We are one week out from our application deadline. Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in our community—by attending a virtual or in-person information session, calling our office, scheduling a one-on-one conversation, sending us an email, or checking out our website! And to those who have chosen to apply, we look forward to getting to know you and are excited about all you might add to our community. 

We certainly appreciate the time, investment, and energy—emotional and otherwise, each of you puts into your application and toward learning about why SPIA might be the right next step and place for graduate study. On this side, we commit to reading your applications with the same passion, curiosity, and interest. 

Everyone who applies to SPIA has their application read and reviewed by at least two different people. As files move through our review process, more people will read each file. All files are read individually and holistically. Given the intensity of our process, we thank you in advance for your patience in our process.

With our upcoming December 15 application deadline in mind, we hope the following resources and information will be useful as we may not be able to respond to every inquiry that comes in during the final few days before our deadline.

• Our application deadline is December 15 at 11:59 p.m. ET. There are no extensions or exceptions to this deadline, so please make sure to submit your application well in advance as the  application portal will close at that time. 
• Princeton graduate programs only offer fall-entry admission, and we have a single application deadline of December 15.
• Our December 15 deadline is for all three graduate degree programs at SPIA—the 2-year MPA, the 1-year mid-career MPP, and our PhD.

**Did we mention the application deadline is December 15, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. ET!!** ​

• If you are applying to the MPA program and have scheduled your GRE for December, please include a brief statement in your application that contains your test date, so that our admissions committee knows your score is forthcoming.
• Also, when you receive your GRE scores from ETS, please forward a copy to spiaadmissions@princeton.edu. Our office will use this as a placeholder until we receive your official scores. 
  • Testing after December 15 is not recommended as we cannot guarantee scores will be received in time for our review process, and MPA files without a GRE score will be deemed incomplete until we have it.
• It is fine to submit your application even if your three recommenders have yet to submit their letters on your behalf. However, you might want to give them a gentle and polite reminder of the application deadline and encourage them to submit as soon as possible.

For additional application questions, please refer to the following pages:

• The Graduate School’s Applying to Princeton page
• The Graduate School’s Prepare Your Application page, and the English Language Proficiencytesting page
• The Graduate School’s overview of SPIA’s application requirements
• Detailed pages on the application for the MPA, MPP and the PhD

Once an application is submitted, it is the applicant’s responsibility to check the application portal for updates and to confirm that we have all required information. 

• To check the status of your application, please see the following:
  • When you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email. No notifications will be sent for completed applications. It is the responsibility of the applicant to view their application checklist to confirm that all required items are received.
  • An applicant who has submitted their application, and paid the application fee, can return to the application portal to view their application checklist.
  • The application checklist shows received materials. Duplicate materials and items that are not required as part of the application will not appear on the checklist. Checklists are only updated after the application is submitted and the fee is paid.
  • You can verify the receipt of letters of recommendation and test scores. Any item that has been received will have a date next to it. Tests that have been received will show the test date.

Finally, for any last details about our tight-knit and supportive community, please consider reviewing the following to learn more:

• Graduate Admissions Viewbook
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at SPIA
• Internships and First Destinations after Graduation
• Biographical profiles of current MPA, MPP and PhD students
• Curriculum and Requirements for the MPA, MPP and PhD

Good luck to all who are applying!