Admissions Requirements and Eligibility

UC Davis offers admission to applicants who have the highest potential for graduate study and who, with the benefit of graduate education, are most likely to contribute substantially to their academic or professional fields through teaching, research or professional practice. UC Davis views as a high priority the enrollment of graduate students from different backgrounds and demographic groups.

Eligibility Criteria for UC Davis Graduate Admissions

1. A minimum 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent) from the institution where you have earned or will earn your bachelor's degree.
2. By the time they enroll, successful applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent that is comparable to a degree from the University of California both in distribution of academic subject matter and in scholarship achievement. Regional accreditation for U.S. institutions and authorization by a national higher education authority for international institutions (at the time the degree was earned) are used as the eligibility standard.
3. Applicants must submit TOEFL/IELTS/Duolingo scores unless they have earned or will be earning a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree from either a regionally accredited or foreign college/university which provides instruction solely in English. See the English Language Requirement section for details.
4. A non-refundable application fee ($135 for domestic applicants, $155 for international applicants, or possible fee waiver for participants in approved Graduate Preparatory Programs).

Program-Specific Admissions Requirements

Your graduate program may have specific admissions requirements that differ from the requirements above. View your program-specific admissions requirements on your Graduate Program Page or reach out to your graduate program coordinator listed on the Graduate Program Page to learn more about your program's admissions requirements.

Additional Information

• If you are an international applicant, consult the information for international students for special requirements pertaining to your admission.
• In addition to the above noted requirements, graduate programs may require entrance exams, such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), other relevant ability or achievement tests, letters of recommendation, a GPA and/or English language testing score higher than the university minimum, and/or other program-specific material as the program finds appropriate.
• Please note that satisfying these minimum standards does not guarantee admission since the number of qualified applicants far exceeds the number of spaces available. As a consequence, many well-qualified applicants cannot be accommodated.

Admission Review and Decisions

Admission decisions are based on the quality of the applicant's academic degrees and record, the personal history and diversity statement, statement of purpose, letters of recommendation from professors or others familiar with the applicant's academic work, performance in aptitude and achievement tests, relevant work experience, preparation in the proposed field of study, and on the appropriateness of the applicant's goals to the graduate program and of the applicant's research interests to those of its faculty. Graduate Studies advocates for the use of a holistic review process for each application which considers all elements within the application such as personal statements, letters of recommendation, supplemental materials (e.g. writing sample or resume), and test scores, in addition to academic measures such as GPA.

Note: Students who have graduate degrees cannot be admitted to the same degree program in the same field. For example, an applicant who has already earned a master's in Computer Science at another university cannot be admitted to the master's program in Computer Science at UC Davis.