Certificate Admission Requirements

JIU's certificate programs offer you exciting education options to increase your knowledge, advance your career, and expand your opportunities. Whether you want to update your current skill set or gain in-depth, pertinent knowledge in a new area of interest, our quality certificate programs are designed to meet your specific education needs. The same high academic standards of our degree programs apply to our certificates, ensuring that you will get the highest quality and most relevant curriculum, instruction, assessment, and service available.

Applicants who are admitted into any CERTIFICATE program have met the following admission requirements:

  • Submit a completed application, available here by creating your own JIU password-protected account.
  • Submit an official transcript that documents at minimum an earned bachelor's degree (or highest degree earned) and a minimum GPA of 2.5 from a college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (or its international equivalent.)

Applicants who are admitted into the Pathways to Accomplished Teaching certificate program; English as a Second Language: Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment certificate program; and English as a Second Language: Literacy certificate program also must meet the following admission requirements:

  • Submit an official transcript that documents an earned bachelor's degree and a minimum GPA of 2.5 from a regionally-accredited college or university.
  • Submit proof of an active professional state-endorsed K-12 teaching, principal or administrator's license/certificate issued no longer than two years prior to application to JIU, that requires a security background check, including fingerprinting. Reissued K-12 licences can be submitted to meet this requirement only if the candidate's licensure state provides written evidence directly to JIU of a cleared background check completed within the 2-year period prior to application, OR
  • Submit a completed Colorado fingerprint card and $39.50 (USD) fee (money order or cashier's check only) made payable to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation OR a completed Background Check Report Download Authorization form (this option is only available to applicants who have an active report available through the Colorado Department of Education website documenting the fingerprint requirement as "Met").
  • Sign and submit "K-12 Educators Program Checklist." 
     K-12 Educators Program Checklist

All JIU courses set you on the path for career advancement. Most courses last eight weeks, and new courses start every month.

You may complete an admission application for the certificate program of your choice, available here, by creating your own JIU password-protected account.

For additional information, please call JIU's Admissions Office at 800.811-5663 in the U.S. or +1.303-784-8904 outside the U.S.