Frequently Asked Questions

If you are a domestic student and an Arizona Resident you will need to complete the Residency Classification process. Only students who are claiming Arizona Residency need to complete this process. Check here for residency requirements or contact the Residency Classification office at (520)621-3636 or at REG-rco@email.arizona.edu.

You can access a student’s GradPath form by logging into UAccess Instructor Center

Use the search fields to look up the student, click Search, and you are directed to the student’s GradPath Forms page. You can view any forms the student has created, including the approval status and Workflow Approval Path, but cannot approve or deny unless the form has been routed to you.

To apply to separate programs or a dual degree program, you will have to submit two separate applications. However, you will not have to enter your personal information and previous schools more than once. This information is part of your profile, which gets submitted along with every application that you submit. You can work on multiple applications at the same time. On the menu at your left, under 'My Applications', click the 'Start a new application' link at any time to begin a new application. This will not affect the applications that you have already started.

The best way is to contact the department you intend to study with. They will determine if your file is complete and when it will be presented to their admissions committee for review.

Applicants may log back in to GradApp to check their application status at any time.  Once your application is in our system, it will be visible to your program of interest for review.  The Graduate College will await an admissions decision from your program of interest.  Departmental review timelines vary, however, the Graduate College will send applicants an email with the departmental decision the very same day it is entered.  After a applicant is recommended, the department should forward any official transcripts they have received to the Graduate College.  The Graduate College will notify applicants if any items are missing only after the program has recommended admission.

Contact your department of interest and the Financial Aid office. The Graduate College sponsors many different programs but all decisions about funding are done at the departmental level. Only your department can tell you their particular funding options and what may be available to you. The Financial Aid office can assist domestic students with student loans and grants only after a FAFSA form has been completed.

The Graduate College administers a handful of Funding Opportunities. Current UA students can browse many more opportunities at the UA's Scholarship Universe.

1. In GradApp, open the Admissions Console and choose the Configure Grad Application link to create or maintain your departmental questions (only be available to Faculty and Staff who hold the App Configuration role)
2. Scroll down the page to Supplemental Questions then choose the Edit Supplemental Questions box and select Add New Question, then enter data and Save. When finished, you may Preview the question.
3. When ready for use, you must click Activate for each question.
4. Once you have established and activated your questions, contact Rhea Gowin, Director of Admissions. She will review the application then activate the questions in the live application system.

Applying for Graduate Admission can be done completely online using GradApp, our Graduate Admissions Application.

Some academic departments also have a separate application process for their program. Please be sure to consult any program-specific application procedures outlined in our Graduate Admissions Guide and/or in the application instructions within GradApp.

Applicants who wish to apply to multiple graduate programs will need to submit a separate application for each program and pay the application fee for each application. The Graduate College will send you an e-mail confirmation that will serve as your receipt for your online application.

• In GradApp, go to the Configure Grad Application link to create or maintain your Letters of Recommendation. (This link will only be available to Faculty and Staff with App Configuration role.)
• After navigating to your program, click Edit Recommendation Settings.
• Use the Number and Type dropdown boxes to indicate whether the Letters are Required or Requested and to indicate the number of letters needed.
• Enter your instructions to both the Applicant and Recommender in their Instruction areas then Save Configuration.
• When completed, contact Rhea Gowin, Director of Admissions. She will review the application then activate the Letters of Recommendation Module in the live application system.

Departmental contact information is listed in the Graduate Admissions Guide. Select the program you are interested in and view contact information along with a description of admissions requirements for the program of study. Some departments keep very specific instructions in this area, others supply general information only, but all departments will provide a link to their specific department websites.

In GradApp, choose Configure Grad Application, then the Edit Terms box to select terms to be opened. If no future terms are selected, prospective students will be unable to apply.

Admissions Guide information is edited by academic department personnel (typically either the Program Coordinator or the Director of Graduate Studies) through a module in GradApp. If you are the program's Coordinator or DGS, you may already have the permissions necessary to make updates. You can login to GradApp to find out - if you see a menu group titled Admissions Guide, you'll be able to see the programs you're able edit by expanding the menu group and clicking the Admissions Guide Entries link.

