Certificate/non-degree-seeking students are those who wish to improve their professional or personal development without being required to fulfill degree requirements. This category also applies to students who are uncertain about their prospective fields of study, students who have lower than a 3.0 undergraduate grade-point average on a 4.0 scale, and students who are unable to submit a completed regular application prior to the beginning of the semester.
Students who would like to convert from non-degree to degree-seeking status must complete an application for admission to their degree program of choice prior to the completion of nine credit hours of non-degree study. Upon a student's admission to a degree program at Illinois Tech, a maximum of nine credit hours of approved coursework taken as a non-degree student and passed with a grade of B or better may be applied to the degree.
Non-degree students who wish to continue to take courses as non-degree students beyond nine credit hours must declare, in writing, their respective intents not to pursue a degree program to the Office of Graduate Academic Affairs.
If there is a particular certificate program you are interested in, we recommend you also visit TechPro. Certain certificate programs in Illinois Tech's Armour College of Engineering, College of Computing and Stuart School of Business are being offered at a substantial discount including discounts for any prerequisites that may be required, all while receiving the full benefits of an education at Chicago's only tech-focused university. Learn more.
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Application
All required credentials must be received by the first day of the semester (although we encourage applicants to apply as early as possible) for consideration as a non-degree student.
Please review the graduate admission application checklist.
Requirements
Illinois Tech requires a four-year bachelor's degree* conferred with a minimum cumulative undergraduate GPA of 2.5/4.0 (or its equivalent) from an accredited institution for admission as a non-degree student.
Please review the full list of graduate admission requirements.
Deadlines
Please review our full list of graduate admission application deadlines.
Admission
A final admission decision for regular degree-seeking admission may be deferred until the requisite GPA has been achieved in study as a non-degree student, or until the required documents are available. The Office of Graduate Admission will notify non-degree students of the conditions under which they are admitted.
*Please contact your admission specialist if you have questions regarding this requirement.