UW Genome Sciences

Students are admitted beginning Autumn Quarter only, with an application deadline of December 1. The Genome Sciences Admissions Committee reviews applications during December and January and invites finalists for admission to visit the department during February.

For strategic advice on writing your application materials, please see “Application Writing Tips.” If you are considering whether to apply in a future year, you may find useful longer term advice under “Prerequisites and Preparation.”

Because delays can happen - a recommender may forget to submit a letter, etc - we strongly encourage you to submit your application well in advance of the December 1 deadline. Waiting until the deadline or the day immediately prior to submit your application leaves little time to resolve unforseen problems. Please note that you may set up recommendation letter requests ahead of time. You do not need to wait until you submit your application to do this. Doing this in advance will make things easier for recommenders and for you.

You may want to check your online application to make sure all recommendation letters have been received and contact your recommenders if, shortly before the deadline, these have not been sent. Although we will be checking all components of your application and will do our best to notify you if any items are missing, we typically receive ~ 200 applications during the week before the deadline, and it takes a significant amount of time to go through all of these.

Admission is quite competitive. Those applicants selected to join the program will receive full funding, including a tuition waiver (which covers all tuition except for student fees, generally about $253 per quarter including the cost of a bus pass), health insurance, and a salary for living expenses ($47,004 as of 7/1/24). We offer this same funding package to US and international students. International students who have a fellowship from their government or another source should mention this in their statement.

Application Questions: We encourage you to read through the Application Writing Tips and Frequently Asked Questions sections before submitting your application. These will likely answer many of your questions and help you maximize your chances of admission. You are welcome to contact Brian Giebel in the Department of Genome Sciences with any questions: bgiebel [ a t ] uw.edu , (206) 616-7297. Please direct questions to Brian rather than to the UW Graduate Admissions office.

All application materials may now be submitted online.The Department of Genome Sciences does not need hard copies of any items you submit online. This is worth repeating: we do not need hard copies of any of your application materials. Please do not send these.

• The application will open on September 1, 2024. Please apply online: http://grad.uw.edu/admissions/apply-now/
  In addition to filling out the application form, you will be asked for the following items:
  

• - a 2 page personal statement describing your academic & scientific background, research goals, and motivation for applying to this program. Please also include a list of 5-10 faculty members of interest. Please be sure you select only faculty listed on our website. If you are still in school and will be taking additional courses not yet listed on your transcript, please include a list of additional courses you will be taking before you graduate, either as an addendum to your personal statement or as part of your transcript upload.
  

• - resume / CV
  

• - transcripts
  These do not need to be official. We prefer that you submit copies (PDFs, web printouts, etc are fine) online or email these to us if this is easier for you. If you choose to upload a web transcript of some sort, please be sure it lists the course names. A transcript which gives course numbers without actually indicating what the course is will not help our admissions committee evaluate your application. You do not need to submit separate transcripts for courses taken at community colleges, via study abroad programs, etc, if these appear on your main transcript. Similarly, if you have multiple degrees from the same university, you do not need to submit a separate transcript for each degreee if all coursework appears on one transcript.
  

• - GRE scores are no longer required.
  
  TOEFL scores, Duolingo, or IELTS scores, for international applicants, if need be: International students who have completed a bachelor's or master's degree in the US, Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, or the United Kingdom do not need to submit TOEFL or IELTS scores. A TOEFL score of 92 or above, Duolingo of 120 or above, or IELTS score of 7.0 or above are required to avoid remedial English coursework.
  

• - Three letters of reference from professors or others who are able to provide insight on your qualifications. Reference letters may now be submitted online.  Your referees are encouraged to take advantage of this component of our online application, but if need be they may send in letters via email (bgiebel [ a t ] uw.edu).
  

• If you are unable to submit items online, you may also send materials via email to:
  bgiebel [ a t ] uw.edu
  

• The Department of Genome Sciences doesn't charge a fee. The only fee involved is charged by the UW Graduate School and is payable online. Please do not send any money to the Department of Genome Sciences.

  The UW Graduate School offers a limited number of fee waivers based on income, however, international applicants are unfortunately not eligible for fee waivers. The option to request a fee waiver is available on the last screen of the online application. Please note that fee waivers must be requested a minimum of seven days before the application deadline.
  

• US citizens and permanent residents do not need to submit hard copies of the application or any supplemental items to the Department of Genome Sciences or UW Graduate Admissions. If you are offered admission and choose to accept our offer, you will eventually need to send in official copies of your transcripts to UW Graduate Admissions, but please do not do this at this point.
  

• International applicants do not need to submit hard copies of any application materials to the Department of Genome Sciences or UW Graduate Admissions unless you are offered admission. If you are offered admission, you will at that point receive an email with instructions on which additional materials should be sent in to UW Graduate Admissions.
  
  

• If you have any questions about applying to the program, please contact Brian Giebel at bgiebel [ a t ] uw.edu