After Applying
After you submit your application and pay the application fee, follow these steps to stay up-to-date with tracking the progress and review of your application.
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Check your status page for updates
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Wait for a program review and decision
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If offered admission, submit required final documents
Check Your Status Page
After submitting your application, visit the status page of your application to:
- Update your references or reference contact information
- Check to see if your references have been received by the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School
- Update your email address
- Upload additional materials if required by your intended program of study
- View deadlines for official transcripts
- Check to see if your official transcripts have been received by the Fox Graduate School
- See if official test scores have been received by the Fox Graduate School
- Accept or decline an offer of admission from your intended program of study
Program Review and Decision
After your application is submitted, your intended program of study will review application materials and make a decision. Please contact your intended program of study for specifics on timing of a decision. For contact information, search for your program in the Graduate Bulletin.
Communication of Admission Offer
After the program review takes place, you will be emailed about your decision. If you are offered admission, you will need to accept or decline on your status page. That email will also include information specific to your application, such as deadlines, provisions, or assistantships.
Submit Required Documents Upon Acceptance
If you receive an admission offer, congratulations!
You are required to have your final official transcripts sent directly to Penn State from all institutions you attended. If you are currently enrolled and will be completing the program, it is important to wait until after your degree has been conferred to request that these documents be sent, so that they indicate you received a degree. On your application status page, you can find deadlines for when the Fox Graduate School needs to receive these documents, and directions on where to have them sent.
“Penn State has incredible opportunities built into its graduate infrastructure that allow graduate students to receive top of the line training for a variety of career paths. A few of the many opportunities that are available for (but not limited to) physiology students are NIH T32 training fellowships, a graduate teaching certificate, grant workshops to help students write more competitive grants, and certificates in more specialized areas of research, like clinical and translational sciences. At every step of my graduate education, I was encouraged to explore the variety of career paths that you can pursue after your PhD, and the means to make myself a competitive candidate for these different paths.”
— Allison Carothers
Doctoral candidate in Integrative and Biomedical Physiology, Huck Institute of Life Sciences