Admissions

Recommendation letters weigh heavily in the evaluation of applicants because of the competitive nature of application processes. A generic letter of one or two short paragraphs that can also be used for another student by simply swapping the name is not a good recommendation letter and therefore a lost opportunity of better advocacy for the applicant. A good recommendation letter tells specific and often unique stories that illustrate the advantageous characters that the applicant possesses, such as mindfulness in maturity, intellectuality, and leadership, effortfulness in perseverance and resilience, resourcefulness in creativity and optimism, and joyfulness in experiencing heuristic processes. A good recommendation letter often also contains comparison of the applicant over a measurable base.

Anyone who has a B.S. or B.A. undergraduate degree in any field with a min. 3.0/4 GPA is welcome to apply. However, a good grasp of basic knowledge in General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry is still needed to succeed in completing the EMAP curriculum. As such, EMAP offers a free 10-week intensive summer chemistry preparatory course at Georgetown for enrolled students who have not had the afore-listed basic chemistry courses during their undergraduate studies. The preparatory chemistry course, which starts on Monday of the first week in June and ends on Friday of the second week in August, consists of two 5-week sessions with the first session focusing on General Chemistry and the second on Organic and Biochemistry. In case an enrolled student cannot attend the required chemistry preparatory course in the summer right before the start of the program, he/she should then follow the 5-semester program schedule during which he/she can then take the chemistry preparatory course in the summer after the second semester in the program. Please contact the EMAP program for details.

On the other hand, enrolled students who have successfully completed  (1) 1-year General Chemistry/lab; (2) 1 semester Organic Chemistry or 1 semester Biochemistry or 1 semester Molecular Biology with accompanied lab, and ( 3) 1 semester college-level basic Statistics course, or equivalent courses, will be in a good position to start the EMAP program right away.

All applicants must submit a less-than-two-page personal statement describing how they could contribute to the EMAP program while studying with it and why the EMAP program would fit their career aspirations.

Transcript

All unofficial transcripts that are the exact (scanned) pdf copies of the official ones should be uploaded by the applicant to the online application. Photo shots of transcripts are not admissible.

Applicants for admission to the Environmental Metrology and Policy Program must provide unofficial transcripts of ALL work beyond secondary school—undergraduate coursework, graduate coursework, study abroad courses, community college courses, and non-degree courses. This requirement also includes any transfer credits that may have been completed at another institution other than the degree awarding institution.

Admission decision made based on unofficial transcripts is only provisional but will become official when official transcripts are received properly by the graduate school. For additional details regarding transcript requirements, please review the Office of Graduate Admissions’ page for the full policy and requirements.

GRE Scores

Applications without GRE scores will receive full considerations. However, applicants who have taken or will take GRE because other programs they also apply for require GRE scores, they are encouraged to share their results of GRE with EMAP as an additional evaluation data point for the admission decision once you know of them. Applicants should allow six to eight weeks from the test date for the official reporting of scores to the institution. Information on registering to take the GRE can be found at: http://www.gre.org/ttindex.html

Georgetown University’s institution code for reporting GRE scores is 5244.

English Proficiency:

All applicants are required to demonstrate a level of proficiency in the English language sufficient to meet the admission requirement of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Proficiency can be demonstrated by the receipt of a bachelor’s or advanced degree from an accredited institution of higher education in the United States or from a university where English is the primary language of instruction (please note that applicants receiving degrees at universities in U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico, are required to submit the TOEFL or IELTS unless the primary language of instruction at the institution is English).

All other applicants must achieve at least a minimum score on either the TOEFL or IELTS test as noted below. Test scores must be received by the application deadline date. Applicants should allow six to eight weeks from the test date for the reporting of scores to the institution. Applications from students requiring the TOEFL/IELTS will not be considered without TOEFL/IELTS scores.

• TOEFL: A minimum score of 600 (paper-based test) or 100 (iBT test) on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
• IELTS: A minimum score of 7.5 from the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

Georgetown University’s institution code for reporting TOEFL scores is 5244.