Graduate Admissions Frequently Asked Questions

Our program receives any uploaded transcript submitted in your ApplyWeb application. We will use the uploaded transcript for application review. Please be aware that Wolverine Access will show the uploaded transcript as “not received”.  This is because Wolverine Access only indicates the official transcripts received by the Rackham Graduate School. You do not need to send the official transcript until directed to do so by the Rackham Graduate School.

We only admit students for Fall term. The application opens in September and the deadline is in December for admission the following Fall.

We accept applications from graduate students in other programs at other universities, but the application process is the same. We do not evaluate what courses may or may not transfer prior to a student being admitted.

We do not conditionally admit students who do not require department funding.

If you would like to be considered for both the Master's and PhD program, apply only to the PhD program and mention in your personal statement that you would also like to be considered for the Master's program. Please be aware that Master’s students do not typically receive funding. 

Initial review of most applications begins after the application deadline.  We manually review each application to ensure it is complete and will contact you if anything is missing.

As we go through our review process after the deadline, we will notify you if you are missing something.

We are unable to comment on the chances of a student being admitted to any of our programs at any stage before or during the admissions process.

Before a decision is made on an application we can never guarantee a student will be admitted, regardless of what qualifications they have. This is due to the fact that each year the cohort of applicants varies greatly. We are unable to advise prospective students on how to make their applications more competitive for our programs. Students seeking advice should review the basic qualifications for the program they are interested in, and speak with an advisor at their current university on how to satisfy these qualifications.

Our Admissions committee makes decisions as they review applications.  As soon as they have made a decision on your application you will be notified by email.  The review process continues through April, and all decisions are made no later than April 15th.

Please visit Rackham's website for information regarding the TOEFL requirement here.

Your exam is valid for 2 years.  It must be less than 2 years old before the application deadline date.

For those who are required to take the TOEFL, we cannot review your application unless you have scored an 84 or higher- there are no exceptions to this rule. You are allowed to retake the TOEFL to try and get a higher score. As long as the exam has not expired, we will use the highest score you submit.

The exact description can be found on the Rackham Graduate School site here . Note that for applicants from the United Kingdom (excluding Scotland) we require the completion of a Bachelor’s (Honours) degree. For applicants from India, Rackham requires a Master's degree in all fields except engineering and technology. The Math program will, however, review applications from students enrolled in 3-year Mathematics programs at CMI (Chennai) and ISI (Kolkata/Bangalore). On a case by case basis, admission may be granted.

All applicants are considered for departmental financial aid automatically. Applicants are welcome to pursue external sources of funding.

Unless a student is self-supporting, our Ph.D. students are generally supported by either Graduate Student Instructorships, Research Assistants or fellowships for five years. Master's students generally do not receive support from the department.

Applied Math is part of our Mathematics PhD and Mathematics MS programs.  Those interested in doing Applied Math AND an Interdisciplinary Field outside of Mathematics should apply to an AIM program.

No, many people have ideas of what they want to do and you should certainly list those in your statement, but we do not expect everyone to know exactly what they want to do.

The Actuarial Science program is part of our Mathematics Master's program, so you should apply to that particular program.  It is NOT part of the AIM MS program.

No, only a Master’s program.