Admission Requirements

​The Bachelor of Science degree in Fashion Merchandising requires 124 credits. An additional 31 credits are required for the Master of Science in Fashion and Apparel Studies. Undergraduate courses taken in the junior and senior years are combined to waive up to 13 credits of bachelor degree course requirements. In the freshman and sophomore years and first semester of the junior year, students follow the FM curriculum as outlined in the undergraduate catalog. Students are admitted into the 4+1 program in the spring of the junior year. During the second semester of the junior year and the senior year a minimum of 13 graduate credits at the 600 and 800 levels will be completed. Upon completion of the 4-year undergraduate degree, students will immediately begin taking the remaining graduate credits over a 1-year period.

SPECIFIC ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS ARE:

1. Students must be enrolled at the University of Delaware in the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies pursuing an undergraduate major in Fashion Merchandising.

2. A minimum of 60 undergraduate credits and a GPA equivalent to at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale in all prior undergraduate college-level course work.

3. Students must take the GRE; however, the GRE is waived if a student has a 3.5 GPA or higher.

4. Primary criteria: Candidates for admission must submit 3 letters of recommendation and a personal statement describing interests, intellectual goals, and how this program would meet their goals and objectives. A resume and a writing sample (research paper) are required. 

5. Secondary criteria: In instances such as high applicant numbers, candidates for admission will be evaluated on additional criteria including determination by faculty of the students' clear promise, or demonstration of, research potential, as well as an Interview. 

6. Students are admitted with provisional status until completion of the senior year and 124 credits, whereupon they are granted regular status as graduate students. 

Admission to the 4+1 program is competitive. Those who meet stated requirements are not guaranteed admission, nor are those who fail to meet all of those requirements necessarily precluded from admission if they offer other appropriate strengths.

Application deadlines: Review of applicants begins October 15th of the junior year and students are officially notified by November 1st. Students begin the 4+1 program in the spring of the junior year.