Application Status
Applicants can check the status of their submitted application by logging into the Slate application portal (coming soon!). This will show an overall application status of “Ready for Review” or “Materials Needed” and applicants can take steps to submit missing materials. The application status should continue to be checked until it is “Ready for Review.”
Application Evaluation & Decisions
Once an applicant record is ready for review, the admissions committee for the program will evaluate applicant records. We appreciate your patience during this period, as some programs will evaluate through April. Once an admission decision is made by the admitting department, an electronic notification will be sent to the applicant and they may log back into the application portal to view the admission decision. Applicants must also accept their offer of admission by the deadline indicated in the admission letter. Admission into a degree program is not transferable to another program.
Washington University, along with most other graduate schools in the United States, subscribes to the following resolution of the Council of Graduate Schools:
Admissions and financial aid awards are for a specific academic year; students who do not matriculate that year must formally reapply. Admitted students may request a deferral of admission for up to one year, but such special requests require approval both of the admitting program and of the Office of Graduate Studies.
Admission to graduate study is ordinarily free from preconditions. However, when the evidence in an application supports contradictory conclusions about an applicant’s preparedness, the program might recommend provisional admission. Provisionally admitted students enter the program for a semester or two, at the end of which time their faculty must make an unconditional admissions decision. Students who require further undergraduate work before they can engage in graduate study should obtain it before applying to the Office of Graduate Studies.
Acceptance of an offer of admission and financial aid (such as a graduate scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, or assistantship) completes an agreement that both applicant and graduate school expect to honor. In those instances, in which the applicant accepts the offer before April 15 and subsequently desires to withdraw, the applicant may submit in writing a resignation of the appointment at any time through April 15. However, an acceptance given or left in force after April 15 commits the applicant not to accept another offer without first formally declining, in writing, the offer from the institution to which a commitment has been made. Similarly, an offer by an institution after April 15 is conditional on the applicant formally declining any other offers already accepted.
It is further agreed by the institutions and organizations subscribing to the above Resolution that a copy of this Resolution should accompany every scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, and assistantship offer. Students to whom admission and financial awards are offered in March are requested to give notice in writing of the acceptance or rejection of their offers no later than April 15. Students to whom offers are made after April 1 are asked to reply within two weeks of receipt of the notice. Offers can be withdrawn if the deadline passes without any response from the student. Requests to extend deadlines or to reinstate withdrawn offers should be addressed to the degree program, which must endorse them before forwarding them to the Office of Graduate Studies vice dean for final approval.
