Notes:

• GRE scores are not required.
  
• Applicants whose native language is not English must arrange to have IELTS or TOEFL scores submitted. It is wise to complete this testing 6 months prior to doing your application. Many applicants find they are scrambling in the final weeks leading up to the deadline. Results are valid for two years.
  
  For TOEFL and TWE: SFU code 0999, REM code 46.
  For GRE: SFU code 0999, REM code 0110
  
  
• All masters degree applicants are considered together. You will be placed in the correct stream (project, planning or thesis) once you have found a supervisor and you mutually agree to an academic plan.
  
• The application fee needs to be paid by credit card (MasterCard or Visa). Applicants without access to a credit card can pay these fees in person, through online banking, or by wire transfer. It is very important that the student number and student name is received with the wire transfer. You will not be able to continue your application until after this has been processed. Once the fee has been credited to your account and your application is open, you can return to the system to complete the upload of application documents. There is a later "document deadline" for this step.   
• Applications only need to be accompanied by unofficial transcripts. Credentials will be verified on official transcripts later in the process once an offer has been made. Be prepared to request official transcripts from ALL institutions attended (eg, semester abroad, exchange terms, etc).
• While SFU has provisions for Qualifying Students and Non-Degree Seeking students, it is very unusual for REM to admit students on this basis. Please contact the Gradaute Program Assistant with your specific interest and request if you wish to pursue either of these options. Students who are interested in REM courses usually need to be registered SFU students first and have passed the admissions process.

After You Have Submitted Your Application:

All information sent to the School is held in confidence and not returned. Information attached to unsuccessful applications will be securely destroyed. Faculty will review applications and initiate discussions with applicants during February and March. Recommendations for admission are submitted to the Graduate Studies, who are responsible for sending letters of offer.

Do not expect updates on the status of your application before the end of April although in some cases, it can take longer to make a final decision. Please be patient. Constant emails two weeks after the admissions process has started is not helpful and doesn't do anything to speed up the process. It can take time for faculty to have meetings with potential applicants and determine suitability, and some applicants may eventually select a different institution. It is typically mid-May before all of these decisions are finalized. If you have not been sent a rejection letter, it is because you are still under consideration.

If you receive a competing offer in writing from another institution, please contact your prospective supervisor.

If you are under serious consideration for an offer, the Graduate Program Assistant will contact you via email to request submission of your official transcripts. See the process for submitting official transcripts to ensure they don't get lost. Regretfully, transcripts go missing every year when applicants do not follow the instructions, and then they need to pay again to request them.

Why does it take so long to get a result?

We typically recieve about seven times as many applications as we have spaces. There will be a few stand out applicants at the top of the list who will receive offers early in the process. There will be some unqualified applicants who receive rejection letters early in the process. Everyone else is in the middle. If you are waiting, you are in the middle. Applicants have 21 days to accept or decline their offer, and faculty will not reach out to another applicant until they have been able to confirm with their top picks. Once a letter of offer is declined, then faculty may return to the list to select another applicant to offer a space to. With the back-and-forth discussions prior to offers being made, then the 21 day waiting period, it can take about five weeks to convert one applicant into a student. If, at the end of that five week period, the applicant elects to go to a different program, then that five weeks will start again with a new applicant. If a faculty member is unlucky and their top ranked applicants go elsewhere, it can be 10-12 weeks before they get to a third or fourth choice for a spot. We don't like to decline anyone prematurely in case a spot opens up. Its difficult to get a rejection letter after waiting for three months, but the reality is, you were in with a chance the entire time.