A Graduate Program that wishes to admit an applicant who does not meet the criteria for admission as a Regular degree student can admit the applicant as a Provisional degree student. On the provisional form that accompanies the student’s admission documents, the Graduate Program Director outlines the rationale to support such an admission. The form must include a description of the conditions that the student must meet in order to become a Regular degree student. 

Based on the requirements of the Graduate Program, the Program Director will advise the student of the conditions that the student must satisfy in order to be transferred from Provisional to Regular status. The Program Director, will also determine the time period (1 or 2 semesters for full-time students and a maximum of 4 semesters for part-time students) in which these conditions must be met.

Provisional students are subject to the same standards of performance required of Regular degree students, plus any other requirements imposed by Program faculty as conditions of admission. At the end of the specified probationary period, the Program Director will review the performance of the Provisional degree student. Provisionally admitted students must either have satisfied the requirements for conversion and be admitted to Regular degree status or be dismissed from the Graduate Program to which they were provisionally admitted.

The Program Director will notify the student whether the indicated requirements have been met and the student’s status has been converted to that of a Regular student, or if the student failed to meet the requirements and has been dismissed.