Admissions

The Graduate School minimum requirements for admissions are:

• A bachelor’s degree from a regionally-accredited college/university,
• At least a 3.00 or higher undergraduate weighted mean GPA. If the undergraduate GPA is below 3.00, a GPA will be calculated on the last 60 semester hours (90 quarter hours) of the undergraduate work for admission consideration.

The University of Utah is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity in all programs, activities and employment. Moreover, students may not be denied admission to graduate work solely because they obtained a prior degree at the University of Utah.

A personal statement should be a brief (1-2 pages) paper describing the kind of professional and academic studies you hope to undertake in the program and your goals for the degree.

Three (3) Letters of Recommendation are required for an application to be complete and must be submitted online. On the ApplyYourself application there is a section for applicants to enter the names and email addresses of our recommends. They will receive an email with a username and password which will allow them to upload their letters to the application. Academic Letters of Recommendation are preferred.

Unofficial transcripts may be uploaded in the ApplyYourself System. If admitted to the University of Utah, official transcripts will be required and need to be sent to the Admissions Office, not the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. For more information on this, please see the "Steps for After Admitted" tab.

The GRE score must be current (taken within the last 5 years) for it to be accepted. The Department requires applicants GRE score to be a minimum combined score of 300 on the quantitative and verbal sections; and a minimum score of 3.0 on the writing section. Register for the General GRE at www.ets.org. General GRE Test Scores must be submitted to the University of Utah directly from Educational Testing Services (ETS). Send scores using Institution Code 4853 (U Utah). Photocopies, student copies, and screen shots will not be accepted NOTE: Allow two months for scoring, mailing, and processing. For example, we recommend taking your tests in October in order to meet the January application deadline.

The Department requires international applicants to meet the following language proficiency requirements:

• TOEFL: minimum score of 80 (Internet-based test) or 550 (paper-based test)
• IELTS: An overall minimum band score of 6.5
• DuoLingo: minimum score of 105

All test dates must be within two years of admission for scores to be valid. There are no exceptions made for applicants who score below the minmum required score. 

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Register for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) at www.ets.org, International English Language Testing Service (IELTS) at www.ielts.org, or for DuoLingo. English test scores must be submitted to the University Admissions Office directly from the testing agency . Send scores to the Admissions Office (Institution Code 4853). Photocopies, student copies, or screen shots will not be accepted. Scores must be less than two years old at the time of admission. NOTE: Allow two months for scoring, mailing, and processing. For Fall semester applications, we recommend taking your tests the September before the your hoped date in order to meet the December application and funding deadline.

English proficiency may be demonstrated by graduate applicants in one of the following ways:

• An associate, bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree from a regionally-accredited U.S. college or university completed within two years of admittance
• A bachelor’s degree or higher completed within the last two years from an officially-recognized college or university in one of the following countries:Australia, Canada (except Quebec), Ireland, New Zealand, or the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)

The following applicants do not need to submit proof of English proficiency:

• Native speakers of English who are citizens of Australia, Canada (except Quebec), Ireland, New Zealand, or the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)
• Continuing students currently enrolled at the University of Utah and moving from one degree level to another, or one program to another (with a break of no more than two years between the 'change' from one degree level/program to the next)

If an applicant does not meet one of the standards outlined above, but feels their professional and/or educational experience merits English proficiency, please contact iao@sa.utah.edu for information on filing a Petition for English Proficiency.

<p>Q. May I contact a professor directly?</p> <p>A. It is not required for consideration for admission or for support. The application asks which of our faculty you are most interested in working with, and most professors tend to look first at applicants who express an interest in working with them. However, you may contact individual faculty members whose research attracts you or fits with your own study and work goals, to draw their attention to your application or provide additional information.</p> Q. The questions about my first, second, and third preferences of an advisor don't include the professor I want, but they are required questions.A. In your Statement of Purpose or essay, say you would like to work with that professor. Because the application system is updated annually, recently hired faculty won't be on the list in those questions; instead select your second or third preferences. Q. Is it possible to waive the application fee? A.  See "Application Fee" above for a link to a petition for the department to pay your application fee for you. Q. Do you offer scholarships?A. We don’t offer scholarships for graduate students. The fellowships available are highly competitive and usually awarded to students in their second or third year. Our department rarely offers positions as a teaching assistant to new students, and in any case doesn’t pay TAs enough to qualify for the Tuition Benefit Program. Q. What are my chances of getting support? A. Financial assistance, when offered, is usually in the form of a position as a research assistant. This position provides a stipend that covers living expenses, a tuition waiver, and subsidized health insurance. Support funding is limited, and we are able to fund only some of the applicants who might otherwise qualify for admission. There is no separate application or deadline to be considered for support. Late application can be a disadvantage, since faculty with funding to support a new student may have chosen an earlier applicant to offer it to. Your chances of support depend on the amount of research funding available and on how competitive your credentials are compared to other applicants. A professor with funding available selects an applicants or applicants to whom to offer support based on an assessment of an applicant's likely ability to do well in graduate school plus the applicant’s research interests or study and work goals. Faculty members consider an applicant's cumulative gpa and test scores, recommendations, grades in particular classes, personal statement or statement of purpose, work and research experience or other background, and demonstrated commitment and determination. If you have funding from other sources, such as personal funds or a government or employer scholarship, available to support yourself and pay tuition, let us know and we may be able to recommend you for admission. A student who has their own support usually finds an advisor without much trouble.   Q.  May I submit my scores after the application deadline?  Is it possible to apply after the deadline?A. You may submit test scores after the deadline, but it is recommended that you schedule your tests well before the deadline. It can take several weeks for the test agencies transmit the score and for our Admissions office to link the score to your application.  Late submission of scores slows down processing your application, particularly for English scores from international applicants. The deadline is set based on the time it takes to process an international application and get the visa issued. We will consider lifting the deadline for specific domestic applications; contact us. However, late application risks all available funding having been already allocated.