Admission FAQ

Applicants are required to apply to both the HCDE department and the UW Graduate School. Read below for more information about the admissions process and required application materials.

  1. When is the next deadline to apply to the HCDE PhD program? Does HCDE except late applications?
  2. What educational background do I need in order to apply?
  3. How do I apply? How will my application be evaluated?
  4. Who is on the admissions committee?
  5. Should I send all my application materials simultaneously?
  6. What should I send to the Office of Graduate Admissions? What should I send to the HCDE department?
  7. If accepted to the program, will I receive any financial support?
  8. How competitive is admission to the program? Do MS or PhD students have priority?
  9. When should I take the GRE?
  10. How recent must my GRE/TOEFL scores be in order to be acceptable for review by the admissions committee?
  11. What are the GRE/TOEFL Departmental and Institutional codes?
  12. What happens when/if I am admitted?

1. The deadline for submitting applications for Autumn admission is December 21st (November 1st for international applicants). In general, we do not entertain late applications. Under special circumstances, our admissions committee will accept a late application. See an adviser to learn more about this.

2. Students may be admitted to the HCDE PhD program after completing either an undergraduate degree or a master's degree in HCDE or a relevant field (up to 30 credits of master's work may be applied toward the 105-credit requirement). Because HCDE is a relatively new discipline, applicants can be expected to represent a wide range of backgrounds.

3. Applicants submit HCDE PhD admission forms (links below), official transcripts of all academic study, evidence of a GPA of at least 3.0, three letters of recommendation, a curriculum vitae, and a personal statement of objectives and research area of interest. International students will also be required to submit a TOEFL test score of at least 600, obtained within the last two years. Applicants will be evaluated on the relevance of the coursework they have already taken; on their grade history, GRE scores, and other indicators of earlier academic success and promise of success in the future; and on their statement of objectives, letters of recommendation, statement of research interests, and other qualitative data. Admission will be competitive.

4. The HCDE Admissions Committee is composed of the full HCDE graduate faculty. Each application will be reviewed by at least three of the Admissions Committee members, each of whom will rate the applicant on his or her apparent aptitude for the field, ability to think theoretically, and strength of interest in and ability to do research. In a plenary session, the Admissions Committee will review all applicants and decide on admissions based on overall quality, faculty ratings, and competitiveness of the applications.

5. It is best to send all application materials simultaneously, but not necessary. The staff adviser will collect application materials and distribute to the Admissions Committee after the deadline has passed. If any of your materials are missing, you will be notified and asked to submit them ASAP.

6. All applicants must submit an online UW Graduate School application, the application fee, and official transcripts to the UW Graduate Admissions Office (consult the Graduate Admissions website for complete instructions). Official transcripts should be sent to:

University of Washington
Office of Graduate Admissions
PO Box 84808
Room 301, Loew Hall
Seattle, Washington 98124-6108

All applicants should consult the HCDE checklist and submit the appropriate documents to the HCDE department.

7. If admitted to the HCDE PhD program, the admissions committee will consult your financial aid form and try their best to match your financial needs with support within the department. In general, first year students may be offered a teaching assistantship, while students who have been in the program for a year or more have research assistantships.

8. HCDE has a small graduate program; 35 students total between both the PhD and the daytime MS programs. The admission committee attempts a balance of 15 PhD students and 20 MS students at any one time. Because of these restrictions, admissions to our graduate program is competitive. Some applicants may be wait-listed.

9. Applicants should plan to take the GRE at least two weeks before the February 1 deadline. Because test scores are transferred electronically, in general the UW Graduate Admissions Office will receive the scores within seven-10 days of taking the GRE.

10. GRE scores should be no more than five years old. The only cases in which we will waive the 5 year expiration date is if you you have completed a masters degree at an accredited US Institution. TOEFL scores can be no more than two years old; this is a UW Graduate Admissions rule and is not flexible.

11. The GRE/TOEFL institutional code is 4854 and the department code is 5199.

12. Admitted students will work closely with the HCDE Graduate Adviser to determine if there are gaps in the student's background that should be filled by taking HCDE prerequisites. Such prerequisites may be needed in basic HCDE areas such as technical editing or in more specialized areas such as beginning statistics. The Graduate Adviser may require the student to take such additional courses beyond the required credit hours.

The HCDE application materials are listed on the Admission Application page. All of these forms are provided as downloadable MS Word documents. If you have trouble downloading these materials, contact the HCDE department to request that an application packet be mailed to you. Applicants are required to apply to both the HCDE department and the UW Graduate School.