»Graduate Admission FAQs

Most graduate programs, including our Integrated Programs, use our General Application. 

The following programs use the Centralized Application Service (CAS): 

• Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) applicants apply through PharmCAS. 
• Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) applicants apply through PTCAS. 
• MMS in Physician Assistant (PA) applicants apply through CASPA. 
• MS in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) applicants apply through CSDCAS. 
• MS and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences applicants apply through PharmGrad.

Almost all of Chapman University’s graduate programs admit international students. The following graduate programs do not admit international students at this time: 

• MMS in Physician Assistant 
• MS in Finance
• MS in Business Analytics

Yes. For an application to be evaluated by the Admission Committee, all required application materials must be submitted by the application deadline.

Fee waiver requests are available to qualified domestic applicants only. More information about our fee waiver policy is available on our Application Fee Information webpage. 

The Office of Graduate Admission does not offer application fee waivers to international students at this time.

Yes, you can apply to more than one graduate program during a single application cycle. Our General Application only allows users to create one application per application cycle. If you would like to apply for a second graduate program in our General Application, you must complete and submit the application for your first program of interest. After submitting your first application, contact gradadmit@chapman.edu with the name of your second graduate program of interest. Our office can help you set up your second graduate application. 

Some of our graduate programs offer a second choice option within the application. The second choice program must be within the same academic college or be an approved dual or joint program.

Our transcript submission process depends on your graduate program application and where you received your bachelor’s, master’s, and/or doctoral degree(s). Visit our How to Apply website to learn how to correctly submit your transcript(s).

We recommend that your letters are written by someone who can attest to your character and speak to achievements related to your desired area of study. Recommenders can include professors, supervisors, etc.

Some programs do have specifications about what type of recommenders they prefer. Please review your program's application requirements before requesting recommendations to ensure that you are requesting the correct type(s) of recommendations. If you are not sure, please contact us at gradadmit@chapman.edu.

All letters of recommendation must be submitted to our office by the recommender, not the applicant. Your recommender(s) can send in a letter of recommendation in a few different ways: 

• Through the online application system. When filling out your application, you will enter your recommender’s contact information. Your recommenders will receive an email inviting them to submit an online recommendation on your behalf.

• By email. If your recommender has any issues with submitting your letter of recommendation through the online application system, your recommender can send a letter of recommendation to gradadmit@chapman.edu. 

• By postal service. Please note that letters of recommendation sent by postal service can face processing delays. If your recommender wishes to send a letter of recommendation by mail, the letter must be in a sealed envelope and sent to the following address:

• • Chapman University
    Office of Graduate Admission
    One University Dr.
    Orange, CA, 92866

Not all programs require a graduate test score to complete the application. Review your graduate program’s requirements to see if you need to submit a GRE score.

GRE score requirements are set by the academic department. Some graduate programs will waive the GRE score requirement if an applicant earned a certain GPA in a bachelor’s and/or master’s program or if they have a certain level of professional experience. If you have any questions about waiving the GRE requirement, please contact your graduate program’s academic department directly.

Chapman University’s language of instruction is English. All applicants who did not receive a bachelor's, master's, and/or doctoral degree at an institute where English is the only and official language of instruction must demonstrate English proficiency by submitting official scores from an approved English language proficiency exam. If you are unsure of your institution’s language of instruction, please contact gradadmit@chapman.edu.

We accept the following exams: 

• IELTS Academic
• Note: Chapman does not accept any other type of IELTS exam, including the IELTS UKVI.
• TOEFL 
• Note: Chapman does not accept TOEFL Essentials scores or TOEFL MyBest scores. 
• PTE Academic
• Cambridge C1 Advanced
• Duolingo English Test (DET)

Minimum score requirements vary by program. Visit our International Graduate Student webpage for more information. 

Graduate tests and English Proficiency Exams are reportable (valid) for a specific number of years: 

• GRE - 5 years
• GMAT - 5 years
• IELTS Academic - 2 years
• TOEFL - 2 years 
• PTE Academic - 2 years 
• Cambridge C1 Advanced - 2 years 
• Duolingo English Test (DET) - 2 years

In order for our Admission Team to evaluate your application, it must be verified by CAS. CAS begins their verification process after receiving all required materials from the applicant, and the process can take up to six weeks. Our office does not receive applications from CAS until they are verified. 

You will receive a confirmation email after our office receives your CAS application. 

After our office receives your CAS application, please allow our office three to five business days to process your application materials. Certain requirements must be manually processed before they are marked as “Received.”

Some application requirements must be manually reviewed by our office before they are marked as “Received” in our application system. Our application processing times will not impact your application. 

For letters of recommendation and academic transcripts from U.S.-based institutions, please allow our office three to five business days after submission to complete our review. 

For international academic transcripts, please allow our office up to two weeks for document review and processing. 

If you have any questions about the status of your submitted application materials, please contact gradadmit@chapman.edu. 

Applicants cannot make their own changes to the General Application or any Centralized Application Service (CAS) application after submission. 

Our office can update personal demographic information. However, our office cannot guarantee any changes to uploaded materials, such as statement of intent, resumes, and creative submissions. We highly encourage you to double check your application materials before submitting your application.

Your admission letter will provide you with the date of when you should reply to our offer of admission. Please note that your decision deadline is dependent on the program that you are admitted to and if there is any merit funding offered.

Admission from the waitlist depends on students choosing not to attend Chapman University, which varies greatly from year to year. We unfortunately cannot offer any specific data about waitlist admission.  

While it is possible that a spot might open up soon after your waitlist notice, please know that decisions can also be released right before the term begins.

Admission deferral requests are considered on a case-by-case basis by the graduate admission counselor and the academic department. To begin the deferral request process, please contact your graduate admission counselor.