Deciding on a School

Making decisions about where you will go to graduate school is pretty complex and involves many variables. Some of the variables that impact your decision may include the culture of the program, the course offerings, the career outcomes, research opportunities, faculty, reputation of the School, funding opportunities, practical exposure in the curriculum, and more! All of these variables are important, and it is up to each student to decide which factors are the most important to them, and how a School or program may fit in with their goals and plans.

Here at UMSI, we try to be as helpful as we can in communicating with admitted students about these issues, and about who we are as a School. Some of the ways that we try to make our program clear to students is by assigning all admitted students to a current student mentor, having an organized weekend visit called Visiting Days @ UMSI for admitted students, and trying to be available on email or phone (or in person!) to help answer questions. We're happy to answer any email questions from students, and often try to connect them with other students or faculty who may be a better match for them to learn more about the program. Overall, learning about the School can be a process that happens over time, but as long as we work together, you can learn a lot about the program.

One of the big questions I often get from students is about when they need to decide if they are coming to UMSI. In general, we don't have a firm/final date by which students have to make a decision on our offer. We want to give everyone adequate time to explore their options and make the best decisions for themselves. However, if a student is offered a scholarship at some point, there will be a timeline attached to the offer for making a decision. We do abide by the national Council of Graduate Schools guideline of not requiring students to make decisions on funding offers prior to April 15. In general, we would like to know people's decisions as soon as possible, but we want to give everyone an opportunity to hear from other programs as well. Most students make their decisions in April or so.

I hope this is helpful information for any admitted student as they begin their process of evaluating programs, but feel free to contact us with any more specific questions and I'd be happy to talk to you more.