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Admission Criteria

Students desiring to pursue a doctoral degree in the administration of justice should be capable of advanced academic work in theory, research and data analysis. Students applying for admission to the doctoral program must meet the admission standards of the ÂÜÀòÉç Graduate School. Applicants must hold the bachelor’s degree in an appropriate field, have a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.75 overall and 3.0 in the last sixty hours of undergraduate studies.

Applicants should have a master’s degree or its equivalent in a degree program from an accredited institution of higher education with a grade point average of at least 3.2 in previous graduate work. Each graduate student who is admitted must present Graduate Record Examination (GRE) verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing section scores. The analytical writing score must be 3.5 or above. If the student is accepted and does not meet the minimum requirement, he or she must enroll in English 501. International applicants whose first language is not English and who have not completed a degree in the United States are required to take and pass the TOEFL with an internet based score of 74, a computer-based score of 213, or paper- based score of 550.

An application for admission to the doctoral program is submitted at Apply Yourself Online and is processed through the ÂÜÀòÉç Graduate School. Completed applications are referred to the School of Public Affairs for an acceptance decision by the Graduate Admissions Committee in the PhD AJ program. Decisions of the Graduate Admissions Committee are referred to the Dean of the Graduate School and entered into the Apply Yourself system.

Successful applications who do not score 3.5 on the analytical writing portion of the GRE or GMAT will be required to demonstrate English proficiency by successfully completing the course English 501 Graduate Professional Writing. The Graduate Admissions Committee (GAC) comprised of graduate faculty will make decisions on admission. During the admission process the GAC will evaluate graduate transcripts of applicants with master’s degrees to determine whether or not additional courses are needed at the master’s degree level. No more than twelve (12) credits from previous doctoral work will be applied towards the Ph.D. program. Requirements include completion of a total of fifty-four (54) credit hours, passing comprehensive examinations, admission to doctoral candidacy, completion of a residency requirement, preparation and acceptance of a dissertation proposal, completion of the dissertation and an oral defense.