How do graduate schools judge part time graduate applications

[trickslapper]

Basically part-time graduate students are paying their own way through grad school. At the least they probably aren't receiving much if any assistance from the university. Because of this, are university departments less strict on the criteria for admitting a part-time student?

If i put myself in the shoes of a university official a part-time graduate student application is free money. I hate to put it like that but, it is what it is. So doesn't it make sense that it would be easier to be admitted as a part-time student vs a full-time student?

Just something that popped into my head the other day.

 

[Choppy]

There's no such thing as free money.

Professors are genuinely interested in advancing their research. Admitting a graduate student part-time means that whatever project that student will become a part of will take about twice as long to finish (perhaps more so since people tend not to be as productive with more interruptions) and full time graduate students already take long enough to get up to speed and become productive.

Also with respect to advancing research, they generally want the strongest candidates they can recruit to work on their projects.

I'm sure there may be schools out there that look at graduate students as some kind of cash grab, but you might want to ask yourself - is that really where you want to go for your graduate studies?

 

[Vanadium 50]

To add to what Choppy said, the Department admits students for graduate work, and while the way the accounting is done varies by university, typically the Department does not receive any net income from teaching graduate courses. So the financial incentive you describe is small or nonexistent.

 

[ZapperZ]

Basically part-time graduate students are paying their own way through grad school. At the least they probably aren't receiving much if any assistance from the university. Because of this, are university departments less strict on the criteria for admitting a part-time student?

If i put myself in the shoes of a university official a part-time graduate student application is free money. I hate to put it like that but, it is what it is. So doesn't it make sense that it would be easier to be admitted as a part-time student vs a full-time student?

Just something that popped into my head the other day.

There are several ambiguities here:

1. Is this in physics? Nowhere in here did you mention the subject area. Part time MBA is not the same as part time in physics.

2. What degree level is this for? I have seen part time physics M.Sc students enrolling in such a degree that had the option of no research, but rather, passing a qualifying exam-type. For a Ph.D in physics, I have never come across anyone doing it part time. The commitment required is just too much to do it that way. Think about it. If you are doing experimental high energy physics, and your research requires that you spend 2 months at a time doing your shift at the LHC, you can't do this "part time". The same with many other areas of physics where long stretches of data-taking are common.

Zz.