Change of Program
A student who is currently registered in a program at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and is in confirmed good academic and administrative standing may request a change of program:
- from an Arts and Sciences PhD program to another
- from an Arts and Sciences PhD program to a master's program
- from an Arts and Sciences master's program to another
Note: A change of program from an MA program to a PhD program is not permitted; master’s students who seek admission to a doctoral program must formally apply during the annual doctoral application cycle. Students wishing to change to or from a program at another school of the university must submit a formal application for admission to the desired school.
To apply for a change of program, the student must contact the program director or director of graduate studies of the new program and ask to be considered for a transfer.
If they agree to consider the student, the new program must assemble a complete dossier to be reviewed by a faculty admissions committee. The materials should include:
- from GSAS Office of Admissions, the student's application to the original program
- from GSAS Student Affairs, any relevant materials since matriculation
- from GSAS Office of Student Affairs, the student’s transcript of all courses completed since the original application
- from the original department, any non-transcript records of academic performance on milestones, such as qualifying exams, thesis or dissertation proposals, end-of-year review letters, etc.
- from the student, the new department may request a new statement of purpose and/or writing sample.
After these materials are collected and reviewed by a full faculty committee in the proposed new program, and the recommendation reviewed with GSAS, the student will be formally notified of the decision. Final approval for such requests is made solely at the discretion of the Dean of the Graduate School and the faculty of the program to which the student is seeking to transfer.
Change of program requests cannot be made within the first semester of enrollment.
Once the change of program request is approved, the student will be unregistered from the original program and enrolled in the new one.
PhD students who wish to change to another PhD program should consult with the faculty of the new program before formally applying. If the student transfers in the first three years of registration (including summers), the destination department must commit to using an admissions allocation to fund the student for the balance of the guaranteed funding years. The original department may replace the student in the next admissions cycle. If the student is beyond the first three years of registration, the fellowship accompanies the student to the destination department and has no impact on admissions for either department. PhD students in 12-month departments must confirm that their PI in new department will be able to support them through graduation.