<p>Before I started school I was looking into law school and found out that you do not have to have a political science degree, as I thought, but have an equal chance of admissions no matter what your undergraduate degree is in. Then, I found out that for admissions to school psychology, there is also no specific undergraduate corusework required. Now, as I have been researching business Ph.D., I have come to find that undergraduate coursework holds no water, but the primary consideration is given to GMAT scores, GPAs, letters of recommnedation and research interest. </p>
<p>Does anyone else know which graduate or doctoral programs do not require specific undergraduate coursework, to the point that any undergrad major will have an equal chance of admissions? Or is this the fact with any non-professional degree?</p>
<p>Programs that claim to be “interdisciplinary” generally allow more flexibility in undergraduate majors; in fact, if they are interdisciplinary they would like the diversity. However, it doesn’t mean you can major in anything. Materials Science considers students with any physical science, life science, or engineering major, but probably not English or history. Another interdisciplinary option is Harvard/MIT’s Health Science & Technology program. Some schools have specific nanotechnology options, which also accepts students from a variety of majors.</p>
<p>Most PhD programs, however, require applicants to have completed significant coursework in the target discipline. It’s best to talk to a professor in the discipline.</p>
I’d put it the other way round: professional programs (medicine, law, business, social work, IT, …) are the ones that don’t require much specific undergraduate training (pre-med classes for medical school excluded). PhD programs in academic disciplines, on the other hand, usually expect a relevant undergraduate background. None described that pretty well.</p>
<p>Then there are the academic Master’s programs. Some of them build up on an undergraduate major; others are targeted at students who are changing fields. That seems to vary more by program than by discipline.</p>