Lessons · Teaching · what a programme asks before it admits you
What a programme wants before it will let you in
Admission is decided by the preparation programme against a bar the programme publishes: a degree from an accredited institution, a grade point average, evidence that you know the content of the field you want, and usually an interview.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
A man with a chemistry degree spent a summer studying for a content examination and then discovered that the programme he wanted would not consider him until it had his paperwork, his grade point average and an interview, and that his attempt had been made without their approval. He did step three before step one and lost a semester to it. The order is the lesson.
How to think about it
Before studying for anything, write to one programme and ask for its published admission requirements. Read them as a checklist and find the single item that takes longest to obtain. In almost every case that is an official record from an institution you left years ago, so start that one first and do the rest while it travels.
Worked example
Degree from an accredited institution, and the proof of it ordered earlyOrdered first, because an institution takes its own time and answers to nobody.
Grade point average checked against the minimum the programme publishesPublished by the programme. If yours is under it, ask what the programme accepts instead.
Content knowledge in the field shown the way the programme asksThis is why the field is chosen before admission, not after.
Interview or screening, then an offer of admission in writingAdmission in writing is the thing every later step hangs from.
Your turn
Name the admission document that has to be ordered first because somebody else controls how long it takes.
The admission item with the longest wait is usually an official
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Treating a programme's admission requirements as the state's. They overlap and they are not the same list, and the programme's is the one that decides whether you start this year.