/Institutions/University-of-Texas-Southwestern-Medical-Center/json/2024-2025/Public-Health-local.json

/Institutions/University-of-Texas-Southwestern-Medical-Center/json/2024-2025/Public-Health.json

Admissions Review Process

The Admissions Committee engages in an individualized, holistic approach to identifying applicants whose qualities, attributes, and accomplishments indicate that they will contribute to the missions of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health and be successful in their course of study. During this admissions process, the Committee considers the following factors (in no specific order):

1. Academic performance in college as reflected in the grade point average and academic record;
2. Letters of recommendation;
3. Scores on the Graduate Record Examination General Test or other acceptable standardized test (optional);
4. The applicant’s personal statement and the motivation indicated therein;
5. Experiences in clinical research activities, scientific research activities, or public health practices where appropriate for the program sought;
6. Whether the applicant has multilingual proficiency;
7. Personal integrity;
8. Socioeconomic background;
9. Whether the applicant would be the first generation of the applicant's family to attend or graduate from a graduate or professional program;
10. The applicant's responsibilities while attending elementary and secondary school and as an undergraduate student, including whether the applicant was employed, whether the applicant helped to raise children, and other similar factors;
11. To achieve geographic diversity, the applicant's region of residence at the time of application;
12. The current comparative availability of public health professionals in the applicant's region of residence; and
13. The applicant’s interview (for Ph.D. program applicants only).

The Committee does not use a point system to assess an applicant’s merit. No more or less weight is given to any one factor as part of the individualized, holistic review.