Scholastic Requirements

Scholastic Requirements

  • 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. Applicants with a professional degree should also have a GPA of 3.0 or greater for courses taken during the first two years of the professional curriculum.
  • 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.
  • Applicants whose native language or language of instruction is not English must submit TOEFL(iBT), IELTS, or Duolingo English Test scores, unless they have earned or will be earning a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree from either a regionally accredited U.S. college or university or a foreign college or university which provides instruction solely in English.
    • Applicants who have not studied at an institution where English was the sole language of instruction must meet the English Language Examination Requirements.

    • UC Davis Graduate Studies accepts the below English Language tests and requires the following minimum scores 

      TOEFL iBT
      Minimum Score: 80 
      Institution Code: 4834
      No department code.

      IELTS
      Minimum Score: 7.0 on a 9-point scale

      Duolingo English Test
      Minimum Score: 115*

Please note that the scores listed above are the minimum necessary for submitting an application. Students admitted to the Integrative Pathobiology Graduate Group often have a higher score, and meet the TA/AI Language Proficiency Requirement. To meet the TA/AI requirement, students must earn a minimum score of 26 on the speaking subset of the TOEFL iBT and a minimum score of 8 on the speaking subset of the IELTS.

  • Expected Level of Study for International Students can be found here.
  • Prerequisite Coursework
    • Admission requires an undergraduate degree (B.S. or B.A) in a biological science, which should include prerequisite coursework in statistics, physics, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and cellular biology. Upper division courses in molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics are encouraged.