1. Application forms: The University of Pittsburgh and the Department of Communication now accept online applications only.
2. Recommendation forms: Complete the applicant section, sign and forward to your references with your request for letters of recommendation. Your recommendation writers should be professors at your college or university instructors and who know your work well enough to evaluate it and to assess your capacity for graduate study in our department.
3. Fee: $50.00 payable via the online application. This fee is not refundable. Applications will not be processed without the paid fee. (If your zipcode isn't five digits you will need to put 00000 as your zipcode for payment.)
4. Enclose a statement of purpose explaining why you want to pursue graduate work in rhetoric and communication and why you are applying to our program. The statement should not exceed two typewritten pages.
5. Enclose a sample of your written work, which you believe represents your best effort. The ideal sample would be an article-length research humanities-oriented paper with proper documentation, sophisticated and nuanced argumentation, a broad evidentiary base, and a deft summoning of scholarship from across humanities disciplines.
TOEFL score: Minimum requirement is 577 or better on the paper based test and 90 with at least a score of 22 in all on the four sections of speaking, listening, reading and writing on the internet based test. The minimum grade point average for admission to any graduate study at the University of Pittsburgh is 3.0