Prerequisites

For admission to the Community and Economic Development Graduate Certificate program, an applicant must have received, from an accredited institution, a bachelor's degree (2.5 GPA preferred on a 4.0 scale) with requirements substantially equivalent to those at Penn State. Penn State is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

You are expected to have completed 6 credits in social sciences, preferably 3 in economics and 3 in sociology, in your undergraduate program.

Applications are accepted for each academic semester and are reviewed by the program's faculty committee upon submission; the priority application deadlines are as follows:

• July 1 for fall semester admission
• November 1 for spring admission
• April 1 for summer semester* admission 

*If summer courses are not offered, admission will be deferred to a future semester.

Admission decisions are provided within 2–3 weeks upon submission of a completed application.

Application Process

Individuals seeking admission to the Graduate Certificate in Community and Economic Development (CEDEV) must complete and submit the Penn State Graduate School online application. Within the online application, applicants will need to provide the following items:

• a completed application, including a nonrefundable application fee, payable via secure online payment processing system
• one set of unofficial transcripts for all graduate and undergraduate course work completed at an accredited institution, with English translation (literal) of records not in English; Please upload transcripts within the online application or mail to the CEDEV Graduate Program at Pennsylvania State University, 305 Armsby Building, University Park, PA, 16802 or by email to cedevinfo@psu.edu.
• current résumé
• short statement of interest: The online application contains an area to write this statement, which may address your reasons for pursuing the certificate program, why you feel you are a good candidate for the program, and any information you would like the admissions committee to know about you personally/professionally. 
• Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score, if applicable. TOEFL scores must be submitted by all international applicants unless otherwise specified. Please visit the Language Proficiency section of the International Students page of the website for graduate program requirements, or contact The Graduate School for more information. Penn State's institutional code is 2660.

If you have any questions about the application process, please contact the CEDEV Graduate Program at cedevinfo@psu.edu or (814) 865-6223.

Check Status

Use these options for applications already in progress or to check the status of an application previously submitted.

• Continue application already in progress
• Check the status of a submitted application