Master of Science in Plant Biology

The Plant Biology Graduate Group at UC Davis offers interdisciplinary training in plant biology. The vertical organization of research in the group allows students to study plants at levels of inquiry ranging from molecules to populations. Although research training is focused primarily on acquiring basic knowledge, a diverse plant science community on campus allows opportunities for exposure to and participation in research with applied goals. The Plant Biology Graduate Group at UC Davis provides excellent training opportunities for its graduate students in various ways. First, UC Davis is an internationally recognized center for the plant sciences. Although plant scientists are affiliated with many different departments, the Plant Biology Graduate Group is interdepartmental. Therefore, students in the group can access the complete expertise of plant biology on campus and be trained by faculty in any department.

The graduate program offers training in the breadth of plant biology and in specialized topics represented by the following four research areas: cell and developmental biology, environmental and integrative biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genomics, and systematics and evolutionary biology. This framework allows students to conduct research on plants through the disciplines of anatomy, biochemistry, biophysics, biotechnology, cell biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, genetics, genomics, molecular biology, morphology, paleobotany, pathology, physiology, population biology, proteomics, systematics, systems biology, and weed science. UC Davis has one of the largest groups of plant biologists of any institution internationally. Graduate students have the opportunity to carry out research in basic and/or applied sciences in the labs of more than 60 faculty members, spanning three colleges and nine departments.

For admission into the M.S. degree program, a level of scholastic development equivalent to that of a Bachelor's degree in biological sciences from a recognized college or university is required. An applicant must have a minimum 3.0 GPA to be considered for admission.

TOEFL iBT - Minimum Score: 80

IELTS - Minimum Score: 7.0 on a 9-point scale

Duolingo English Test - Minimum Score: 115

Admission Deadlines
General: Dec 1
Space Available: Jun 1