If personnel changes require updates to the faculty or staff members who should be able to edit a program's description, the Department Head or DGS can request updates by submitting the GradApp Provisioning Request form.

Access can be granted for most roles by filling out the GradApp Provisioning Request form. To be granted access, you will also be required to attend Graduate Admissions Basic Training provided by the Graduate College. Once the Basic Training course is completed, your Department Head or Director of Graduate Studies can submit the GradApp Provisioning Request form. The Graduate Coordinator can provision access for Review Committee members within GradApp.

You must also complete FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974) training before attending training sessions and before any access can be granted to view student or applicant data in any University system. FERPA is a federal law that governs the rights of students and institutions responsibilities with respect to student records. You may complete the Registrar's Office FERPA training online. The course takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.

Staff members must complete FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974) training before attending training sessions and before any access can be granted to view student or applicant data in any University system. FERPA is a federal law that governs the rights of students and institutions responsibilities with respect to student records. You may complete the Registrar's Office FERPA training online. The course takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.

• UAccess: If you have previously completed FERPA training, you will be grandfathered into the UAccess system. It is recommended that you review the Faculty/Staff Resources offered by University Information Technology Services (UITS). Your department authorized representative will also need to complete the UAccess Application Access Request Process on your behalf.
• GradApp: To be granted access, you will be required to attend Graduate Admissions Basic Training provided by the Graduate College. Once the Basic Training course is completed, your Department Head or Director of Graduate Studies can submit the GradApp Provisioning Request form. The Graduate Program Coordinator can provision access for Review Committee members within GradApp without attending additional training.

On the main page of your Student Center, click the dropdown menu in the Advising link.

Click the link to GradPath

You are first directed to the landing page, which contains links and other helpful information. From there, click the GradPath Forms link to reach your forms page.

Mailing addresses, phone & fax numbers, and links to more specific directories can be found on our Contact Information page.

This information is visible in the Workflow Approval Path, which displays at the bottom of the form as soon as you Submit. You can also go to any form and use View Current to open it and see the path.

The Workflow Approval Path shows you where the form has been, the action taken, and where it’s going. If any approver denies your form, you will receive an e-mail notifying you, and you can open the form to see the message about why it was denied. When someone approves your form, it will route automatically to the next approver.

A single approval step may require more than one person to approve (e.g. co-chairs of a committee), or a step may require one of several people to approve (e.g. at the Graduate College). Click on the blue link in any approval group to see more details regarding the person/people in the group.

Note: The Pre-check Stage section displays if the program has asked that the Graduate Coordinator review and approve forms before they go to faculty. Many departments choose to have forms go directly to the faculty for approval and thus skip this pre-check stage.

The University of Arizona's institution code for sending official electronic score reports from ETS is 4832. Once received, your scores will be matched to your student record and will be available to any department that views your record. Please contact the department you intend to study with regarding their specific score requirements. If you are unable to submit the scores electronically, please email your results to the Office of Graduate Admissions at gradadmissions@grad.arizona.edu.   

In GradApp, under the Admissions Console, go to the Configure Grad Application link to create and manage your application (this is only available to Faculty and Staff who hold the App Configuration role).

Approval for a Plan of Study is needed from the faculty advisor(s) named by the student on the form. Doctoral committee appointment forms and exam announcements require approval from the member the student designates as chair (or the two co-chairs). These forms also require programlevel approval from the Director of Graduate Studies.

There are two forms (the Master’s/Specialist Committee Appointment form and the doctoral Prospectus/Proposal Confirmation form) that are approved or submitted by the graduate program coordinator in the department rather than a faculty approver.

All transcripts uploaded to GradApp to complete your application are considered unofficial.   If your program of interest requests official transcripts be sent directly to their office, the department will forward those official transcripts to the Graduate College if you are recommended for admission. 

If you are admitted "Subject To" providing the Graduate College with final official transcripts with your degree posted, you may ask your institution or clearinghouse to send official electronic transcripts to:  transcripts@grad.arizona.edu, or mail/deliver paper documents to:  Graduate College, University of Arizona, Administration 322, PO Box 210066, Tucson, AZ 85721-0066

• You will receive an email from GradPathForms@grad.arizona.edu. This email identifies the form and the student who submitted it. It also contains a link to the specified form in UAccess Student. Note: Make sure your email filter is set to accept emails from the sender indicated above.

