Graduate Program: How to Apply

Applying to Our Graduate Program

The best, most up-to-date information on admissions can be found at the UNH Graduate School website: http://www.gradschool.unh.edu. You should definitely go there and read the information provided. In addition to that, I've provided some supplementary information here.

Applying to our program consists of a few steps:

Telling us who you are
Taking standardized tests
Getting an application

You're probably also interested in:

What are we looking for?
What's the schedule for applying?
What's the chance of getting financial aid?
Can I attend without financial aid?
What if I don't have a bachelors degree in civil engineering?
Can I get the application fee waived?
What are our program requirements?
What is it like for our students?

Telling us who you are:

If you're a prospective applicant to our program, we'd like to know:

Your family name (in most countries, this is the last name)
Your given name
Whether you're a man or a woman
Your e-mail address
Your country of origin
Your current university
The degree you're currently pursuing or, if not doing so, the last degree you received.
Your GRE scores
Your TOEFL scores (if English isn't your country's first language)
Your area of interest (Environmental Engineering, Water Resources, Civil Engineering Materials, structural Engineering, or Geotechnical Engineering)
Your proposed date of admission
The degree you'd like to pursue here (Masters or Ph.D.), and
How you first heard about our program.

You can send me an e-mail message with the answers to these questions. I'll record the information and keep track of you. For international students, I'll decide whether or not to have a paper application sent to you.

Taking standardized tests

GRE
We require all our students to take the Graduate Records Examination or GRE. You can find out more about this test by visiting their website at http://www.gre.org. In unusual cases, we can postpone the need for the GRE scores and consider your application without them, but that only delays matters and it's much better to take the GRE before you submit your application.

TOEFL
If there's any doubt in our mind that you are not absolutely fluent in English, we want you to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language or TOEFL exam. Naturally, all our courses are taught in English and you will need to understand, read, speak, and write English very well to do well in courses and to fulfill assistantship responsibilities. You can find out more about this exam by visiting their website at http://www.toefl.org. Again, in unusual cases, we may decide to postpone the need for a TOEFL score to consider your application, but it is much better for you to take the exam before you submit your application.

Getting an application

U.S. Citizens
If you are a U.S. citizen, you can request or download an application directly from our Graduate School's website at http://www.gradschool.unh.edu. Please do take the time to write me first, though, and let me know who you are so that I can track you and get in touch with you if I need to.

International Students
International students currently must be pre-screened before they can receive a full application through the mail. This is required in the hopes of minimizing costs and saving potential applicants the time and money it takes to apply if, in the end, there is little chance of such applicants getting accepted with financial support.

There are two ways to get a full application:

You can fill out the pre-application form at http://www.gradschool.unh.edu, or
You can write me directly with the information I need. (See the telling us who you are above.) Also include your full mailing address.

If I have all the information I need and it appears to me that you're a good candidate for admission and financial aid, I'll authorize the Graduate School to send you the complete paper application.

What we are looking for

There are few set requirements for admission to our program. We have the luxury of being a small enough program that we can consider the entire application and not just test scores or grade point averages. Still there are some things that we like to see in an applicant:

We prefer to see a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from an ABET-accredited institution. (ABET stands for the Accreditation Bureau of Engineering and Technology. See http://www.abet.org.)
We prefer to see a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better. It is also helpful to know class rank, particularly for international students coming from institutions that do not use a 4.0 scale.
We prefer to see a strong GRE score. (For international applicants, we like to see a combined score of 2000 or above.)
If applicable, we prefer to see a strong TOEFL score (600 or better).
We need solid letters of recommendation. It is normally better if two of the required three are from professors. It is better if the applicant has waived the right to see the letters and it is better if the individual writing the recommendation take the time to write a paragraph or two about you, being specific about your intelligence, self-motivation, and interpersonal skills.
We like to see a succinctly and well-written statement of purpose which makes it clear to us that you have a solid command of the English language, why you want a graduate degree, what your specific area of interest is, and why you have interest in that area.

Again, almost no applicants will have all these things in an ideal combination with top scores and appraisals. We realize this and try to consider the entire application package.

Schedule for Applying

You should check the http://www.gradschool.unh.edu for the official deadlines.

We only rarely bring in new graduate students for the spring semester. You should plan on applying for a fall semester. Given that, here are some general guidelines:

Summer, 1 year prior:

Research schools to which you think you'll want to apply.
Sign up for the GRE and TOEFL exams

Early fall, 1 year prior:

Take the GRE and TOEFL exams and have scores sent to UNH.
Get application forms
Figure out who to ask for recommendations and ask them.

Late fall, 1 year prior:

Give recommendation forms to the people who will recommend you
Request transcripts from universities and colleges you attended
Fill out the application
Arrange to pay the application fee

Early January, 8 months prior

Submit two copies of the application
The application fee
All required transcripts in sealed envelopes
Require recommendations in sealed envelopes
Statement of Residence form or Supplementary Information Form if necessary

The official deadline for full consideration of the application and requests for financial support is generally 15 February prior to the fall semester for which you are applying.

We do accept applications later than 15 February and we often consider these later applicants for financial aid. So if you're going to miss the 15 February deadline, I encourage you to still apply. Just realize that your chances are best if you submit all the required materials on time.

What's the Chance of Getting Financial Aid

On the positive side, almost all of our graduate students receive full financial aid support for the time necessary to complete their degrees (generally about two years for a masters degree or four for a Ph.D. degree). The financial support is usually in the form of teaching and research assistantships for which you must reserve 20 hours per week during the academic year. Our students receive stipend checks every other week and the amount of money is modest but generally sufficient to cover room and board requirements.

On the negative side, our first responsibility is to our current students. This can leave relatively few new positions for incoming graduate students. How many new positions are available varies from year to year depending on the university's budget and the amount of research underway (we sometimes do not know of a position until very soon before the fall semester begins). And, naturally, there are more applicants than new positions available. As we don't know the number of new positions from year to year, nor do we know the number or quality of the new applicants, it is impossible to estimate the odds that any particular applicant will receive an offer of financial aid.

This being said, a very rough estimation is that 3 of 4 applicants are accepted but only 1 of 4 applicants is made an offer of financial aid.

Graduates