PhD Admissions

***NEW***
PLEASE NOTE: Admissions Application Deadline for AY 2005-2006 is December 1, 2004.

Any student with a bachelor's or master's degree and with a substantial background in the humanities, social sciences, or physical sciences is eligible to apply to the doctoral program. All candidates for admission must submit an application for admission along with a $40 ($50 for international applicants) credentials fee, transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate courses taken and grades earned, three letters of recommendation, and Graduate Record Examination scores.

You may now speed the application process by applying via the world wide web. The University of Illinois has a web based application for admission called Grad Connect.* We encourage you to apply using the web application. If applying on the web is inconvenient for you, please contact us for a paper version of the application.

Foreign students from non-English-speaking countries are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) before they come to the University. Depending on the results, they may be required to take further instruction in English after their arrival.

Students are normally admitted to start the program only during the fall term. Only under exceptional circumstances are they allowed to begin it in the spring or summer term. All material for fall admission should be submitted by December 1 of the prior calendar year.

Important information for applicants to the doctoral program in Communications

The admissions process in the Institute of Communications Research is competitive; that is, all applications are considered at the same time for fall admission (the Institute does not ordinarily admit students at the Spring term). The Admissions Committee members typically begin individually reviewing application files shortly after the December 1 deadline. The Committee strives to notify applicants by March 1 of their decisions. Since we do not have a rolling admissions process, it is very important that applicants adhere to the December 1 application deadline.

Note that this is the deadline for all of your credentials to be received by ICR. It is not a "postmarked by" deadline, nor is it the deadline for your application to be received by the University of Illinois Office of Admissions and Records.

Applications submitted electronically at the aforementioned website are accessible by ICR as soon as the application fee has been paid. Applications for which the fee has not been paid, whether paper or electronic, are not released to ICR by the Office of Admissions and Records.

A complete application consists of:

* Completed application form (submit electronically; or mail paper application to OAR one month before the deadline if you are able to pay the application fee; or mail paper application to ICR 2 to 3 weeks before the deadline if you are unable to make timely payment of the application fee)

* Application fee ($40 domestic; $50 international) (mail to OAR with your paper application form or pay by credit card if applying electronically)

* Statement of plans (mail to ICR)

* Transcripts from each past secondary school attended (mail to ICR)

* Letters of recommendation (three required) (mail to ICR)

* GRE scores (mail/route to ICR - institution code 1836, department code 4502)

Writing samples are not required.

ICR's mailing address is:

University of Illinois
Institute of Communications Research
810 S. Wright Street, Suite 228
Urbana, IL 61801

OAR's mailing address is:

University of Illinois
Office of Admissions and Records
901 W. Illinois Street
Urbana, IL 61801

ICR does not have the resources to send periodic notices of the status of applications. Please feel free to contact us to check the status of your application file.
Telephone: (217)333-1549
Fax: (217)244-7695
E-mail: icr@uiuc.edu

Financial Aid

Financial aid is available in the form of assistantships, fellowships, and tuition and fee waivers. Students of color underrepresented in communications research are eligible for University fellowships. Most Institute students eventually receive some kind of financial support. The application for admission includes a section to be completed if you wish to be considered for financial aid. Insofar as possible, the Institute makes financial aid and admission decisions simultaneously.

Teaching assignments are also periodically available in other University departments or programs - for example, Advertising, Journalism, Speech, English, Business and Technical Writing, Unit for Cinema Studies, and Agricultural Communications - and in the communications program at Parkland College. Students with editing, writing, computer programming, keypunching, tutoring, or other skills often can find support in other units of the University. Usually these positions must be obtained once you are on campus and can arrange interviews. A few students also find part-time employment with the local media.

See also UIUC Graduate College Financial Aid and Fellowship Office

Residency

The doctoral degree requires a minimum of 96 hours of credit: 64 course-work hours and 32 thesis hours. At least 64 of these hours must be earned as a graduate student in courses meeting on the Urbana-Champaign campus. After the residency requirement has been fulfilled, a student may petition the Graduate College for permission to register in absentia for thesis credit. Students entering with a master's degree (or it's equivalent in graduate course work) may be given credit for part of it in completing the required 96 hours, but this does not waive the residency requirement.

Housing

The two residence halls for unmarried graduate students are Sherman and Daniels. In addition, there are University-approved residences as well as private apartments and houses in Champaign-Urbana. For further information, write to the Housing Information Office, 2 Fred H. Turner Student Services Building, 610 East John Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820, and the Champaign-Urbana Tenant Union, Room 298A Illini Union, 1401 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801.

For married students, with or without children, the University has a number of apartments available. Write to the apartments manager, 1842A Orchard Place, Urbana, Illinois 61801.

See Champaign Urbana local media for housing classifieds.

Health Services and Insurance

As a student at the University of Illinois, you pay two fees at registration which cover services that should meet many of your health care needs:

The Health Service Fee is pre-payment for services provided by McKinley Health Center and the Counseling Center. This fee is mandatory for most students and optional for several categories of part-time students. The 2003-2004 Fee is $179.00 per semester.

The Student Health Insurance Fee pays for the University sickness and accident insurance program for health care received outside of McKinley Health Center. Students are required either to pay this fee or to document that they have other health insurance coverage equivalent to the University plan. The 2003-2004 Fee is $214.00 per semester.

Tuition and service fee waivers that accompany Teaching and Research Assistant appointments do not cover the Health Service Fee or the Student Health Insurance Fee.

For more information, visit the Office of Student Insurance website at

http://webster.uihr.uiuc.edu/students/.