Academic Planning

Academic planning is essential as you embark on your graduate career. Select an item below and identify helpful actions for the beginning of your program.

• Seek Program Department Advising

  • Advising is a vital component in your graduate career and can significantly enhance your university experience. Each program department is designed with faculty members who serve as advisors. Graduate Advisors are the primary guides for successful completion of your degree program. 

    Graduate students should seek program department advising early in their graduate careers and regularly connect with advisors throughout their study. Visit our Connect Page to identify your graduate advisor.

• Clear Provisional Admissions

  • A graduate student may be provisionally admitted to the university. If you were admitted provisionally, you owe outstanding documents to the Graduate Admissions and Program Evaluations (GAPE) Office to complete your admission process.

    Visit your MySJSU “To-Do" list to identify the required documents to clear your provisional status. If you have any questions about the outstanding document, please contact the GAPE Evaluator for your program for further assistance. 

    The GAPE Office determines the provisional admission; therefore, your graduate program department cannot remove this status. If a provision is not cleared by the date specified on the MySJSU "To-Do" list, you will not be able to register for the upcoming semester.

• Confirm Your Residency Status

  • Residency for tuition purposes determines whether a student pays in-state or out-of-state tuition fees and is a combination of physical presence, intent to remain in California indefinitely, and a valid immigration status. 

    Information for First-Term Students
    For information on residency rules, regulations, and appeals visit the Graduate Admissions California Residency webpage. California Residency classification as listed on your admission letter determines tuition. Should you have any questions, please contact the Graduate Admissions and Program Evaluations Office at graduate@sjsu.edu

    Information for Continuing Students
    For more information on the Residency process, how to determine your eligibility or for instructions on how to apply, please visit the Residency webpage located on the Registrar’s Office website. Should you have any additional questions, please contact the Registrar’s Office at registrar@sjsu.edu

• Follow University Registration Processes

  • The Office of the Registrar is responsible for registration, grades, verification of enrollment and degree, official transcripts, reinstatement, and other student record functions. As a graduate student, it is crucial to know key registration steps, deadlines, and forms. 

    Visit the Registrar's Office website to gain knowledge about the university's registration processes. Review the Academic Calendar to stay informed of any upcoming university dates. For additional assistance, review the following Registration Notes.

    Course Prerequisites: If a student has taken a prerequisite course outside of SJSU, they will need to submit an unofficial transcript to the course instructor. The instructor can issue a permission number to enroll in the course.

    Undergraduate Classes: Graduate students may take undergraduate classes. However, lower division (freshman and sophomore) courses numbered 1-99 cannot be used for graduate degree credit and are not included in the GPA computation.

    One Semester Leave: Graduate students may take one semester off without reapplying to the University. Summer is not considered a semester. For example, if you do not register in the Spring semester, you would need to register the following Fall semester to maintain your enrollment. *If students have completed coursework and are still working on their culminating experience, they are no longer permitted to take a semester leave; instead, culminating graduate students are required to maintain continuous enrollment each semester (Fall and Spring) until degree completion.

• Validate Eligible Graduate Transfer Credits

  • Per University policy, Graduate students are required to complete at least 70% of the units included in their proposed program in residence at SJSU. Therefore, a maximum of 9 units may be transferred into a 30-unit program from all sources. To review the complete policy, please visit the Transfer Credit section under Graduate Policies in the Academic Catalog.

    Transfer credit can be awarded by the Graduate Advisor for post-baccalaureate courses taken at another university, as long as the courses were not counted for degree credit, or for graduate-level courses taken during the senior year as an SJSU undergraduate (final two undergraduate semesters) if the courses did not contribute to the bachelor’s degree.

    Students must request to have transfer credits validated. If an advanced evaluation is not necessary, transfer courses may simply be listed on your candidacy form [pdf] (Section C) and pending approval, will be processed upon submission of your department approved candidacy form. 

    For students requesting an advanced evaluation of transfer credits, you must first submit the following to your designated Graduate Advisor for approval:

    1. Completed Request for Validation of Transfer Credit form.
    2. An unofficial copy of the transcript for the course(s) to be transferred.
    3. A copy of the course description for the course(s) to be transferred.

    
    Once your request has been approved by your program department, the completed form must be routed online to the Graduate Admissions and Program Evaluations (GAPE) Office. 

    The GAPE Office must have official transcripts in order to finalize the transfer process. Unless already on file, sealed official copies of transcripts be mailed to:

    Graduate Admissions and Program Evaluations
    San Jose State University
    One Washington Square
    San Jose, CA 95192-0017

    Or requested to be sent electronically to: etranscript@sjsu.edu.

    Note: If an advanced evaluation is needed, an approved Request for Validation of Transfer Credit form must be submitted for each course you are requesting to have applied to your degree requirements.

• Achieve Graduate Classified Status

  • Your graduate department admitted you either to a conditionally classified or classified status. Students who were admitted conditionally classified have prerequisites that they must complete as outlined in their admission letter from SJSU. These prerequisites must be fulfilled prior to Advancement to Graduate Candidacy.

    If you have any questions on the prerequisites listed on your admissions letter, please contact your Graduate Advisor.

    Once you have fulfilled all prerequisites outlined in your admission letter, make sure you notify your Graduate Advisor and submit all required documentation to your graduate department.

    Your graduate advisor will notify the Graduate Admissions and Program Evaluations (GAPE) Office that your status should be changed from conditional to classified status via one of two forms:

    1. Change in Classification in Master's Program: Graduate advisors submit the change of classification form to GAPE, indicating that all student admission conditions have been fulfilled, allowing the student's conditional status to be lifted and establishing the classified status.

    2. Petition for Advancement to Graduate Candidacy [pdf]: The Graduate Advisor's signature on the candidacy form indicates that the Graduate Advisor has checked that all conditions have been fulfilled, allowing the student's conditional status to be lifted and establishing the classified status. Graduate Advisors do not need to submit the Change in Classification in Master’s Program form to GAPE.

    Note: Do not list your pre-requisites on your candidacy form. Submission of a Graduate Advisor approved candidacy form indicates that pre-program requirements have been fulfilled. The candidacy form should only include program requirements.

• Attend a GAPE Graduation Workshop

  • GAPE hosts Graduation Workshops each semester. These workshops consist of an information session on current graduate student university requirements, including filing for candidacy and applying for graduation. After the presentation, students are able to meet one-on-one with a GAPE Evaluator to ask questions regarding these processes.

• Follow the GAPE Steps to Graduation Brochure

  • The Steps to Graduation [pdf] brochure is a guide that will walk you through degree requirements and the graduation process.  It compliments this online Graduate Student Guide and provides an overview of your entire graduate career.