Applying to the Graduate Program
Welcome prospective graduate students! The Astronomy Department admits new graduate students to the Fall Semester only. The next admissions cycle will be for Fall 2013.
Our Online Application Deadline: December 7, 2012
The Graduate Division's Online Application is available as of September 6, 2012 at this link.
The application deadline is December 7, 2012. Our review process will begin January 2, 2013. We will begin making offers of admission in late February. Our final offers of admission will be made March 15, 2013.
We require three letters of recommendation, which should be submitted online. If your letter writers prefer to submit paper letters, please have the letters sent to:
Graduate Assistant
University of California
Department of Astronomy
B20 Hearst Field Annex
Berkeley, CA 94720-3411
Letters should be received by January 2, 2013.
A Note on the GREs
We require both the General GRE and the GRE Subject Test in Physics. You should take both tests no later than November 2012. The Educational Testing Service will send your scores to the institutions you specify when you take the exams. Our departmental code is 0802. Additional information about the GRE exams, and how to register, can be obtained on the GRE website. The Department is aware that ETS score reports for examinations taken in November may arrive after the Dec. 7 deadline. This is acceptable.
International Students
All applicants from countries in which the official language is not English are required to submit official evidence of English language proficiency. This requirement applies to applicants from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, Israel, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, most European countries, and non-English-speaking countries in Africa.
If you have completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better in residence at a U.S. university, you do not need to take a standardized test. Instead, you must submit an official transcript from the U.S. university.
We will only accept TOEFL tests administered by the Educational Testing Service and sent to us directly by the TOEFL office. Tests taken before June 2010 will not be accepted, even if your score was reported to Berkeley. The institution code for Berkeley is 4833. You may submit a photocopy of the Examinee's Score Report for review purposes only, but this is not a substitute for an official score report.
For purposes of admission, your most recent score must be at least 68 for the Internet-based test (iBT). Students wishing to be appointed as teaching assistants should have a score of 26 on the speaking section of the iBT.
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