Deadline: Applications completed by January 15, 2025 will receive full review. The final application deadline is June 1, 2025, but after January 15 we review applications only if space remains available.
All materials should be received by the deadline.
Admission is for the Fall quarter only. We do not accept applications for the Winter or Spring quarters.
Open House for Prospective Graduate Students
On Saturday December 2, 2023 there will be a virtual open house for prospective graduate students from 10:00AM to 12:00PM PST. Participants will be able to meet with current graduate students and faculty to learn about our graduate program, research, and life at UC Davis.
Admission Requirements for Fall 2024
The Online application includes the following mandatory items. Items not submitted through the online system will not be considered.
If your application is missing any of the required application materials, we will not be allowed to recommend admission and your application will be canceled.
Supplemental materials such as curriculum vitae, resume and/or writing sample are neither required nor accepted. Applicants will not be allowed to upload these materials as part of the application, and they will not be reviewed if they are mailed to the department.
Application Fee Waiver
Option 1: for participants of Graduate Preparation Programs
Application fees are waived for applicants who are affiliated with one or more of the Graduate Preparation Programs listed here (https://grad.ucdavis.edu/graduate-preparation-programs-eligible-fee-waivers). Applicants who are affiliated with these programs are required to indicate their participation on the application and must provide the name and contact information of their program coordinator in the "other Information" section of the online application system. The application fee waiver will be applied immediately upon submission. Confirmation of the applicant's program participation takes place during application review.
Option 2: For candidates not affiliated with a Graduate Preparation program
who can demonstrate financial need
Admission form can be found here. Deadline for admissions is December 8,
2023. You will be contacted by December 15, 2023 to let you know if your
application was accepted. If accepted, the fee waiver will be applied after
you have officially submitted your application to the program. Please
complete your application before the application deadline of January 15,
2024, but do *not* pay the application fee yourself. We cannot refund your
application fee if it is already paid.
Fellowship Application
The fellowship application must be completed and submitted electronically along with the university application for admission. We strongly recommend applicants complete the fellowship application.
The fellowship application deadline is Jan. 15th, 2023.
Eligibility Requirements
GPA Requirement
The minimum cumulative GPA required for admission to graduate study at the University of California, Davis is 3.0 on a 4.0 point scale. Students coming from universities where a GPA is not calculated are evaluated using other aspects of their file and letters bearing on class performance when available. The average GPA for students admitted into the program is 3.7.
TOEFL Requirement
All international students who do not speak English as their first language, or who have not studied at an institution where English is the language of instruction, must submit an official TOEFL or IELTS score from the past two years. The university requires a minimum score of 80 (internet based TOEFL), 550 (paper TOEFL), or 7 (IELTS).
Upon arrival at the university, international students with TOEFL scores below 105 or IELTS scores of 7 may be required to complete an English proficiency examination, and as a result of this exam may be required to take additional courses in the English language.
To serve as a Teaching Assistant (TA), all students who are not US citizens must have a TOEFL speaking subscore of at least 26 or an iBT score of at least 8, or must pass one of two exams administered at UC Davis, SPEAK and TOEP. These exams may be taken upon arrival in Davis, in the weeks just before the fall quarter begins. First-year graduate students usually have TA positions. Since funding first-year students through other means is possible but more complicated, we give some admissions preference to students with TOEFL speaking subscore of at least 22, who are likely to pass the TOEP exam.
Please visit Admissions FAQs for more information. If you have additional questions after reviewing the FAQs, you can obtain information by e-mailing grad-info@physics.ucdavis.edu or by writing to:
Physics Graduate Program
Department of Physics
University of California
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616-8677
For more information about the university graduate requirements, services, and the on-line application, please visit Graduate Studies.