, develop good study habits that you will need in college, and only do the extra activities that truly interest you.
590960
I would say the best thing to do is talk to people who have gone to the schools. Is you are still in school for your bacholor's degree talk to your professors. One school may be better than the other as far as academics depending on the area of study you are in. I know that Penn State has an good Animal Sciences program.
200499
With a 2.36, it is questionable whether you could get into grad school.\n\nTake the GRE, including the subject test.  That will be a better indicator than your GPA.\n\nThen, talk to the professors in your department about where you could go, or call the IR Depts. of some universities.
629072
Well, I recently applied and was accepted to grad school for a different program...but I do have advice about the application process. First if you haven't picked the schools you would like to apply to you should research the programs offered in your area    (or where ever you want to go) and compare them. Consider if there are any advantages of one over the other. Read everything you can find online about your program-all the requirements, class descriptions-schedules of previous semesters- anything that will fit best with you. I reccommend applying to atleast 3 if possible. Start early on your applications as there may be more than one per school. Make sure you have someone read and edit your personal statement/statement of purpose and also ask for your references as early as you can.\n\nYou should also make sure the school is accredited. Schools online and other University of ----- whatevers may not be accredited. You also may want to consider the size of the school, its acceptance rate and the percentage of students who have a similar GPA to what you had as an undergrad. This helps you choose a school at a level where you can do your best.\n\nCongrats on graduating and starting your new chapter in life. I wish you all the best!\n\nOh also, I did not take any time off. I am starting school this fall and graduating next weekend. I just wanted to keep the momentum-for me if I am out too long I will get used to working and not having to go to school and also I wanted to get it done! But many people take time off if the are unsure about a program, need to work to save up or many other reasons-both are entirely ok.
432698
I came out of service at age 22, with just a GED, got into the University of Chicago on the GI Bill, took courses  summers and nights and three years later had a B.A. and six years after that I had two Master's and a Ph.D.  \n\nNo boasting here, but just to tell that the past is a poor index to the future, and you will get in and never look back.\n\nGo girl, and best to you.
537654
You can try to write a letter to Kementerian stating that you have a need to further your studies in other ways.  If you have a compelling reason, they may let you out of the program.\n\nIt's worth a try!