OR

• There is a link in your UAccess Instructor Center (main page, upper right) for “GradPath Pending Transactions". From this page, you can open any form needing your attention and take the needed action. (It’s a good idea to check this list regularly in case e-mails are missed.) There are instructions for using this page available at http://grad.arizona.edu/gradpath.

When entering a previous school, major, start date, and end date are required fields and must be filled out, even if you did not earn a degree. If you did not have a major for a previous school, enter N/A or none.

You can try simplifying your search criteria. For example, try searching only for Arizona instead of University of Arizona in the school name field.

If you still cannot find your institution, it may not be in our database of known institutions. In that case, your search results will be followed by the following text: "If no institutions match your institution, please search again or add a school." The words "add a school" will be hyper-linked. You'll need to click the link, and you'll then be presented with a form to enter the information for that school. You'll need to fill out ALL fields for the school, including start and end dates, as well as degree date if you received a degree.

If you earned multiple degrees from a single institution, you must enter that school multiple times, each time with a single degree listed. If you earned one degree but had a double major, you can type both of your majors into the form.

Contact the department you intend to study with and ensure you have submitted all supporting documents. You may check the status of your application at any time by logging back into your GradApp account.

Contact the Graduate College by sending an email to gradadmissions@grad.arizona.edu.

If you're having technical difficulties, please include the answers to the following questions so that we can help you more quickly.

• What Operating System are you using (Windows, Macintosh, Ubuntu, Red Hat, etc.)?
• What web browser are you using (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.) and what version?
• What is the web page address (URL) you're accessing?
• If you see any error messages, what do they say?

If you're attempting to attach/upload one or more documents that were requested by the department, please keep in mind that our system does not allow single files larger than 2 megabytes in size to be uploaded.

Many programs require you to submit an additional application to the department that administers the program. Be sure to contact the department to make sure that you are fullfilling all of the application requirements.

The person you are looking for either needs appropriate Graduate Faculty or Special Member status to serve on committees or needs the required permissions set up in UAccess. Contact the Graduate Coordinator in your department to follow up and resolve the issue.

Send an email to gradadmissions@grad.arizona.edu and someone will get back to you, usually within 24 hours, but definitely within 3 business days. If it is an urgent problem, please indicate this in your email.

1. Click on the link in the email. If prompted, log in with your NetID and password and then will be taken directly to the form that needs review and approval.
2. Review the information on the form. Be sure to look for comments or warnings near the bottom of the form. Scroll down until you locate the section you need to complete and use the appropriate button to approve or deny the form.
3. If appropriate, enter any comments. Note: If you are denying the form, you must enter a comment.
4. Click the button for the appropriate action. Note: If the Approve and Deny buttons are not available, you do not need to take any action on the form and the email notification was for informational purposes only. This information is specified in the email.

If a program has only temporarily stopped accepting applications, we recommend simply removing all available Terms in the Application Configuration section of GradApp.

If the program has changed names, a new Program (ie. Academic Plan) will have been created in UAccess by Curricular Affairs. The Graduate College can disable the old program so that it is not displayed to applicants in GradApp. Once the old program no longer has any enrolled students, it can also be disabled so that it is no longer listed on the Program Descriptions website.

All GradPath notifications go to your official UA email address. If you aren’t sure what email address is being used, log into UAccess Employee, as you do to submit your timesheet. Navigate to Main Menu > Self Service > Personal Information > Personal Information Summary. The Graduate College cannot use a different e-mail address for GradPath.

While we're not able to provide a live demonstration of the post-submit Applicant interface, we have put together this series of screenshots to help you understand what an applicant can see in GradApp after submitting their application.

Contact your department regarding their required documents. They are the only ones who can extend deadline dates or make special allowances for items arriving late.

Our system will not allow you to create multiple applications for the same combination of academic program and term.

We use a secure, third-party vendor to process credit card payments. Normally, your payment will be automatically reflected in your application, however on occasion the vendor service can fail to update GradApp, making it appear the payment failed. If you believe this has happened to you, and/or you subsequently paid the application fee more than once for the same application, please e-mail gradadmissions@grad.arizona.edu. Be prepared to provide us with details of the failed or duplicate charges. We will need to know your name and student ID (if known), when you applied, how you applied, and the details of why you believe you were charged more than once. Please contact your banking institution to verify that multiple charges have not already been voided before contacting the Graduate College.

