For Autumn Quarter admission, completed application materials are due February 1. The deadline for international applicants is November 1 for receipt of the Application for Admission to the Graduate School, all official transcripts, and test scores. The remaining application materials must arrive no later than February 1. For Winter Quarter admission, application materials are due September 15. Admission for Winter quarter is rather rare and depends both on high potential for success and on space available in the program. Late applications will be considered on a space available basis only.

Departmental Application Materials

Application Form
A completed Application for Admission to the Master of Urban Planning Program must be submitted. This form may be completed and submitted online at Application for Admission to the Graduate School or a hardcopy can be downloaded from a downloadable/printable PDF file and mailed directly to the Department of Urban Design and Planning. Many applicants are currently having difficulty saving and uploading our program application to the Admissions website. If you are having difficulty, please just print the form and mail a hard copy to us. It is not required that it be submitted online.

Before filling out these forms, make sure you have read all applicable instructions on this page. Take special care to obtain and submit the Graduate School Application Materials (described below) as well.

To receive these application materials by mail, please call (206) 543-4190, or email bargsk3@u.washington.edu, or write us at Department of Urban Design and Planning, Box 355740, University of Washington, Seattle WA 98195.

Letters of Recommendation
Applicants are required to submit three letters of recommendation: at least two from college instructors and, if appropriate, one from an employer. Additional letters are welcomed but not required. Applicants who have been out of school for several years may submit letters from employers or other persons in a position to evaluate their professional abilities and academic potential in place of letters from college instructors. We do strongly encourage that at least one academic recommender be used. The letters should be submitted with the Letter of Recommendation form in envelopes sealed by the recommenders, or they may be submitted online at the applicant's request (see Application for Admission to the Graduate School). We suggest applicants provide each evaluator with a copy of the statement of purpose in order to facilitate the evaluation.

Resume
Applicants should submit a resume of work and relevant experiences. The applicant may choose to either send the resume via U.S. mail, or submit it electronically at Application for Admission to the Graduate School.

Exhibit
Applicants are invited to include an exhibit of their work but one is not required. The exhibit should illustrate their interests and abilities in areas related to urban design and planning. This can be an essay, a paper, a publication, a report, or a project for which the person applying to the program has had major responsibility. The exhibit will not be returned (unless an addressed, stamped envelope is included) and should fit in a letter-size file.

Statement of Purpose
Prepare a statement outlining career objectives, reasons for choosing to undertake graduate study in urban design and planning, and expectations from the Department. The admissions committee uses this statement to understand your personal goals and desires with respect to the field of planning. This constitutes one of the major documents in the review of your application, and you are encouraged to prepare it very carefully. Please address the following questions in the statement: (1) what are your long term career objectives; (2) describe your most substantial professional contributions or the situation which helped you define your professional objectives; (3) identify the central skills, knowledge and experiences you will bring to graduate studies; (4) what factors led you to decide that the program of graduate study offered by the Department of Urban Design and Planning would be most helpful to your career development; and, (5) describe any special area(s) within urban design and planning in which you would like to focus, such as general urban planning, land use planning, urban design, urban development and housing or other. What issues or problems do you wish to address in the course of your graduate studies? Identify other academic units on campus with which you might work. The statement of purpose may either be mailed in or submitted electronically at Application for Admission to the Graduate School.

Official Transcripts
See below

Graduate School Application Materials

Graduate School Application
In addition to the Application for Admission to the Master of Urban Planning program, a separate Application for Admission to the Graduate School must be submitted.

Note: In addition to submitting your Application for Admission to the Graduate School electronically, be certain you also print a copy of the completed application and mail it to the Department of Urban Design and Planning along with any other application materials you have decided to mail.

Note to MUP/MPA Concurrent Applicants: Individuals applying for the concurrent MUP/MPA program must submit two separate Graduate School applications, one for each program; indicate "Concurrent MUP/MPA program" in the Areas of Interest section of your applications.

Application Fee
Please see the separate instructions included with the Graduate School Application for fee amount. The application fee is not refundable and is not credited against any other fees charged by the University. If the application fee is not received, the application will not be reviewed by the Admissions Committee.

Official Transcripts
U.S. citizens and permanent residents must send a complete set of official transcripts for all collegiate institutions attended to the Department of Urban Design and Planning. In addition, if a degree was earned from a school outside the U.S., another official set of transcripts and degree statements must be sent to the Office of Graduate Admissions. U.S. applicants who are offered admission and decide to accept that offer must then provide the Office of Graduate Admissions with an official transcript from each school from which they earned a bachelor's or higher degree. Official transcripts must arrive unopened, in envelopes sealed by the sending school.

International applicants must provide two complete sets of transcripts and degree statements, including the date and title of the degree, at the time of application.

Graduate Record Examination Scores
The results of the Graduate Record Examination must be submitted by all applicants. GRE tests in the United States are administered many times each year; please check with your testing center. The tests are given at various locations throughout the world as well. Although recent scores are preferred, tests taken within the past five years are acceptable. Applicants should request the scores be sent by ETS so they are received by the University of Washington by the February 1 deadline (autumn quarter) or September 15 (winter quarter) deadline. For further information about GRE examinations, go to www.ets.org/gre, or write to: Educational Testing Service, Box 955, Princeton, New Jersey 08540.
Our institution code is 4854; we do not use a department code.

English Proficiency
Prospective international, immigrant, and permanent resident students whose native language is other than English and who have not received bachelor's or master's degrees from institutions in countries where English is the native language are required to submit their scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The minimum allowable TOEFL score is 500 (or 173 on the computer-based test). A minimum of 550 (213 computer-based) is preferred. Students admitted with scores below 580 (237 computer-based) will be tested for English proficiency upon arrival and will be required to complete any assigned ESL courses along with their regular academic program. The fee for ESL courses as of Autumn quarter 2007 is $1067 per course in addition to the regular non-resident tuition fee. (Course fee is subject to change.)

Mailing
A copy of the Application for Admission to the Graduate School, one set of all official Transcripts, and the Exhibit (if one is included) should be mailed to:

Department of Urban Design and Planning
University of Washington
410 Gould Hall, Box 355740
Seattle, WA 98195

206 543-4190

The Master of Urban Planning program Application, Statement of Purpose, three letters of recommendation, and Resume may all be submitted online at Application for Admission to the Graduate School, or hardcopies may be mailed directly to the Department of Urban Design and Planning. The personal statement found in the online application procedure is optional.

The Application for Admission to the Graduate School and Application Fee should be submitted online. ETS should be asked to send GRE scores and, if required, the TOEFL score (institution code 4854). If a non-U.S. college was attended, one official set of each international program transcript should be mailed to:

Office of Graduate Admissions
University of Washington
301 Loew Hall, Box 84808
Seattle, WA 98125-6108

206 543-5929

Note: Even though you will submit your Application for Admission to the Graduate School electronically, you must still be certain you print a copy of the completed application and mail it to the Department of Urban Design and Planning along with the other required application materials.

All applications will be reviewed and assigned a competitive ranking, and those ranked highest will be accepted within the enrollment quota. The Admissions Committee will consider the following criteria in reviewing and ranking the applications: previous academic performance and relevance of the education to urban design and planning; relevance of previous non-academic experience to urban design and planning; clarity of objectives and their relevance to the profession in general and the Department of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington in particular; and quality of recommendations.

Applicants are notified regarding Autumn Quarter admission by early April; Winter Quarter admission by the second week of November.