Apply Sustainability Master of Business Administration

1. Bachelor’s Degree in any subject from a regionally accredited institution of higher education or foreign equivalent. You may be provisionally admitted pending completion of your degree.
   • GPA requirement: 3.0 or higher.
   • For graduates of institutions that use narrative evaluations in lieu or grades/GPA: If you have or will graduate from an institution (like Evergreen) that uses a narrative evaluation system instead of grades/GPA,  we will read through all of your evaluations to determine if you’re ready for graduate-level study.
2. Prerequisites: You may apply to SMBA before completing all prerequisites. These courses must be completed within five years prior to starting SMBA. Satisfactory completion means earning a 2.0 GPA or better in required coursework (or strong narrative evaluations). Four (4) quarter hour or three (3) semester hour credits are required for each discipline. Coursework may be lower or upper division.
   • Economics (must include micro- and macro-economics)
   • Accounting
   • Statistics
3. Two Letters of Recommendation: Your recommendation letters should be from academic and/or professional contacts who can speak to the candidate’s readiness for graduate school and their work, volunteer experience, leadership experience, extracurricular activities, and/or professional development related to sustainability and community impact.  
4. Official Transcript from your degree-granting institution where you earned your bachelor's degree.
5. A Statement of Purpose/Personal Statement exploring why you are interested in this program and what you hope to gain through the program. The Statement should highlight work, volunteer, leadership, and/or extracurricular activities, and/or professional development related to sustainability and community impact.  
6. Resume: Your resume should highlight work, volunteer experience, leadership experience, extracurricular activities, and/or professional development related to sustainability and community impact.  While we do not have strict requirements for relevant work experience for applicants, relevant work experience is a component that may contribute to a stronger application.
7. GRE/GMAT Scores: You are Not required to submit GRE or GMAT scores in your application. However, students may submit test scores if their GPA requirement is not met or if other elements of their application are not strong. If you choose to submit scores, please be aware that it takes ETS 10-15 working days from your test date to send your scores to your college(s) of interest. If, for example, you would like to meet the First Round Application deadline, you will need to take the GRE 15 business days prior to the deadline to ensure that your scores are received in time. Your GRE test fee includes 4 free score reports to be sent to colleges of your choosing, you can request to have ETS send your scores to Graduate Admissions at Evergreen via Email or Mail.
   • Email: graduateadmissions@evergreen.edu  
   • Mailstop: Graduate Admissions, Attn: MES 
     Evans Hall, 1200 
     The Evergreen State College 
     2700 Evergreen Parkway, NW 
     Olympia, WA 98505 

Select and Contact Two References  

Request recommendations from people who can provide evidence of your ability to do excellent graduate-level work in writing, critical inquiry, quantitative analysis, and who can attest to your strong communication skills. Your references should be academic and/or professional contacts that can speak to your work, volunteer experience, leadership experience, extracurricular activities, and/or professional development related to sustainability and community impact. 

Current or former faculty, supervisors, and mentors are potential providers of recommendations. If you have graduated from college within the last 5 years, at least one of your references needs to be from a faculty member.

Your recommender will be asked to upload their letter to our online application. You will need to provide the following information for each of your recommenders in the online application form:

• Name
• Title
• Organization
• Email address
• Phone number

Once you enter your recommender's contact information, they will be emailed by us (you do not need to submit your application to activate this email invitation). Make sure to contact your recommenders in advance.

Note: These automatic emails can be sent to spam folders due to the embedded link. Email the assistant director to resend the invitation if your recommender has not received it.

Please give your recommenders at least three weeks before the application due date to complete their forms.

Update and Format Your Resume

Provide a current, chronological resume listing all positions held in at least the last ten years. List key employment or other experiences that highlight work, volunteer experience, leadership experience, extracurricular activities, and/or professional development related to sustainability and community impact. Emphasize how positions relate to your potential graduate work.

Write a Statement of Purpose

Tell us why you are interested in this program, what you hope to gain through the program, and what your career goals/aspirations are, and how this program will help you achieve these pursuits. Your statement should highlight work, volunteer, leadership, and/or extracurricular activities, and/or professional development related to sustainability and community impact. Your statement should be between 1,200 - 1,500 words.

This statement helps the admission committee assess your interest and motivation for graduate study and gauge the fit between what our program offers and what you hope to receive from it. Your essay will also be evaluated for clarity, analysis, and general writing skills.

Prerequisite Coursework  

You can apply before completing all prerequisites, but you will need to provide proof of completion before starting the graduate program.

These courses must be completed within the five years prior to starting SMBA unless you have a major or minor in the prerequisite discipline area.

Four (4) quarter hour or three (3) semester hour credits are required for each discipline below.

• Coursework may be lower or upper division
• A 2.0 GPA (C or better) or satisfactory narrative evaluation is required

You will be asked to provide details for any proposed or completed pre-requisite coursework in the application. You may submit a petition to waive the prerequisite course requirement, which will be reviewed as part of the admissions application process.

Please complete a Prerequisite Waiver Template for each discipline area you are applying to waive and upload the files in the Application Attachments section as part of your application, for consideration.

