ACADEMIC POLICIES
Offer of Admission; Deferments
A written offer of admission is made by the Graduate School to all accepted applicants and specifies the date of entrance (semester or session). The offer of admission is also a permit to register for courses. Graduate credit for courses taken at UMES will not be given unless students have been admitted to the UMES Graduate School.
Individuals whose original offers of admission have lapsed, or lapsed after one requested deferment of the date of entrance (good up to a 12-month period), must submit a new application and fee if they want to be reconsidered for admission at a later date.
A student can be admitted to only one graduate program at any one time. There are no dual degree programs at the graduate level. Applications may be sent to more than one graduate program for review, but only one offer of admission to one degree program will be granted.
Applicant Rejection
Applicants who are not granted an admission to a graduate program are notified in writing by the program or the Graduate School. The Graduate School informs non-degree applicants who are not granted admission.
Unsuccessful applicants sometimes apply to another graduate program or for graduate non-degree admission, or request the original program to reactivate their application for the following year or reapply to the original program after meeting any cited conditions in the rejection letter.
Applicants may appeal a rejection to a graduate program by writing the graduate dean and providing new or updated information. The graduate dean will have the appeal reviewed by the program coordinator and the faculty, who will make a recommendation to the graduate dean on whether to reconsider admission with or without any conditions, or let the original rejection stand. The graduate dean makes the final determination. Applicants may appeal a non-degree admission by writing to the graduate dean and providing new or updated information. These applicants will be notified of the outcome of their appeal by the graduate dean.
Admission Time Limits for Degree Programs
Applicants admitted to a Master’s degree program must complete all program requirements within a five-year period of the date of entrance specified in the offer of admission or deferred admission. Applicants admitted to a doctoral degree program (traditional or accelerated and intensive) must be admitted to candidacy status within five years of the date of entrance specified in the offer of admission, after which another four-year period is permitted for the completion of the remaining requirements.
Change of Degree-Level, Program or Status
Students are admitted only to a specified program and within that program only for the specified objective, e.g., Master’s or Doctoral degree. If matriculated students wish to change either the program or their non-program status (for example, from Advanced Special Student to degree status), they must submit a new appropriate application along with the Change of Degree Program form if applicable and provide any other form or information as specified. Admission to the new program and/or status is not granted automatically.
Students must be re-admitted when the original objective has been attained, for example, when a student who is admitted for the Master’s degree completes the requirements for that degree. If the student wishes to continue for the Doctorate, a new application for admission to the Doctoral program must be submitted. However, programs, which offer both the M.S. and the Ph.D. degrees, may consider qualified baccalaureate students for a probationary period before full admission into the Ph.D. degree program. Their requests for admission to the Doctoral program are subject to the same review process applied to others seeking admission to that program.
Termination of Admission (Time Limits; Grades – GPA; Academic Probation and Dismissal; Academic Suspension)
A student’s admission terminates : a) when time limits for the completion of degree or non-degree status expire, b) if the student is no longer in good academic standing with an academic dismissal, c) if there is a voluntary withdrawal from a graduate program, d) if there is the failure to meet Provisional Admission conditions, or e) with the intent to defraud, among other actions. To be in good academic standing, degree seeking students must maintain a grade point average of 3.0 (“B”) or better in all graduate courses taken for credit toward a degree program at UMES, and must otherwise satisfy all additional requirements of the Graduate School and the specific graduate program. This makes them eligible to re-enroll each semester/session without restriction.
For most programs, graduate students who receive academic probation notices from the Graduate School must comply with the following requirement in order to retain their admission status at UMES. They have two consecutive semesters in which to bring their cumulative grade point average back to 3.0 (“B”) after it falls below that level. Summer is an academic semester for programs with a required nine or more credit hour curriculum over the Summer period. Some graduate programs may stipulate additional or more stringent academic probation and dismissal criteria (see also section on ‘Grades for Graduate Students’).
