About PhD Program,
This doctoral program provides an environment that enables creative and energetic students to become innovative thinkers and leaders. Through coordination of student and faculty interests and activities, the program offers opportunities for research, teaching, and leadership in a variety of settings.
Information and library science research leaders must be able to identify problems that are significant for our future as an information society, carry out rigorous studies and draw valid conclusions from them, and communicate those findings to stakeholders who can act on them. The SILS doctoral program provides intensive, but highly flexible and customizable, preparation for careers in academia and research.
The Ph.D. in Information and Library Science is designated as a STEM program, which allows eligible international graduates to apply for a 24-month OPT extension.
PhD Program Degree Eligibility with GPA,
We look for strong academic records, judged by the applicant’s past Grade Point Average (GPA), and we examine the coursework on the student’s transcript(s) to determine personal strengths and areas of mastery. Recently accepted graduate students had an average undergraduate GPA of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
- An academic background that includes coursework in several of the following areas:
- Information organization
- Information retrieval
- Communication
- Design and evaluation of information systems
- Knowledge management
- A knowledge of research methods that includes an understanding of distinctions between the qualitative and quantitative data collection and the analysis strategies employed in the social sciences, along with a facility to develop research questions.
- Knowledge of computing equivalent to that required in the school’s master’s degree programs. The requirement can be met by a demonstration of competence gained through experience, as well as by a record of formal coursework, or the completion of recommended coursework.
PhD Funding Coverage,
We know the cost of graduate education can seem daunting, but MSIS and MSLS students at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) can take of advantage of many opportunities to help defray the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses.
UNC-Chapel Hill and SILS offer merit-based support for promising incoming students, several assistantships with full-tuition support are awarded each year, our students regularly succeed in securing awards from professional organizations and other external sources, and there are many flexible, competitively-compensated employment options on or near campus.
Explore this page to learn more about the cost of attendance and potential funding sources available to SILS master’s students.
Application Requirement,
- Complete and submit the online Graduate School applicationand pay the nonrefundable $95 application fee. If you are seeking a fee waiver, please reference eligibility requirements hereand contact the Graduate School directly. Applicants who are U.S. citizens or resident aliens should follow the domestic application process; international students should follow the international application process. Be sure to complete or upload all of the following items in the online application.
- Complete the basic application.
- Upload unofficial copies of transcriptsfor each school attended (max 300 kB).
- Upload a résuméincluding work experience, special abilities and skills (max 300 kB).
- Upload a Statement of Purpose.General guidelines for the statement of purpose:
Your application requires a written statement to uploaded into your application and is a critical component of your application for admission. This is your opportunity to tell us what excites you about the field of library and information science, and what problems you want to help solve in this field. Please also tell us how your prior experiences have prepared you for this next step toward your career goals and how UNC-SILS will help you achieve them. - Arrange for three letters of recommendation. These letters are solicited by entering recommenders’ email addresses into the online application. Recommenders can upload their letters directly into your application. At least two letters should be from persons having first-hand knowledge of the applicant’s academic capabilities.
- International applicants: The TOEFLor IELTS test (no more than 2 years old) is still required for international applicants, with the following three exceptions:
- You are from countries where English is the sole official language of instruction.
- You have received or will receive a degree from an accredited university in the United States.
- You have received or will receive a degree from an accredited university where English is the SOLE language of instruction.
NOTE: The graduate school’s TOEFL minimum requirement for admission is 90. For the IELTS the minimum is 7. Most international students admitted to SILS have TOEFL scores above 100. The University of North Carolina’s Institution code is #5816. UNC does not require a department code, you may leave that blank.
Application Deadline,
Dec 10, 2024
Application Fee,
Complete and submit the online Graduate School application and pay the nonrefundable $95 application fee.
