Application and Admission

The minimum requirement for admission to graduate status is the bachelor’s degree or its academic equivalent from an accredited institution.

Applicants should apply at www.graduate.ucr.edu.

In general, students who wish to be considered for fellowships, teaching or research assistantships, and other merit-based forms of support should contact departments directly. The application deadline for students seeking admission and fellowship awards is January 5.

Since general application deadlines for the fall quarter may vary somewhat, applicants should not hesitate to contact departments directly for additional information. Campuswide application deadlines for domestic students are September 1 for the winter quarter, December 1 for the spring quarter, and May 1 for the fall quarter.

A nonrefundable application fee must accompany all applications: domestic applicants (U.S. citizens and permanent residents), $70; foreign applicants (nonimmigrant), $85. The following must also be submitted:

• 1. Two copies of official transcripts from each college or university

attended since high school

• 2. Three letters of recommendation

• 3. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) general test score is required by

most programs

Some programs also require the appropriate GRE subject test. GRE scores are not required for the Education credential programs and the MFA programs in Creative Writing for the Performing Arts, Dance, and Visual Art. The M.B.A. program requires the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) in lieu of the GRE. Test scores should be no older than five years.

Discipline M.A. M.S. M.F.A. Ph.D. Anthropology • • • Art History • Biochemistry and Molecular Biology • • Bioengineering • • Biomedical Sciences •1 • Biomedical Sciences M.D.-Ph.D. Cell, Molecular, and Developmental

Biology • • Chemical and Environmental

Engineering •3 • Chemistry • • Classics • Comparative Literature • • Computer Science •3 • Creative Writing and Writing

for the Performing Arts • Dance • Dance History and Theory •1 • Economics • • Education • M.Ed. • Electrical Engineering • • English • • Entomology • • Environmental Sciences • • Environmental Toxicology • • Ethnic Studies • • Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal

Biology • • Genetics, Genomics,

and Bioinformatics •1 • Geological Sciences • • History • • Management M.B.A. Mathematics • • • Mathematics, Applied • Mechanical Engineering •3 • Microbiology •2 •2

Music • • Neuroscience •1 • Philosophy • • Physics • • • Plant Biology • • Plant Biology (Plant Genetics) • Plant Pathology • • Political Science • • Psychology •1 • Religious Studies • • Sociology •1 • Soil and Water Sciences •2 •2

Southeast Asian Studies • Spanish • • Statistics • Statistics, Applied • Visual Art •

1 Applications are not accepted from students wishing to work toward the master’s degree only.

2 New student registration in this program is not open at present. For further information, contact the Graduate Division.

3 A combined B.S. + M.S.program is offered in this discipline (designed to lead to a B.S. degree as well as an M.S. degree in five years.) Graduate Studies / 51 The admission process has as its prime objective the selection of those students most likely to complete their chosen graduate programs with distinction. After consultation between the program and the Graduate Division, the final authority to admit rests with the Graduate Dean.

Applicants are initially reviewed and rated based on their undergraduate and, where appropriate, postbaccalaureate GPAs. However, the evaluation process is intended to be flexible, and departments take a variety of other factors into consideration, including GRE or other test scores, GPA in the major subject, letters of recommendation, and the reputation of the degree-granting program or institution.

Soon after the department forwards its recommendation to the Graduate Division, the applicant is notified in writing of the dean’s decision. If admission is offered with work still in progress, official transcripts reflecting the satisfactory completion of this work and the awarding of the degree (where appropriate) must be submitted as soon as possible.

An offer of admission is valid for a specific quarter only. Accepted students who wish to be admitted for a subsequent quarter must reapply and, if additional course work has been completed, submit updated transcripts. Students are entitled to reapply once within one year without submitting a new application fee.

International students follow the same procedures and are governed by the same regulations as domestic applicants with the following exceptions.

International applicants and permanent residents whose native language is not English must achieve on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) a minimum score of 550 for the written version, 213 on the computer-based version, or 80 on the Internet-based version. Applicants should arrange to take the examination in their home country by contacting the following:

Educational Testing Service P.O. Box 6151 Princeton, NJ 08540-6151

The date of this test may be no more than two years from the intended quarter of admission.

International students must also complete a financial statement (provided with the application packet) and return it with the application. The university will be unable to issue a Certificate of Eligibility (I-20 or DS2019) without evidence of the applicant’s ability to pay all fees and expenses for the duration of the program of study.

Application deadlines for international students are February 1 (January 5 for admission with fellowship support) for the fall quarter, July 1 for the winter quarter, and October 1 for the spring quarter. The application fee for international students is $75.

The International Education Center specializes in providing information and a broad range of services to international students and can be contacted at (951) 827-4113.

Prospective applicants to teaching credential programs should contact the Graduate School of Education, (951) 827-5225 for admission information and application material or see Graduate School of Education later in this catalog.

The minimum requirements for master’s and doctor of philosophy degrees are outlined below. Academic departments and programs may impose further requirements, described in the Programs and Courses section of this catalog. Additional information is available in brochures that can be obtained directly from departments and programs.

