1.  You will agree to pursue a course of study prescribed by the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice consisting of two (2) courses each semester and each summer. 

2.  You will agree to declare in advance of your first registration your intention to pursue either the law enforcement concentration or the corrections concentration leading to the M.S. or the course sequence leading to the M.A. 

3.  You will agree to complete your graduate proposal (M.S.) or your thesis defense (M.A.) not later than mid-July of your second summer in the program. 

Deviation from these conditions may result in significant delays in the completion of your degree.  At the time of your first registration, you will receive a contract of study, which specifies the exact courses and times required for you to complete all degree requirements. 

Please be aware that the admission decision will be based on the merits of your application (and not the length of time you have been on the waiting list).  Also be aware that you must pay an application fee of $35 to the School of Graduate Studies and that you will probably incur other costs from your undergraduate institutions to provide official transcripts.  Paying these fees and providing this information guarantees only that you will be considered for admission to the program. 

1.  Ensure that you have a current application for admission on file with the ISU School of Graduate Studies.  (This can be done on-line.)

2.  Ensure that you have arranged for all of your undergraduate institutions to submit official transcripts to the ISU School of Graduate Studies.

3.  Ensure that you have transmitted to the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, through the School of Graduate Studies, any other information (e.g., GRE scores, letters of recommendation, personal statements) that you might wish us to consider when making the admission decision. 

Obviously, we have many more applicants than we can admit to the program at any one time.  We must choose the applicants who seem to us to have the best prospect of success in graduate study, acknowledging that we must exclude many worthy and capable persons.  Our concern is that we treat all applicants equally and fairly in the process.  To help you make your decision as to whether to continue with the application process, consider the following:

1.   Applicants with an undergraduate grade point average above 3.5 on a scale of 4.0 have the best chance of admission.

2.  Applicants with an undergraduate grade point average below 3.5 but above 3.0 have a reasonable possibility of admission.

3.  Applicants with an undergraduate grade point average above 2.75 but below 3.0 are unlikely to be admitted in the absence of some other compelling reasons (such as high professional achievement) for admission.

4.  Applicants with an undergraduate grade point average below 2.75 are unlikely to be admitted to the program under present circumstances.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding.  I truly wish that we could admit every person who wants to pursue the master’s in Criminology, but the popularity of the program has strained our resources to the limit.  We are striving to serve the needs of the national criminal justice community while maintaining the quality of our program, which celebrates its 36^th anniversary this year of undergraduate and graduate education in Criminology & Criminal Justice.

 Sincerely, 

David T. Skelton, J.D., Ed.D.
Professor and Attorney at Law
Director, Institute of Criminology