A prospective M.S. student must have completed an approved course of study with a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.0 on a four point scale or its equivalent. This generally includes a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree program from an accredited university or equivalent experience.
In addition, prospective students must take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) no longer than five years prior to application to the M.S. program. The Food Science faculty prefers prospective M.S. students to have received a score of at least 297 on the combined score of the verbal and quantitative sections with neither section being below 143 and a minimum of 3.0 on the analytical writing section on the GRE.

Students who did not attend high school (or equivalent) where English was the language of instruction will be required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Generally, the minimum TOEFL score for acceptance into the Food Science Ph.D. program is 550 (paper-based), 213 (computer-based), or 80 for the internet-based version and 6.0 on the Academic IELTS. A score of 600 (paper-based) or 250 (computer-based) is recommended.