Academic suspension temporarily interrupts a student’s continued enrollment for a specific time period, but allows the student to return to his admitted status. Academic dismissal is a termination of admission. It may be a permanent separation, or if a graduate program allows, a separation for a time period, removed only by review by the program and acceptance of the case for reinstatement. Reinstatement involves special conditions to be met by the returning student.
The admission of all students, both degree and non-degree, is continued at the discretion, as applicable, of the academic advisor or committee, the department chair, the program coordinator and the Graduate School.
The Readmission or Reinstatement Process
And Extension of the Time Period
The Registrar’s forms for Application for Readmission or Application for Reinstatement contain information on the process of seeking readmission or reinstatement. The student completes the front and backside of the form, provides any additional material needed and submits all to the Registrar’s office. The Registrar’s office sends the materials to the Graduate Studies office for a review and recommendation on acceptance or denial of the request. The graduate program in which the student was enrolled provides input on the decision.
1. The Readmission Process
Readmission is a process for degree seeking graduate students who have a) voluntarily withdrawn from the University (a withdrawal form submitted for a semester or session), or b) interrupted their registration for one or more semesters (including an approved leave of absence). In each case students had the intention to return to their studies within the original admission period. At the time of withdrawal or last registration, the graduate student should have been in good academic standing (3.0 or better cumulative GPA), although an existing academic probation status may be considered if the conditions for probation have been met or will be met in the semester or session of the next enrollment. This readmission process does not cancel conditions of an original Provisional admission status if these have not yet been met, or an academic probation status being given if the student’s cumulative GPA is below a 3.0 at the time of the application for readmission.
The readmission process is also applicable for Advanced Special status, non degree seeking students in good academic standing who wish to return to graduate study following a break in registration.
Students may be readmitted only to the graduate program of their original admission, or to the status in which they were last enrolled. Readmission is not possible for students who voluntarily withdraw from the graduate program in which they were admitted (see section on withdrawal from a graduate program).
A formal readmission may be granted for master’s or non-degree seeking students in good academic standing whose original admission time period has lapsed, and whose extenuating circumstances may be considered for a second 5-year admission period to the program of the original admission or to the Advanced Special status. In the case of the master’s degree seeking student, the second five year admission period will come under the catalog in existence at the time of the second admission period. For some graduate programs, the curriculum may not have changed, and the student will not be affected. For other graduate programs the curriculum, courses or program requirements may have changed in the most recent catalog (s). Courses may no longer be offered and the curriculum or programs requirements may have been substantially revised.
2. Extension of the Time Period
Students who are very close to finishing the master’s degree may petition the program and the Graduate Dean for an extension of the original admission period, e.g., into a 6th year. (The petition for waiver of regulation form is used). The extension may be granted for a semester or up to a calendar year in lieu of a second 5-year admission period, in order to complete the degree program.
Doctoral students who have nine year in which to complete the degree program requirements may not seek a second doctoral admission time period. Based an extenuating circumstances they may petition the program and the Graduate Dean for an extension of their original admission period, e.g. into the 10th year to finish the degree program.
The petition for an extension of the time period does not have to be granted for either the master or the doctoral student.
3. The Reinstatement Process
Restatement is the progress for graduate degree-seeking and non-degree seeking students a) who have been academically dismissed from a program or status or b) who are students ineligible for readmission because of an academic, disciplinary or judicial suspension or the termination of admission status, e.g., due to the failure to remove the conditions of a Provisional admission or of an academic probation. The student may be reinstated only to the program or status in which he/she was last enrolled. Reinstatement if granted will include conditions and a time period in which to complete them. Cases of readmission or reinstatement are considered on an individual basis and are not automatically granted.
Policy on Dismissal for Non-Academic
Reasons
UMES reserves the right to dismiss or fail to graduate any student who does not maintain standards of academic and professional integrity, ethics, and conduct appropriate to the discipline/degree program during the student’s course of study at UMES, including clinical experiences, practica, and internships. Students should also consider licensing, registration, credential requirements of a profession in which past personal history or conviction and criminal record may restrict completion of a degree program (the professional phase) and the eligibility to practice in a profession if graduated from a program.
