Term Change Policy

The Graduate School considers requests for term changes on a case by case basis. Term changes are granted for extraordinary circumstances outside the students control. Examples include:

• Unable to enroll in the academic term due to medical reasons, natural disasters, or other unforeseen, unpredictable circumstances 
• Unable to obtain visa documents to successfully make it to the United States before the admitted term begins

Term change requests are not granted for voluntary or preference based reasons (e.g., taking a gap year or starting a full time job).

Term changes can be requested for adjacent semesters only.* Spring semester is considered adjacent to fall or adjacent to summer.

If the student does not matriculate in the new semester, they must reapply and pay a new application fee. If a student requests a second term change, the request will be denied and the student will need to reapply for a new term. An individual program can choose to reserve a spot for the student when they reapply, and communicate that to the student, however the Graduate School Admissions Office will need the applicant to fill out a new application.

Term Change Process in Slate

Term change requests can only be completed for admitted applicants (students) and must be completed before their initial semester is scheduled to start. The process is initiated by the applicant or student via written communication to the program. If the program approves the term change, follow the instructions below.

1. Search for the applicant in Slate and click into the appropriate application tab
   
   
2. Select the Request Term Change link, shown in the screenshot below. If the link is not clickable, that means that the student is not yet admitted to the Graduate School for the original application term, and therefore a term change request cannot be completed. (In this scenario, the student is likely either missing official transcripts or English proficiency test scores.)
   
   
   
3. Fill out the Term Change Request form, which is shown in screenshot below. You will be required to provide the new requested term, the program reason for a term change, and also upload proof that the applicant has requested this term change (typically a PDF of an email exchange).
   
   
   
   
4. Select Submit button to enter your term change request.
   
   
5. Back on the application tab, you will see that a term change request will be submitted for this applicant, as shown in the screenshot below. If there is not a decision next to the "Approve/Deny" line, as shown in the screenshot below, that means that the term change request has yet to be reviewed.
   
   
   
   

What happens after a term change request is submitted?

• The term change request is added to the Graduate School Admissions team's processing tasks. We try to get through these tasks every couple of days.
• If the Graduate School Admissions team denies the request, the Graduate Coordinator who filled out the request will receive a denial notice email. The application status will not change as a result: the student will still be admitted to the original term.
• If the Graduate School Admission steam approves the request, the Graduate Coordinator who filled out the request will receive an approval notice email. The term change will cause several important updates to the applicant's applications:
  • The application to the original program will be withdrawn. It will have the status of "Withdrawn - Term Change."
  • A new application to the same program for the new term will be created, containing the same admit codes from the previous (now withdrawn) application. 
  • The applicant will receive status updates about both of these applications.
• Additionally, the Graduate School sends an automated email to the Office of the Registrar's Residency Team. The applicant may be requested to fill out another residency application.