The Graduate College does not have posted application deadline dates. Please check the Graduate Admissions Guide for individual program deadlines.

There may be an issue with how your completed steps have been tracked on your record. Please contact your degree counselor at the Graduate College.

You are not required to submit Financial Guarantee documents with your application. After final admission, International Student Services will contact you regarding immigration document processing.  Students will be required to submit a Financial Guarantee form before any visa documents can be processed. If you receive departmental funding, this funding may be applied towards your total financial guarantee. If you do not require visa documents, you will not need to submit a Financial Guarantee. 

You will either need to have e-mail forwarded from your official UA account to the account you use, OR you will need to check the GradPath Pending Transactions page in your Instructor Center.

Refer to our Graduate Admissions Guide for admissions requirements and check the University Catalog for additional program completion requirements.  For more detailed inquiries, please contact the Academic Units directly.

The forms are on file and do not have to be re-submitted electronically, but are not visible in GradPath, which you will use for your next form. If paper forms were submitted, the system picks up at the next step. GradPath may allow you to create forms you already completed on paper – you should NOT re-do a form unless the information has changed.

It is the Graduate College’s system for electronic processing of graduate students’ forms for their degrees, replacing the previous paper forms. Students complete and submit forms online through UAccess Student. An automated workflow engine then routes the electronic forms to everyone who needs to see or approve them. 

Please consult our Contact Information.

When a Plan of Study is submitted in GradPath, the Faculty Advisor must complete this section on the form. This is the only time it will have to be completed, and you cannot approve or deny until you have done so.

Note: If a doctoral student submitted a paper Plan of Study before GradPath was in use, the committee chair is asked to complete this section on the student’s final defense committee appointment form.

This is the first form you must complete in GradPath – you will not be able to open any of the other required forms until this is completed. To see the form, click Create New. Make sure you’ve read the General Information section. Then, in the Certified section, read the statement and check the box.

This form does not require any approvals; once submitted you are immediately able to access the next applicable form. To return to your forms page, click the Return button.

This redirects you to the student’s main GradPath page, where you may view any other forms pending, submitted, approved, or denied for that student.

If GradPath recognizes that the information on a form violates a Graduate College policy, the student receives this warning when the form is submitted and it is saved and displayed directly above the comment field. A validation warning normally means that the student would need a petition approved by the Graduate College in order to have the GradPath form approved.

Image

The Workflow Approval Path shows you where the form has been, the action taken, and where it’s going. Approvals progress through all the routing in a section before progressing to the next, and each section has at least one approval group. The approval group may be contain a single name or may have multiple approvers. Click on the blue link in any approval group to see more details regarding the person/people in the group.

Note: The Pre-check Stage section displays if the program has asked that the Graduate Coordinator be the first reviewer for their students’ forms. Many departments choose to have forms go directly to the faculty for approval and thus skip this pre-check stage.

Please contact the Graduate College degree counselor for your program.

Directors of Graduate Studies and faculty who are named by students as a faculty advisor or chair of a committee are required to approve or deny the applicable form.

The forms can only be submitted in a controlled sequence. You cannot create a new form if there are prior forms that have not been submitted and approved. In addition, the Modify function is only available once a form has been approved or denied.

You must be logged into UAccess (i.e. with a WebAuth log-in) in order to open GradPath forms. Are you on campus? If not, VPN is required in order to log in. If you don’t have a VPN client, it is available for free from UITS. Setting up VPN is normally fairly simple.

If you are on campus or have VPN and still having connection issues, contact the 24/7 IT Support Center at 626-TECH (626-8324).

To guarantee that you receive the email that will be sent to you, you should configure your email program to accept all emails from gradadmissions@grad.arizona.edu. If you do not know how to do that and you don't receive your email within a few minutes after submitting the form, be sure to check that it hasn't been put in your SPAM or JUNK folder.

We have received occasional reports of emails from our system not being delivered by overseas mail servers. In all cases, this has been the result of the configuration of the receiving networks and, unfortunately, not in our power to remedy.