Graduate Admissions
For General inquiries regarding Graduate Admissions to the Department of Aerospace Engineering you may contact:
Rosalia K. Webb
Assistant Director, Graduate Studies Aerospace Engineering
rosalia5@umd.edu | (301) 405-3457
or
Laurie Brown
Program Coordinator, Graduate Studies Aerospace Engineering
lbrown11@umd.edu | (301) 405-2376
The Aerospace Engineering Graduate Program encourages applicants with other related engineering backgrounds to apply to our program. The Graduate Admissions Committee may recommend that an incoming student take selected undergraduate courses before the core courses.
Please review our graduate program prequisites page.
Minimum Requirements for Applicants
Masters Program Doctoral Program
Minimum GPA of 3.2 Minimum GPA of 3.5
GRE Combined Scores
Minimum Score = 1950 (Quantitative + Verbal + Analytical)
Please note: Analytical Scores are converted from the 1.0 to 6.0 scale
example:
A 5.0 Analytical Score is converted to [ (5.0*100) + 200] = 700 ]
Application Process
1. You must complete your application online. There is a $60 application fee.
2. You will be contacted via email after submitting the University's Online Graduate Application. You will be required to complete the Application Supplemental Form (ASF). A system-assigned login and password will be provided at that time. In most cases, students will be contacted within 2 business days of submitting their Online Application; during peak times, however, the notification may take as long as 3-4 business days.
The ASF also contains an Online Letters of Recommendation feature, through which applicants can request electronic letters from their recommenders.
Statement of Goals, Experiences, and Research Interests are also submitted using the Application Supplemental Form (ASF).
3. Submit Official test scores and transcripts to the following address:
University of Maryland College Park
Enrollment Services Operations
Application for Graduate Admission
0130 Mitchell Building
College Park, Maryland 20742
4. Graduate Record Examinations (GRE)
GRE Scores should be sent to the University via the testing authority. The University of Maryland, College Park institutional code for the GRE is 5814.
The GRE is highly recommended but it is not required.
Graduate Record Examinations
(609) 771-7670
5.Letters of recommendation must be submitted online.
Evaluation Process
The student's files are evaluated by the members of the Graduate Committee and by a committee from the area of interest to the student. Only students that meet or exceed the admissions standards of the Department of Aerospace Engineering will be considered for admission.
The following are some of the criteria used in deciding whether to admit an applicant:
- An applicant’s competitive ranking among other applicants, based on test scores and GPA.
- The quality of an applicant’s letters of recommendation, including the authority of the author.
- A match of the applicant’s research interests with the interests of the Aerospace Engineering faculty.
- An applicant’s degree of professional experience.
- The availability of funding.
Since admission into the program is frequently contingent on the availability of financial support, which requires the student to engage in directed research, applicants should determine carefully which areas of aerospace engineering most interest them, and to indicate their interests explicitly in their statement of goals and experiences. Contacting faculty directly may be useful, but the applicants should carefully examine the field of interest of the faculty that they wish to contact.
Admission recommendations and offers of financial support are made on a rolling basis. Most Graduate Assistantship offers are made before the April 15 deadline. Rejection letters to candidates who do not have the required qualifications are also sent out also on a rolling basis. In some cases no decision is made until May 31 for the Fall Semester or October 31 for the Spring Semester.
Application Deadlines for the Fall Semester
All admission decisions and offers of financial assistance are made on a rolling basis, applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications early. The preferred deadline for U.S. applicants is December 1, 2007.
All international applicants, including international applicants currently studying at U.S. institutions must submit applications no later than December 1.
Admission recommendations are made on a rolling basis, and admitted applicants are notified as the decision is made.
These deadlines are determined by the Department and are for "best-consideration;" typically, the Graduate Admissions Committee begins reviewing Fall applications on January 15th and begins making offers of admission soon after that. Applicants should be aware that these deadlines may differ from those published in the graduate catalog.
Application Deadlines for the Spring Semester
All admission decisions and offers of financial assistance are made on a rolling basis, applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications early. All international students, including international students currently studying at U.S. institutions, must submit applications no later than June 1. The preferred spring semester deadline for U.S. applicants is September 1; all U.S. citizens must submit applications by October 1. Admission recommendations are made on a rolling basis, and admitted applicants are notified as the decision is made. Most admission decisions and offers of financial assistance are made before November 1. These deadlines are determined by the Department and are for "best-consideration;" typically, the Graduate Admissions Committee begins reviewing Spring applications on October 15th and begins making offers of admission soon after that. Applicants should be aware that these deadlines may differ from those published in the graduate catalog.
Transfer of Credit
A maximum of 6 semester hours of graduate course work taken at other regionally accredited institutions prior to matriculation in the Graduate School, or afterward, may be applied toward the Master's degree. The course must have been taken within the time limits for completing the Master's degree; the Graduate Director must agree that the specific courses are appropriate to and acceptable in Chemical Engineering, and the student is responsible for providing an official transcript of this work to the Graduate School.
Due to academic and procedural differences between U.S. regionally accredited and foreign institutions, credit from foreign universities is not normally acceptable for transfer.
The grades on transfer work do not affect the grade point average of the work taken at the University of Maryland. A grade of A from another institution cannot balance a C in a course here.
Transfer work cannot be used to satisfy the requirements for upper level courses in a student's program. The required credits of 600 level or above must be part of the work taken at the University of Maryland.
No credit transfer will be allowed for any courses which have been used in fulfillment of the requirements of any other degree. No credit will be granted for correspondence courses.
The request for transfer credit shall be submitted to the Graduate School for approval at the earliest possible time. The candidate is subject to final examination by this institution in all work offered for the M.S. degree.
