Admission Requirements

Applicants of the critical and sociocultural studies in education program must meet the following admission requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited four-year college or university in the US or its equivalent from a foreign institution
• Acceptance by the department or program in which you plan to study
  • University departments and programs determine their own requirements for admission
• Approval of the dean of the Division of Graduate Studies
• Teaching experience at the K–12 level is strongly preferred, but not required

Admissions Cycle

In order to keep student to faculty ratios small and provide personalized advisement to CSSE PhD students, applications to this program are accepted every other year.  We will be accepting applications in January 2025 for the cohort entering Fall 2025 and in January 2027 for the cohort entering Fall 2027.

Application Instructions

The Division of Graduate Studies Admission Application for the CSSE PhD program will open September 2024.

Nonrefundable Application Fee: $70 (Domestic Students)/$90 (International Students), paid by credit card or eCheck. You will need to pay the application fee before you are able to submit the application.

• You do not need to complete the online application in one sitting
• You will be able to log in and view/update each section of your application until your payment is made
• Once this fee is paid, your file is officially submitted to the department

The CSSE application requires the following:

Personal Statement

You must provide a personal statement with evidence of:

Three Letters of Recommendation

You will be asked to provide three email contacts for people willing to provide letters of recommendation for you that testify to:

• Your professional service to the field of education
• Your commitment to promoting equity of opportunity for students
• Your academic preparation for taking on a doctoral program

Once you enter and confirm the name and email information, you cannot change it.

As soon as you submit the contact information, an email will be automatically generated and sent to each contact requesting a letter of recommendation for you. The email will provide instructions for your contact person about the information needed and how to upload the letter. You will receive an automated email notifying you when each of your contacts uploads their letter, and you may also check the status once you have paid your $70 application fee.

Résumé or Curriculum Vitae

You must upload your detailed CV, with evidence of professional service to the field of education and commitment to promoting equity of opportunity for students. Only tests taken within the past 10 years are valid.

Transcripts

University Requirement

Have official final degree (bachelor’s and above) transcripts mailed to:

Office of the Registrar
5257 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403

Department Requirement

Upload final degree (bachelor’s and above) transcripts during the online application process. These transcripts should exactly match the official transcripts you have mailed to the Registrar's Office.

OPTIONAL: Candidates may also submit official GRE scores as part of their application to the program. This is not required and the CSSE faculty regard such tests as narrow and problematic measures of academic promise. CSSE frequently admit students without such scores. In some cases, however, they enable a candidate to demonstrate their merits when their grades, employment history, or recommendations do not do so.

Academic Writing Sample

Please upload one academic writing sample. Your sample should be formal, scholarly writing that demonstrates your ability to write cogently and cite references where applicable. A research paper you wrote for a previous college course is acceptable.

If you have questions about any aspect of the application packet, please contact cssephd@uoregon.edu.