Can applicants begin taking classes before they have been accepted?

No, for several reasons: 1) the quality of discussions in our classes would suffer if we included students who may not meet the admission standards; 2) in the early days of the program, when we allowed non-matriculated students to fill out our class numbers, we found some would then drag their heels and delay taking the GRE until they had completed as many as a dozen credits; 3) it may be harder to deny a student’s application once they have passed a class or even four classes; and 4) we try to keep the program full, so there simply isn’t space in our online classes to include non-matriculated students.