What is the likelihood of getting accepted as a part-time student?
Last year we admitted five part-time students. The Ph.D. program is primarily a full-time program. Most of the students that we accept will work as research assistants with faculty and will be actively involved in research. However, we are still considering part-time students. What we ask is that students planning to be part-time in the Ph.D. program offer a plan as to how they will integrate their work with pursuit of Ph.D. level research. For example, we currently have two part-time students whose employers (Merck and NASA) are allowing them to gather data and conduct research from in-house projects. In addition, their employers allow them the freedom to attend seminars and colloquia during the day. Our goal is to have all of our students interacting with faculty and one another and actively participating in research, colloquia and seminars. While this is difficult to do as a part-time student it is not impossible and does require the full support of the employer.
