MPhil in the Liberal Arts

Application Deadlines

Summer Admission: April 15, March 15 for international applicants
Fall Admission: August 1, July 1 for international applicants
Spring Admission: November 15, November 1 for international applicants

* All applications materials must be received in our office by the application deadline.

Application

Applications may only be submitted through our online application system. To begin a new online application, click here. An application must contain all of the following in order to be considered complete:

• Completed application
• Current resume
• Application essays
• Official transcripts from each post-secondary school, sent directly to CGS address at left

* There is no application fee.

Application Essays

Please respond to each of the following questions.  If you are submitting your essays online, please upload them together in one document. Number your essays clearly and begin each essay on a separate page. Responses should not exceed four pages in length for all the questions combined.

1. Have you ever been placed on probation, dismissed or suspended from any college or university for reasons pertaining to academic integrity? If yes, please include any facts that you believe bear on the significance of this circumstance.
2. During your MLA program, you developed an interdisciplinary curriculum that explored one or more themes.  Please describe your intellectual journey during the MLA and discuss, in detail, how your experience has prepared you to undertake further study in the MPhil program.
3. Describe the areas that you wish to explore during your MPhil program. Will this build upon your MLA Capstone Project or will this be a departure from your previous studies? If your proposed MPhil program is a departure from your MLA research, describe any coursework or experiences that have prepared you to undertake your proposed course of study.
4. Describe an experience in your program at Penn where material you encountered in a course challenged a preconception that you held.  What effect did this experience have?

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of Recommendations are not required for the Master of Philosophy in the Liberal Arts program. However, you may submit up to three letters of recommendation to support your application. These should be from individuals with whom you have had a close professional or academic association and who know of your desire to enroll in the College of General Studies. If you decide to submit letters of recommendation, you may ask your recommenders to complete their letters online or to submit hard copy letters of recommendation. To submit online recommendations, follow the instructions in the Recommendations section of the online application. If your recommendations will not be submitted online, please complete the CGS cover sheet for letters of recommendation, give it to your references, and have them complete and attach the form to their letter. You can download the form at www.sas.upenn.edu/CGS/downloads.

Standardized Test Scores

Standardized test scores are not required. However, you may opt to submit standardized test scores such as the GRE

Submit TOEFL scores if English is not your primary language. Use the ETS code (2986) when requesting TOEFL scores. Applicants who have completed post-secondary work in an institution where the instruction was in English do not have to submit TOEFL scores.