Statistics

The statistics pre-requisite should prepare students to understand parametric statistics and statistical concepts. An introductory statistics course or equivalent should fulfill this requirement, if it includes: elementary descriptive and inferential statistics, including basic probability, binomial and/or normal distributions, null hypothesis testing and p-values, and some specific tests (e.g., t-test, chi-square test, regression). 

Economics

The economics pre-requisite should prepare students to understand how economic systems function and how individuals, firms, and governments allocate scarce resources. Introductory coursework in microeconomics and macroeconomics or equivalent should fulfill this requirement, if it includes: core microeconomic concepts such as supply and demand, market equilibrium, elasticity, production and costs, and market structures; and macroeconomic concepts such as GDP, economic growth, unemployment, inflation, and fiscal and monetary policy.

Accounting

The accounting pre-requisite should prepare students to understand fundamental accounting concepts and financial information used by enterprises. An introductory accounting course or equivalent should fulfill this requirement if it includes: the basic accounting cycle; analyzing and recording business transactions; preparation and interpretation of core financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows); and introductory financial and managerial accounting concepts such as revenues, expenses, assets, liabilities, and equity.

Meeting Prerequisites  

If admitted, you will need to provide proof of completion before you start the degree. Your application will look stronger if all prerequisites are completed or in progress at the time of application.

If you are missing any prerequisites, consider a community college or other regionally-accredited institution near you (or online). Most colleges allow you to take some credits without being admitted to a degree program.

Complete Your Prerequisites at Evergreen

You can take up to 8 credits at Evergreen without applying for undergraduate admission. Find out more about enrolling as a Non-admitted Student.

If you find a course which fulfills our prerequisite requirements in the Academic Catalog and want to confirm that it meets our requirements before you register, please email us with a link to the course for approval.

If you have been admitted to SMBA and are required to take more than 6 credits of prerequisites, you may be eligible for financial aid. Contact Financial Aid for more information.

If you have taken courses or graduated from Evergreen, you will need to request an official transcript from Evergreen. You can order your Evergreen transcript online through Parchment.

Your transcript must verify the award of a bachelor’s degree. Provisional admission can be granted on the basis of work in progress near the completion of a bachelor's degree. A final transcript must be submitted before classes start to gain regular admission status. Students with non-English transcripts must have them translated into English and certified by a translation agency.

A transcript is considered official if it bears the official seal and signature of the issuing institution and is either:

• Sent directly by the issuing institution; or
• Delivered by the applicant, as long as it’s still in the issuing institution’s original sealed envelope

Evergreen accepts e-transcripts from colleges that are registered members with Docufide, National Student Clearinghouse, Naviance, Parchment and Scrip-Safe International. If the e-transcript system asks for an email address, use graduateadmissions@evergreen.edu.

Otherwise, mail or deliver transcripts to:

The Evergreen State College
Graduate Admissions
Attention: Sustainability Master of Business Administration
Evans Hall, 1200
2700 Evergreen Parkway NW
Olympia, WA 98505

English Language Proficiency: Every applicant whose native language is not English must demonstrate English language proficiency through one of the following ways:

1. A bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree from an accredited U.S. institution of higher education or from an institution in Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago or the United Kingdom.
2. Official documentation from an institution (other than those listed in #1) verifying that the applicant's bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree is from an institution where all instruction is in English.
3. One of the following minimum English language proficiency test scores demonstrated through submission of official scores at the time of application:
   • TOEFL Paper Test: 600
   • TOEFL Computerized Test: 250
   • TOEFL Online Test: 100
   • New TOEFL iBT CEFR Online Test: 5
   • IELTS: 7
   • Duolingo English Test: 130

Students with non-English transcripts must have them translated into English and certified by a Translation Agency.

Students are admitted provisionally if they have not been awarded an undergraduate degree before admission. Before beginning graduate coursework at Evergreen, students must provide evidence that the degree was awarded from the degree-granting institution. At a minimum, the Admissions Office must receive written confirmation of the degree from an official at the awarding institution by September 10 before the student may begin SMBA coursework in the Fall. Official transcripts, due no later than November 1 (September 10 for financial aid funds to be released for Fall Quarter), should be submitted to the Admissions Office.

Students admitted conditionally are notified of the terms of their admission in their admission letter. The conditions generally require completion of studies related to program prerequisites. Documentation that the conditions have been satisfied, such as official transcripts of courses taken, should be sent to the MES office as soon as possible after the completion of the work and no later than the date(s) specified in the student’s letter of admission. If the requirement is not fulfilled by the date(s) specified, then the student may not enroll in any future SMBA programs or courses until the requirement(s) is/are completed. Only prerequisites where the student earned a “C” (2.0 GPA) or better will be accepted.

Non-admitted students who already have a bachelor's degree may take a limited number of credits in certain courses with permission from the program director.  If admitted to the program, those credits will count toward your SMBA. Please contact the program for more information.  

Non-Admitted Students 

AmeriCorps members and alumni and Peace Corps volunteers may qualify for an application fee waiver. 

Request a waiver before completing your application. We cannot reimburse the application fee if you request a waiver after you pay the fee.

Graduate Student Application Fee Waiver