Graduate Program in

Mathematical, Computational & Systems Biology

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Admissions

Applications for admittance to the Fall 2021/22 academic year will be accepted beginning September 1, 2020. We recommend that all applicants submit their complete application package by December 15, 2020 to be considered for invitation to the MCSB Recruitment Events to be held in mid February 2021.

Graduate Council reviewed and approved the request to temporarily remove the GRE General Test from the minimum graduate application requirements for the graduate program in Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Biology for the 2020-21 admissions cycle.

Prerequisites Admissions Information Financial Support Program Application Recruitment Visit Meeting

Prerequisites

The MCSB curriculum is designed to teach students at the beginning of their graduate careers the necessary mathematical, computational, and biological knowledge for successful research at the interface between these disciplines. The needs of students with a variety of backgrounds can be met provided that they have had mathematical training comparable to a standard one-year university-level calculus course and a lower-division university course in elementary differential equations and linear algebra. Exceptional students not meeting these prerequisites may be admitted to the program on the condition that they fulfill these requirements during the first fall quarter of their graduate study or the summer preceding, and pass with a grade of B or better.

Admissions Information

Financial Support

A hallmark of the MCSB Program has been the strength of its student financial support. During the first year of Ph.D. study, the MCSB Gateway Program provides complete financial support to admitted Ph.D. students, which includes an annual stipend, as well as full tuition and fee remission, including health benefits. Typically, financial support for the three summer months after the first academic year at UCI will be through research funding provided or arranged by a student's primary thesis advisor. Since the fall of 2007 when the program admitted its first class of students, every student successfully completing the Gateway year has also been fully supported by the UCI Departments and faculty where they have chosen to continue their Ph.D. research.

Program Application

Applications are made through the Office of Graduate Studies using the Online Application. Once logged in to the online application, the applicant will see that the graduate programs are organized by school/department. Please select: "Interdisciplinary Programs" from the "School/Department" drop-down menu. Then select "Mathematical, Computational and Systems Biology Ph.D." or "Mathematical, Computational and Systems Biology M.S." from the "Major/Degree" menu.

Recruitment Visit Meeting

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Checklist

The MCSB Admissions Committee will be able to consider your application for Fall 2021 when all of the following items have been received.

Applications for admittance to the Fall 2021/22 academic year will be accepted beginning September 1, 2020. We recommend that all applicants submit their complete application package by December 15, 2020 to be considered for invitation to the MCSB Recruitment Events to be held February 2021.

Application Fee: Your application cannot be reviewed until UCI has received your non-refundable application fee ($120 for U.S. Citizens and lawful U.S. Permanent Residents, and $140 for all other applicants). Application fee must be paid by credit card only; checks will no longer be accepted.
The university grants full application fee waivers to certain U.S. citizens and permanent residents with strong financial need

Official Transcripts: For application review purposes only, scan and upload copies of transcripts for all institutions attended since high school. In the online application, you will be prompted to upload your scanned documents. Please upload both the front and back sides of the transcript. Uploaded transcripts should be recent and include the following: your name, dates of attendance, grades/marks received, credits and grading legend. UCI reserves the right to require official transcripts at any time during the admission process, and rescind any offer of admission made if discrepancies between uploaded and official transcript(s) are found. Official transcripts will be requested if and when you are admitted and decide to attend UCI. Do not send official transcripts until this time, unless you are requested to do so. For International Institutions, please include a Certificate of Graduation indicating your Bachelor Degree Award.

Three (3) Letters of Recommendation: Must be uploaded digitally to your application. Letters of recommendation must be submitted by the letter writer; an applicant must not submit a letter of recommendation on behalf of the letter writer.

Graduate Record Exam (GRE) General Test Scores: All applicants are required to submit an official GRE record, which can be obtained through the Educational Testing Service (ETS). For score reporting, the institution code is 4859.

TOEFL/IELTS Scores: Only applicants whose primary language is not English are required to demonstrate proficiency in English for admission consideration. However, this requirement may be waived for applicants who have received an advanced degree from an accredited U.S. college or university. Proficiency in English may be demonstrated by passing one of two standardized, internationally administered tests: TOEFL (the Test of English as a Foreign Language); or IELTS (International English Language Testing System). For score reporting, the institution code is 4859.

Once submitted, your application materials will not, under any circumstances, be returned to you or forwarded to another entity on your behalf.

We recommend visiting UCI Graduate Division's FAQ page for additional information on applying to UCI prior to submitting an application.

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