When you were admitted to the Department of Special Education you were assigned an Academic Adviser. This is a faculty member from the concentration area in which you plan to primarily focus your study. Prior to your first semester of coursework, you must make an appointment with the faculty member who has been assigned as your Academic Adviser to broadly plan your doctoral coursework and to specifically discuss your first semester's courses.
Students seeking a Ph.D. at UT System institutions will be required to sign, with their departments, agreements providing the expected timelines for the attainment of their academic milestones and graduation. (Note: Instructions on how to complete your milestone agreement can be found online at the Graduate School's website: https://gradschool.utexas.edu/academics/milestones.)
Some international students may have a departmental condition placed on their admission to the graduate program, which requires that they complete an English Skills Screening within their first semester of coursework at The University of Texas. A J-bar is placed on certain international students' records to require them to go through English screening. This is done by ESL Services in the International Office. This screening is done anytime that the International Office is open for new international student check in.
The screening consists of a 30-minute essay and a 15-minute oral interview. After the screening is done, the results are discussed with the students and they are informed of a requirement for further coursework in English. If English classes are required, then information on those classes is provided to the students and a copy of the requirement is sent to the students' individual departments. Information on the classes and other services offered by ESL Services can be found at https://world.utexas.edu/esl.
Based on the results of the screening and the recommendations of the International Office, the student’s Academic Adviser may require completion of the appropriate ESL course(s) or courses related to academic communication and writing offered by the Graduate School. Such courses are considered prerequisites and do not count toward the doctoral degree.
Important: If requirements for additional English coursework are not fulfilled, the J-bar will appear again for the following semester.
Some students may be admitted to the Doctoral degree with conditions. According to the graduate catalog, the Graduate Studies Committee:
May require the student to maintain a certain grade point average or to take a certain number of semester hours of coursework. A conditionally admitted student may also be required to remedy deficiencies in undergraduate preparation by taking upper-division or graduate courses. The graduate adviser notifies the student of these conditions at the time of admission. A student who does not fulfill the conditions within the specified time may be barred from subsequent registration in the Graduate School. If the student changes his or her major before the conditions have been fulfilled, the conditions remain in effect unless the graduate adviser for the new concentration, on behalf of the Graduate Studies Committee, petitions the graduate dean and receives approval for them to be changed.
If any conditions were placed on your admission, please make sure that your Academic Adviser and the graduate coordinator are informed when you have fulfilled these requirements, so that the appropriate procedures may be initiated to remove your conditional status.