We encourage those with distinguished undergraduate records or research experiences in the biological, chemical, or physical sciences to apply to the Biophysics Group. Admission is for the Fall semester only, and Biophysics does not offer a Master's degree.
Minimum requirements for admission to graduate study:
Application requirements:
Applicants are required to take the Graduate Record Examination and have their exam scores reported to the University. Our school code is 4833. The department code is 0222, for both TOEFL and ETS scores.
The GRE general test is required. GRE subject tests are not required, but can be submitted if taken. Applicants should take the GRE by October so scores arrive in time to complete application files. Current test scores are preferred, but we will accept scores up to five years old.
Adequate proficiency in English must be demonstrated by those applicants applying from countries where English is not the official language. TOEFL minimum passing scores are 570 written/230 computer-based/68 internet-based. The TOEFL may be waived if an international student has completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better while in residence at a U.S. university.
The Application Deadline is 11:59 pm PST, December 1, 2008.
Applications must be time stamped online by the deadline or they will be disqualified. The
mailing address for all application materials is listed in the left margin of this page. Letters of Recommendation and mailed transcripts should arrive by December 1st, as well. A few weeks extension may be granted for letters and transcripts that get stuck in the mail.
It is your responsibility to ensure and verify that your application materials arrive in a timely manner by contacting the Biophysics office.
Please include the statement of purpose and personal statement in the online application. Applications that are missing these statements will be considered incomplete and may be disqualified. Please DO NOT send résumés, separate folders of information, or articles. They will be discarded unread.
Students may obtain applications to the Biophysics Graduate Group online through the Graduate Division, or by contacting the Biophysics Graduate Assistant ().
The Biophysics recruitment visit is February 17-20, 2009.
Top applicants who are being considered for admission will be invited to visit campus for interviews with faculty. Invitations will be made by mid-January. Students are expected to stay for the entire event, arriving in Berkeley by 5:30pm on the 17th and leaving the evening of the 19th at the earliest (or morning of the 20th). In the application, you must provide the names of between 6-9 faculty from the Biophysics website with whom you are interested in conducting research or performing rotations. This helps route your application to our reviewers and facilitates the interview scheduling process. An invitation is not a guarantee of admission.
The Biophysics Group provides a competitive stipend as well as coverage of fees and non-resident tuition. Students maintaining satisfactory academic progress are guaranteed full funding for five and a half years. A portion of this support is in the form of salary for at least one semester of teaching assistance as a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) in departments such as Chemistry, Physics, or Molecular and Cell Biology.
Due to cost constraints, the program admits few international students; the average is two per year. Those admitted are given full financial support: stipend, fees and tuition.
Students are also strongly encouraged to apply for both intramural and extramural fellowships. There are a number of extramural fellowships that Berkeley biophysics students apply for that current applicants may find appealing:
For more information concerning financial support and fellowships, please read the Graduate Division's Guide to Financial Support (PDF).
Letters of Recommendation: should be from persons who have supervised your research or academic work and who can evaluate your intellectual ability, creativity, leadership potential and promise for productive scholarship. If lab supervision was provided by a postdoc or graduate student, the letter should carry the signature or support of the faculty member in charge of the research project.
Extramural fellowships: it is to your benefit to apply for fellowships as they will facilitate entry into the lab of your choice and often provide higher stipends. Do not allow concerns about coming up with a research proposal before joining a lab prevent you from applying. The fellowships are looking for research potential and proposal skills and should be flexible once you have started graduate school.