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Applicants must fulfill the general admission criteria for the Graduate School at the University of Tennessee.

Quick facts:
– Applications for Fall 2025 open on August 5th.
– The deadline for submission of all material is January 15th.
– All applicants are considered for fully funded Graduate Research Assistantships.

NOTE: It can take 10-15 days for your material to be fully processed by our program and the Graduate School. We recommend submitting your application and all required materials well before the official deadline.

Application Process

1. Complete the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, graduate school application
2. On the “Program Selection” page:
   • Mark “Degree Seeking” under New Graduate Student.
   • Mark “On Campus” under Where would you like to study?
   • Select “Knoxville” from the Campus drop-down box.
   • Mark “Engineering, Math, & Computers” under What are your areas of interest?
   • Mark “Doctoral” under What is your anticipated degree?
   • Select the appropriate program in the Program drop-down box:
     • Energy Science & Engineering
     • Data Science & Engineering
     • Life Sciences PhD
       • Select “Genome Science and Technology” under Concentration
   • Select “Fall 2025” under What entry term are you looking to start?
3. Submit all material required by the program and the Graduate School

Please review the drop-down menus below for more detailed information on our requirements.

Minimum Graduate School Requirements

1. Bachelor’s Degree from accredited institution
2. US degree holders: 2.7 out of possible 4.0 GPA; graduate coursework must have earned 3.0 GPA or higher.
3. Non-US degree holders: 3.0 out of 4.0 GPA or higher; graduate coursework must have earned 3.3 GPA or higher.
4. Applicants may be required to submit English language certification test scores
5. Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a field of science or engineering.
   • Applicants with non-STEM degrees may be admitted on a case-by-case basis.
   • Additional coursework may be required to satisfy co-requisites and prerequisites.

Program Required Materials

1. A statement of intent
2. Please submit a single PDF or Word document responding to each prompt below in 250 words or less (per prompt).
3. Describe your research interest and career goals.
4. Describe your participation in any meaningful research and/or employment experience and how it has prepared you for our programs.
5. Describe any previous teaching experience [for GST candidates].
6. List any advisors you are interested in working with and let us know if you have been in contact with any of them.
7. Is there anything else you would like to highlight that you have yet to discuss in other areas of the application?

• Our admissions committee prefers to see recommendations from your Principal Advisor/Supervisor and from your Most Recent Institution. Note that these may carry more weight than a recommendation from a colleague or one-time professor.
• Recommenders should complete their letters by responding to the following prompts:
  • How long have you known the applicant?
  • In what capacity do you know the applicant?
  • Please describe the applicant’s relevant skills to our program and their likelihood of success in an interdisciplinary research PhD setting (i.e. initiative, perseverance, problem-solving, etc.)
  • Please follow the Graduate School’s transcript requirements to ensure your materials can be processed on time.
  • We are unable to accept screenshots or self-service transcripts.
  • If you are graduating after our application deadline, your institution can still provide in-progress transcripts for review.

  NOTE: It can take 10-15 days for your material to be fully processed by our program and the Graduate School. We recommend submitting your application and all required materials well before the official deadline.