PhD Astronomy at University of Maryland, College Park

Entry requirements

Graduate admission requirements: Statement of Purpose Transcript(s) TOEFL/IELTS/PTE ( international graduate students ) | Programme-specific: Letters of Recommendation (3) Graduate Record Examination (GRE) (optional) GRE Subject (Physics) (optional) CV/Resume Description of Research/Work Experience: 1-2 page description of research and relevant work experience. It should include the topic of research, where it took place and who supervised it, the description of the actual activity (for example, “data reduction for a ground-based optical FTS instrument, wrote reduction software in Python”), whether there were resulting publications, what you learned from pursuing this activity, and what motivated you to pursue it. Note: Please do not upload documents for the Writing Samples. (The admissions committee will not read these.) Faculty of Interest: applicants are asked to select 3 tenured/tenure-track faculty members . Because of the large number of qualified applicants, the Department of Astronomy has had to restrict formal admission to the Graduate School to those who have shown particularly outstanding work in their undergraduate records. S tudents who enter the graduate program are expected to have strong backgrounds in astronomy, physics, and mathematics (equivalent to a B.S. in Astronomy or Physics). A student with deficiencies in one of these areas may be admitted but will be expected to remedy such deficiencies as soon as possible. In our admission process, we are looking for students who will thrive and succeed in our program, and who will be productive and active members of our graduate student community. To evaluate this we take into account all of the information you include in the application. Good academic preparation is needed for success in any graduate program; this can be demonstrated in a number of ways, such as good grades especially in appropriate-level physics and math classes, or with the Physics GRE test (which is an optional component of the application package and will not count against you if not submitted). As you work on your application materials, consider that we are very interested in understanding not only what you have done, but also what you have learned as part of your classes and research experience. Note that the Department of Astronomy accepts applications for the Ph.D. program only. (Admitted students typically receive an M.S. degree after their second year in the program.) For full details, see http://www.astro.umd.edu/graduate/admissions.html For more admissions information or to apply to the program, please visit our Graduate School website .