Each program determines what, if any, knowledge of a foreign language or languages should be required of students pursuing graduate degrees. Proficiency in a foreign language may be demonstrated by (1) passing a written examination administered by the department or program or

• (2) successfully completing a course in the language at whatever level is

specified by the program. With the support of the program and the approval of the graduate dean, students may receive credit for foreign language examinations or course work completed not more than four years before being admitted to graduate study at UCR.

Only courses in which grades of “A,” “B,” “C,” or “S” are received may be counted toward satisfying graduate degree requirements. To continue in good standing and obtain an advanced degree, students must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.00. In addition, students must demonstrate acceptable progress toward their degree objectives. This entails the acceptable completion of all course work and other degree requirements in a timely fashion.

Students are considered to be making unacceptable progress and become subject to dismissal when

• 1. They have 12 or more units of “I” grades (incomplete course work)

outstanding

• 2. The overall GPA falls below 3.00
• 3. The quarterly GPA falls below 3.00 for two consecutive quarters
• 4. They fail to fulfill program requirements such as examinations or

research in a timely and satisfactory manner, or

• 5. They have not completed their programs within one year after reaching

the normative time (discussed below).

The minimum academic residence in the UC is three quarters, two of which must be spent at the Riverside campus.

Unless otherwise stated in the program description, the normative time required to complete the master’s degree is two years.

The master’s degree can generally be earned in one of two ways: by writing a thesis or by passing a comprehensive examination. Some programs offer only one of these options.

Both plans require a minimum of 36 quarter units of graduate or upper-division undergraduate work in the major subject or some other subject deemed relevant by the program faculty.

Plan I (Thesis) requires that at least 24 of the required units be in graduate- level courses taken at a campus of the UC. Of these, only 12 may be in graduate research for the thesis (courses numbered 297 or 299). In addition to requiring an acceptable thesis, the department may require any examination that it feels necessary to confirm that the student has an appropriate knowledge of the discipline. In most cases, units from courses numbered 291 cannot be used.

Plan II (Comprehensive Examination) requires that at least 18 units be in graduate-level courses taken at a UC campus. None of these may be in courses numbered 297 or 299. Every candidate must take a comprehensive examination, the content of which is determined by the department or program. In most cases, units from courses numbered 291 cannot be used.

Master’s students in residence and in good standing may earn course credit by examination. Consult the departmental graduate advisor for further details.

Students must file for advancement to candidacy no later than the third week of the quarter in which they expect to receive their degree, and their program may include work in progress at that time. The forms for advancement to candidacy are obtained from www.graduate.ucr.edu and filed in the Graduate Division after obtaining the graduate advisor’s approval. In the event of some unexpected delay, students have up to one year from the completion date of all course requirements to complete their remaining academic requirements.

Permission to work for a second master’s degree may be approved when there is little relation in content between the two degrees. Duplication of a master’s degree in a single field is not permitted, and pursuit of a second doctorate is not permitted. 52 / Graduate Studies

Students who are enrolled in a master’s program may petition to pursue the doctorate in their field of study. To do so, they should file a Change in Degree Objective Form with the Graduate Division while they are enrolled. Approval by the department is not automatic; the department determines whether or not each student has the academic potential to succeed in its Ph.D. program. This requirement for evaluating each student’s potential and academic fitness to proceed toward the Ph.D. is enforced regardless of what the student’s initial degree objective was at matriculation.

The minimum academic residence for the Ph.D. is six quarters in the UC, three of which must be spent in continuous residence at UCR.

The normative time required for the Ph.D. varies considerably and is given at the end of each program’s description in the Programs and Courses section of this catalog. For the doctoral degree, normative time is defined as the period of full-time registration required to earn the degree, assuming that the student enters with a bachelor’s degree and is assigned no course deficiencies or other remedial work. For most UCR programs, this falls between five and seven years.

The doctorate, the highest degree the university can bestow, is a research degree, conferred on the recommendation of a doctoral committee, which is nominated in consultation with the student by the program faculty and confirmed by the Graduate Dean.

Because the Ph.D. is a research degree, the university gives programs considerable latitude in establishing degree requirements. The individual student’s program of study is planned in consultation with the graduate advisor, who supervises the student’s progress prior to the appointment of the doctoral committee. A doctoral program generally involves two stages.

The first stage is spent fulfilling the requirements established by the program or department and the Graduate Council, typically a series of courses culminating in written and oral qualifying examinations. When these are passed, the student is advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D.

The second, or in-candidacy stage, is devoted primarily to independent study and research and to the preparation of the dissertation. The doctoral dissertation must be an original work of research in the candidate’s chosen field of specialization. The doctoral committee determines the acceptability of the dissertation and may require that the student defend its contents in a final oral examination.

A Ph.D. student who is advanced to candidacy and has to leave UCR without a degree may apply for the Candidate in Philosophy, awarded only to students leaving UCR without a master’s or doctoral degree. The Candidate in Philosophy means that the student is advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D.