Admission requirements

All general admission requirements to the Toulouse Graduate School, as outlined elsewhere in this bulletin, must be fulfilled. Application must first be made to the Toulouse Graduate School through the office of the graduate dean. Once the student is admitted to the graduate school, the application will be reviewed by the department for admission to the MPA program. Applications to the MPA program are reviewed throughout the year.

The Master of Public Administration program uses a holistic review process for considering applications for admission. The application packet includes official transcripts for all college work (from which a grade point average is computed). Additional information may be requested for review, including up to three letters of recommendation from persons capable of evaluating the applicant’s potential for graduate study, an essay describing the applicant’s career objectives and explaining how an MPA degree will help achieve those objectives, or a current resumé. These additional materials, if requested, may be submitted to the department directly at mpa@unt.edu. Department application deadlines conform to university deadlines for applications, as indicated on the university’s website.

Degree requirements

The MPA degree requires 36 to 40 semester credit hours, depending on work experience. Depending on the length and level of managerial experience, students accepted into the program are placed into one of three categories: pre-career, in-career, or mid-career. Pre-career is for students with no managerial experience, and requires 40 hours of graduate course work, including an internship. In-career is for students with less than three years of full-time public management experience. It requires 39 hours of graduate course work. Mid-career is for students with three or more years of full-time, executive management experience, and requires 36 hours of graduate course work. The internship is not required for in-career or mid-career students.