Admission decisions are determined by review of applicant's transcripts, personal statement, letters of recommendation, research experience, and strength of chemistry/biochemistry undergraduate background (including general, analytical, inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry courses, mathematics through calculus, and college level physics). Although applications are accepted throughout the year, most offers are made for admission in the fall semester.

The following criteria should be used as a guide to help you as you apply to our graduate programs.

Undergraduate GPA must be 3.0 or above on a 4.0 point scale.
GRE scores are NOT required.
All international students must show English proficiency. You can submit the IELTS or the iBT form of the TOEFL exam and provide a report. A TOEFL total score of 90 is required with a minimum speaking score of 26 to qualify for admission to our programs and for a teaching assistantship. A total minimum score of 7.0 is required on the IELTS exam and a speaking component score of 8.0 to qualify for a teaching assistantship. Some exceptions apply (see Graduate School website.)
Your personal statement should include your short term academic goals and long term professional goals and why our department is a good fit for you. Include in your statement, any research you experienced as an undergraduate and the names of 3 professors in our department you would like to research with and why. Faculty who accept graduate students can be found at the following website.
In additon your your personal statement, there are 3 additional questions in the application that you must respond to.
You do not need to contact faculty to apply or be accepted into the program.
You do not need to hold an MS degree to apply to our PhD programs.
Review of applications begin in early January and continues until our class is full. Priority is given to early applicants.
Applicants will be notified about acceptance and financial awards no later than April 1st. Completed applications should be in our office by January 15th. Applications received after January 15th are still eligible for acceptance if space is available, however, no waivers will be provided.
If accepted into the PhD program, support in the first year for the incoming class will be in the form of a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) and a tuition waiver. Subsequent support will be determined in consultation with your research advisor as either a GTA or Graduate Research Assistant.