Admissions and entrance procedures

Only students who intend to work full time toward the doctor of philosophy (PhD) degree are admitted. The application submission deadline for the GPS Division is January 1st. The admission process follows Institute regulations. Applicants are required to submit Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores for the general test. Individual option requirements for GRE subject tests are specified below:

• Geology: Not required.
  
• Geobiology: Submit the scores for any subject test.
• Geochemistry: Strongly recommended but not required.
• Geophysics: Not required.
  
• Planetary Science: Strongly recommended but not required.
• Environmental Science and Engineering: Not required.
  

Applicants from non-English-speaking nations are required to submit Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores.

Based on their applications and interests, students enter one of the major subject options of the division and are given an academic adviser who is a professorial faculty member associated with the option. The six options are geology, geobiology, geochemistry, geophysics, planetary science, and environmental science and engineering. Students may later change options, but must first obtain approval by the new option. Each student must plan to satisfy the requirements for the PhD degree in one option.

Entering students in the week preceding the beginning of instruction for the first term meet with their option representatives and discuss their preparation in the basic sciences and select a series of courses that will best prepare them for research in their chosen field while meeting the requirements set forth below. 

First-year graduate students are encouraged to register for at least nine units of research (Ge 297) in each term of residence. The primary objective is to communicate to the students the excitement of discovery based on original investigations and to provide a broad scope of research aims. An important by-product can be the formulation of propositions for the PhD qualifying oral examination or orientation toward PhD research.

Complete admissions information can be obtained from the Caltech Office of Graduate Studies.