Department of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Admission and Financial Aid Application Instructions
US Citizens

FOR US CITIZENS ONLY

If you are not a US Citizen, click here for Instructions.

For Fall 2009 Admissions

All graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are members of the Graduate College upon their initial enrollment as a student at this university. Therefore, all applicants for graduate study in the Department of Physics must complete an "Application for Admission to the Graduate College" as the first step in the admissions process.

The following information contains the documents that you will need to apply for graduate study in Physics at the UIUC. In addition to information specific to the Physics Department, the application form also has a detailed list of instructions, below. Please read all instructions carefully before starting to fill out the forms. If you have unanswered questions about how to complete your application after reviewing these instructions, please contact us.

The Department of Physics is committed to increasing the diversity of our discipline and particularly encourages applications by qualified students from groups historically underrepresented in physics, such as women and members of ethnic minority groups. 

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA FOR US APPLICANTS

Applicants for admission to the Graduate College and the Department of Physics:

• Must have at least a bachelor's degree or the equivalent from an accredited college or university in the United States or an approved institution of higher learning abroad, with at least 20 semester hours (30 quarter hours) of intermediate and advanced undergraduate physics coursework.
• Must have a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (A = 4.0) for the last 60 semester hours (90 quarter hours) of bachelor's degree work and a minimum GPA of 3.5 for previous graduate degree work. Applicants who are currently in their final year of a bachelor's degree program will have separate GPAs computed for all courses and for their intermediate and advanced physics courses.
• Must take both the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and the GRE Physics Subject Test, administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). While the application form asks you to provide this score, your official score must be sent from ETS directly to the Department of Physics by the January 15 deadline. Please list your GRE registration number on your application. The majority of applicants we offer admission to have GRE scores at the 80th percentile or above for the verbal and quantitative areas, as well as for the GRE Physics Subject Test.
• Must possess the potential for success in advanced physics research, as documented in letters of reference from prior physics instructors or research supervisors, and this should be demonstrated in the applicant's "Statement of Purpose." Both the letters of reference and the statement of purpose should be submitted on-line.
• Must demonstrate proficiency in English. Naturalized citizens, permanent resident aliens, and legal immigrants may be required to furnish TOEFL or IELTS scores, depending on their countries of origin, their length of residency in the US, or the locations and media of instruction for previous institutions they have attended. Questions about TOEFL or IELTS requirements for US citizens, permanent resident aliens, and legal immigrants should be directed to the Graduate and Professional Admissions Unit.

APPLICATION FEE

A nonrefundable $60 application processing fee is required. You should pay this at the time you complete the on-line application. Your payment is valid for only one semester and must be submitted before any action can be taken on your application .

PROPOSED PROGRAM and FIELD OF SPECIALIZATION:

Follow the step by step directions given at the web site where the on-line application is completed (On-Line Application). When you are prompted to choose your Proposed Program or Department, you should select " Physics " from the drop down list. This is an alphabetized list. The next section is where you need to indicate which degree you wish to pursue (PhD or MS*). *Note that we typically do not admit students into the MS program as the goal of our department is the PhD. The field of specialization information is a text box in which you should type the area(s) you are most interested in studying. For the possible choices for area of specialization, please see the table below.

Theoretical	Experimental
Astrophysics & General Relativity (apply to Physics Department)	Astrophysics (apply directly to the Astronomy Department)
Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics	Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Biophysics	Biophysics
Complex Systems	Complex Systems
Condensed Matter Physics	Condensed Matter Physics
High Energy Particle Physics	High Energy Particle Physics
Nuclear Physics	Nuclear Physics
Undecided	Undecided

 

DEADLINES

To be considered for admission and financial aid, all of your application materials must be received by the deadlines shown in the table below. Applications will be held until all materials are complete, and files that remain incomplete past these deadlines will not be considered.

Desired Admission Term	Application Form and Fee	Examination Scores	Transcript(s) and Letters of Reference
Spring (January 2009)	October 15, 2008	October 15, 2008	October 15, 2008
Fall (August 2009)	January 15, 2009	January 15, 2009	January 15, 2009

All official examination scores, including percentiles and whole numbers, must be received via ETS by the deadline above.

WHERE TO SEND YOUR APPLICATION MATERIALS

Your application for admission to graduate study is made up of several components. We require three letters of reference, a statement of purpose, general and physics subject GRE scores, and transcripts, along with the application and application fee. The application, application fee, statement of purpose, and letters of reference should be submitted here: On-Line Application. It is your responsibility to insure that your application is correct, complete, and timely. A set of date/check boxes is also included in the table for your convenience.

check off	Document	Submitted By	Send To
___	Application Forms	Applicant	Submit on-line via link below
___	Application Fee	Applicant	Should be paid on-line via credit card when submitting an application via link below
___	Transcript(s) We need only one original transcript from each school attended.	Previous Institution(s) Attended	Department of Physics Graduate Office 227 Loomis Lab 1110 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 USA
___	3 Letters of Reference	Recommenders	Set your recommenders up to submit their letters for you on-line via the on-line application at link below
___	Statement of Purpose,lists of publications,honors,awards, etc.	Applicant	Submit as part of the on-line application at link below
check off	Examination Scores	Submitted By	Arrange for ETS to Send To
___	GRE General- Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical	Educational Testing Service (ETS)	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign *For score reporting from ETS the Institution code is 1836 and the department code is 0000.
___	Physics GRE Subject Test	ETS	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign *For score reporting from ETS the Institution code is 1836 and the department code is 0000.

Graduate Office Department of Physics University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 227 Loomis Laboratory 1110 West Green Street Urbana, IL 61801-3080

(On-Line Application-click here)

 

ADMISSIONS DECISIONS

Candidates for admission to graduate study are chosen by a Department of Physics faculty committee. Based on its decisions, offers for admission are made to selected candidates. With very few exceptions, students offered admission are also offered financial support in the form of assistantships or fellowships and tuition waivers. By agreement with many other U.S. graduate physics programs, these offers remain in effect until April 15 , although your earliest response is appreciated. Admission recommendations made by the Department of Physics do not become official until the Graduate College Admissions Office issues a "Notice of Admission" and sends admissions instructions after April 15 to the candidates who have accepted offers.