Admissions
HDO Master’s Admissions
HDO Admissions Cycle and Deadlines
Our formal application typically opens in mid-August and remains open until March 1st each year. The system is now open for the 2026 application cycle.
January 15, 2026: Early admission deadline for U.S. applicants & final deadline for international applicants
March 1, 2026: Final deadline for U.S. applicants
An application for admission to the Graduate School is a multi-step process that may take several weeks to complete as some steps will be outside of your control. You should apply well in advance of the deadline to ensure adequate time for submission of all required items.
Not Ready to Apply?
You can complete HDO’s brief pre-application form at any time without cost or commitment. By filling out the pre-application you are notifying the admission’s team of your interest in HDO and becoming part of a network of prospective students who receive exclusive updates, deadline reminders, and curated resourced directly from our program manager. It’s the perfect way to stay informed and to open the potential of joining a future HDO cohort.
Additionally, if you would like to learn more about HDO, fill out our Request for Information or attend one of our In-Person, Online, or On-Demand Info Session Events.
Admissions Information
Eligibility Requirements:
- At least 3 years of career-level work experience post-undergraduate degree (5 or more years preferred).
- In exceptional circumstances, the program will count some types of substantive work experience prior to a student’s undergraduate degree.
- An applicant’s career path should demonstrate professional growth in a particular field or set of related fields. This experience does not have to be with one employer.
- A successful applicant must demonstrate the potential to apply insights from work experiences to classroom curriculum focused on organizational challenges
- A bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a regionally accredited college or university (or a comparable degree from a foreign academic institution).
- A grade point average of 3.0 in upper-division coursework (and graduate work, if applicable).*
- International students are required to submit TOEFL scores unless they are from an English-only speaking country or have earned a four-year undergraduate degree in an English-speaking country.
- TOEFL score submission instructions for international students are available on OGA’s website.
*If you have questions about this or any other requirement, please contact us at hdo-ma@austin.utexas.edu
Application Requirements:
- UT Graduate School Application (details below)
- Official transcripts from all colleges or universities (whether or not a degree was earned)
- A résumé or CV detailing relevant work and academic experience
- Three letters of recommendation
- These may be professional and/or academic in nature.
- You are encouraged to select recommenders who can attest to distinct perspectives of your work experience.
- A recommender should be able to discuss how they know you (and for how long), your work abilities, and your capabilities to thrive in the HDO program.
- Two essays: All admission documents are carefully reviewed by the admissions committee, but particular consideration is given to the two essay responses.
- Responses to each essay question should be 500-600 words.
- Essay Topic 1: We would like to learn why you are interested in HDO and why you view it as a good fit. Please describe: (1) the particular skills you are hoping to develop through the HDO coursework/program; and (2) the type of topic you currently see yourself studying intensively through our Capstone Requirement. Note: The Capstone Project is a student’s opportunity to research an organizational issue in depth, using the lens of the humanities and/or social sciences. For the application essay, you do not have to commit to any specific project; simply give us a sense of the type of research question that you would like to explore through the program and why it interests you.
- Essay Topic 2: Think about your professional, educational, or social life and give us an example of a time when you had to collaborate with a person or persons who had a different perspective and challenged your ideas. Describe the situation, the particular challenge to your ideas, and how you responded to this circumstance.
All applicants who are being considered for admission will be required to participate in a virtual interview.
The GRE is not required.
Application Instructions
Graduate School Application
All students applying for admission to the HDO Master’s program must complete the University’s Graduate School Application for Admission.
You do not need to wait until you have your transcripts, or until you have prepared your resume and essays, to complete your application. These are uploaded after you apply (details below).
- Please select Fall 2026 as your requested semester
- Select ‘Human Dimensions of Organizations- Option III’ as your major (listed under the ‘College of Liberal Arts’).
- As part of the application, enter the contact information for the individuals who will be writing your recommendation letters.
- Recommenders will be emailed, through the Graduate School system, with instructions on how to submit their letters of recommendation. If you do not list recommenders before you submit the application, you can add their information later, and they will receive an email at that time.
- Encourage your recommenders to submit written commentary about you (i.e., they should not merely provide the ratings prompted for in the link they are sent). In addition to the ratings, the admissions committee pays close attention to any narrative your recommenders provide about you. Recommenders are permitted to upload a letter or write commentary in the text boxes provided in the link they are sent.
Application Fee
The application fee is $65 (U.S. citizen/permanent resident applicants) and $90 (international applicants).
Document Submission
It takes about 72 hours for the application to load to the Graduate School system. Applicants will receive an email with their UT EID and temporary password as well as a link to the MyStatus page after their application is activated in the system. From this page applicants will be able to upload application documents.
You cannot submit required documents until after access has been granted.
If you wait until the deadline to submit your application, you will not have time to submit your documents (and your recommenders will not have enough time to submit their letters) before the HDO application deadlines.
Please do not send hard copies of any documents, including transcripts. We are unable to return original copies of documents. If you are admitted, official hard copies of transcripts will be required at that time.
For more information, please see the Graduate School’s instructions for uploading documents.
Application Status Check
Visit MyStatus to upload supplemental documents, check the status of recommendations or edit your list of recommenders, and to monitor your application for any next steps.
Office of Graduate Admissions (OGA)
View contact information for the Office of Graduate Admissions (OGA) here. Utilize this site for specific email addresses for various topics concerning admissions. Please make sure to include your EID in any correspondence for more timely responses.
You will find detailed information about graduate school admission here.
“As brilliant as the faculty were, learning from the wisdom and experience of my cohort mates was equally valuable. I’ve relied on the cohort network many times since graduating. Choosing a favorite professor or identifying the most useful course is like asking about a favorite flavor of ice cream. All different; equally delightful; impossible to pick one. My biggest takeaway from HDO is the joy of discovery. The faculty ‘showed us where to look, but not what to see’ (Maori proverb).”
HDO’s Outstanding Professor of the Year for 2018, Clay Spinuzzi, discusses why he enjoys teaching in the program and what differentiates HDO and its students from other graduate programs.