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.

Statement of Purpose
Personal History Statement
Diversity Statement
Coursework History (Transcripts)
3 Letters of Recommendation
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.
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 must submit TOEFL/IELTS/Duolingo scores unless they have earned or will be earning a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree from either a regionally accredited or foreign college/university which provides instruction solely in English.
TOEFL iBT - Minimum Score: 80
IELTS - Minimum Score 7.0 on a 9-point scale