Admission to a doctoral program may occur in one of three ways:

• Some programs may permit admission to a doctoral-track program directly from an undergraduate program in the case of exceptionally well-qualified applicants. The department will notify students if they are to move seamlessly into doctoral-level course work. The Graduate Program Director must file the Permission to Proceed to Pre-Candidacy Status. The decision to continue (or not) must be made no later than the completion of thirty (30) credit hours. Students in doctoral-track programs who are not allowed to continue may be awarded a master’s degree if the student has completed all requirements of the stand-alone master’s degree.
• A student who has been awarded a master’s degree from UNCG, but is not in a doctoral-track program, must file an application and be admitted to a doctoral program.
• A student who has been awarded a master’s degree from another institution must apply and be admitted to a doctoral program. The program will either administer a set of diagnostic exams, or carefully examine syllabi to determine which courses from the master’s degree may apply to the doctoral plan of study.

In addition to satisfactory entrance examination scores and recommendations (explained in the application materials), final approval of the major department or school and of the Dean of the Graduate School are required.

Admission to doctoral programs is highly competitive. At times, academically qualified applicants may be denied due to program capacity constraints.

Admitted students are placed in Pre-Candidate Status. Pre-Candidates acquire knowledge and tools needed to undertake original and independent research. They are exposed to the breadth of content in their discipline and learn the associated research theories and methods to focus intensively on a narrow and original area of research. A student achieves candidacy [all but dissertation (ABD)] upon completion of all pre-candidacy milestones.