NYU GSAS General Application Policies

The following policies apply to all applications to the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS):

General Admission Information

Admission is determined by the Graduate School and a faculty, departmental, or program committee that sets admissions standards and degree requirements for study in a particular area. Some departments require an interview and may require a writing sample. Please be sure to refer to your department's website to confirm all application requirements. A list of most department requirements is provided in Application Requirements and Deadlines for Departments and Programs (PDF).

All official notifications of admission decisions are made in writing by the dean of the Graduate School. Statements about admission, either expressed or implied (verbally or written) from any other source, are not official and may not be honored.

Application Fee Waivers

In almost all cases GSAS does not waive or defer the admissions application fee.

GSAS does offer a waiver for the admissions application fee under certain limited conditions to applicants who participate in certain programs. Two criteria must be met.

First, applicants who participate in the following programs will be considered for a fee waiver:

  • AmeriCorps (participation must have occurred between September 2008 and the present)
  • California Alliance for Minority Participation in Science, Engineering and Mathematics (CAMP)
  • CUNY Pipeline Program
  • Gates Millennium Scholar Program (GMS)
  • Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers (IRT)
  • The Leadership Alliance
  • The McNair Scholars Program
  • Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF)
  • Peace Corps
  • Project 1000
  • Summer Institute for Literary and Cultural Studies (SICLS)
  • U.S. military

Second, if you participate in one of those programs, then you must also meet all of the following standards to be considered for an application fee waiver:

  • You must be applying to a master’s or doctoral program of study in GSAS.
  • You must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
  • You must apply for the fee waiver BEFORE submitting your application for admission. We are not able to refund the application fee if you choose to pay the fee before a waiver is approved. Apply for the fee waiver as early as possible, but no later than December 1.

If you meet both the first and second criteria stated above, then please contact gsas.admissions@nyu.edu for specific instructions on how to apply for the fee waiver. In your email, be sure to:

  1. Indicate that you have read this policies web page.
  2. Name the program in which you participated from the list in the first criterion.
  3. State how you meet each of the three standards stated in the second criterion.

Please note that we do not offer application fee waivers for other circumstances.

Multiple Applications

You must choose only one department and field of study and may submit only one application for consideration in a given term. If you submit more than one application for a term, all applications submitted after the first one will be held and will not be considered for admission. Thus, determine carefully the one program to which you will apply.

A special note about using the online application: The online application will only allow one application submission per login name within an application cycle (the 2011 application cycle is summer 2011, fall 2011, and spring 2012). For example, if you apply for admission to the fall 2011 term and wish to apply again for the spring 2012 term, you must create a new login name (usually an email address) to the Embark system. However, if you applied for the fall 2011 term, and now wish to apply for the fall 2012 term, you will be able to use your same login name since it is a new application cycle.

Applicants are permitted to submit admissions applications to two (or more) programs if they are within different schools at NYU. For example, you may apply to a program in the Graduate School of Arts and Science and to a different program at the Steinhardt School. However, you may not apply to both Computer Science and Economics at the same time because both are within the Graduate School of Arts and Science. If you choose to apply to programs that are in different schools, it will be necessary to complete and submit separate applications and pay each school a separate application fee. The following NYU graduate schools are separate from the Graduate School of Arts and Science: Tisch (Arts), Sackler (Medicine), School of Law, Steinhardt (Culture, Education and Human Development), Stern (Business), Wagner (Public Service), Silver (Social Work) and Gallatin (Individualized Study).

Please note that if you are accepted to more than one school, you may not accept admission to both, unless you have been accepted into a dual-degree program. NYU does not allow enrollment in more than one school simultaneously.

Re-applying for Admission (Previous Applications)

Every year there are applicants who wish to reapply for admission to GSAS and want to know how to do so. These applicants may be:
  1. Applicants who were not offered admission.
  2. Applicants who were offered admission but did not enroll for the term in which they were admitted.
  3. Enrolled students who are applying for admission to a different program.

If you reapply for admission, it will be necessary for you to complete an entire new application, with all new supporting credentials (see test score information in next paragraph). This means you must complete a new online application, pay the application fee, upload academic transcripts, arrange for new letters of recommendation, and submit all other supporting materials not included with your online application. Please note that this policy became effective with applications submitted on or after August 27, 2009.

The only portion of your previous application which is retained are your official test scores from the GRE program (held for five years from the date of the test) or official test scores from the TOEFL program (held for two years from the date of the test). Official test scores are ones that have been sent to GSAS directly from the testing program.

Joint and Dual Degree Programs

Applications to joint degree programs are reviewed separately by both departments. Admission to a joint degree program is contingent upon acceptance by both departments. If one department does not accept your application for admission to the joint program, the other department, at its discretion, may consider you for admission to the individual department.

Applicants to dual degree programs (programs that are offered by different schools) must apply to each school separately. Applicants must complete the application requirements of each school. Application materials are not shared between schools. Admission to a dual degree program is contingent upon acceptance by both schools.

Non-degree and Visiting Students

Occasionally an applicant will demonstrate a particular need to study at the Graduate School without entering a degree program. A few students are permitted to register each year as non-degree or visiting students. Potential applicants should contact the department before applying to confirm that non-degree or visiting students are considered for admission into the program.

Note: The online application for non-degree study is accepted only from U.S. citizens applying to the non-degree programs in General Biology, Computer Science, Math, Math in Finance, Physics, or General Psychology. All other non-degree and visiting student applicants must complete the paper non-degree application. See Instructions for the Non-Degree Application for Admission for more information.

Applicants Previously or Currently Enrolled in GSAS Degree Programs

Applicants who were previously enrolled in a GSAS degree program at NYU and who did not complete that degree must reapply for admission.

If re-admitted, such applicants may be required to remit maintenance of matriculation and registration and services fees for the semesters intervening between the last semester of enrollment in the original program and the first semester of renewed enrollment.

If re-admitted to the graduate program in which they were originally enrolled, they will be responsible for fees from only those unenrolled semesters that would have been within the time-to-degree limit for the original program.

Updated on 09/12/2011