How to Apply

Your application will not be considered complete until BMCDB receives all of the following items. The Admissions Committee starts reviewing applications immediately after the December 1st application deadline. It is to your benefit if all items are received by the deadline or as close to the deadline as possible.

• Application Fee
• The application fee may be paid by credit card or e-check. The appropriate fee must be paid before the application will be considered complete, and a fee must be paid for each application submitted. We are not able to offer fee waivers.
• Letters of Recommendation
• Three letters of recommendation must be submitted electronically through the online application. Hard copy or emailed PDF is not permitted.

  • Seek your letter writers out early. Give your letter writer at least 6 weeks' notice (i.e., no later than mid-October) and follow up 3, 2, and 1 week before the deadline. Your writers should be academically familiar with you and should be able to speak to your ability to complete a Ph.D. Cultivate a relationship with potential references early in your career.

    Aim to have all of your letters written by scientists willing to write strong letters; failing that, at least two of them should be. Ask him/her if they need pointers for the letter, i.e., dates you interacted, quarter and year of the class you took, and your grade. For your internship advisor, you may include the specific dates you worked, duties, and accomplishments.

• Transcripts
• UC Davis requires academic records from each college-level institution you have attended. This includes community colleges you attended prior to, or during, your undergraduate studies. 
  
  Unofficial transcripts are completely fine to submit as part of your application; applicants who accept an offer of admission to the Ph.D. must provide official transcripts before the start of fall classes. For more details, see UC Davis Graduate Studies' admissions website.
• GRE Scores
• As of May 2022, GRE test scores are not required to apply for the BMCDB Graduate Group.
• English Language Test Requirements for International Students
• TOEFL (minimum score 80), IELTS (minimum score 7.0), or Duolingo (minimum 115) scores are required for international students. Applicants with lower scores will not be offered admission under any circumstances; there are no exceptions. 
  
  Our institution code is 4834, and no program code is required for BMCDB. UC Davis Graduate Studies is registered to receive IELTS Academic scores using the IELTS Results Service E-Delivery, so please send your scores to University of California, Davis Graduate Studies.
  
  BMCDB does not require higher minimum test scores than the standard set by UC Davis Graduate Studies. We encourage that you read their guidelines carefully, as they answer many frequently asked questions, including exemption eligibility for students who attended English-language institutions. 
   
• Personal History and Statement of Purpose

• Each section of your SOP and personal history should be seamlessly interconnected to form a continuous narrative. Invest a significant amount of time writing each, developing it through several iterations. Ask your professors for feedback on your writing. Some elements of the SOP may overlap with the personal history; for example, both may include obstacles to academic progress such as illness, working full-time, etc.

  Two important pieces of advice: (i) Be honest: do not try to reinvent yourself or inflate the importance of your accomplishments. (ii) Be specific: avoid platitudes and give examples. Show how you have turned a negative into a positive or how it now becomes a driving force for you to be a scientist.

  Drafting your Statement of Purpose

  This allows you to tell the Admissions Committee directly, why you should be admitted to the program. It should be concise (500-1000 words; max 4000 characters), informative and well-organized, and present yourself as someone who can successfully complete the graduate program. Give yourself ample time to write your SOP. The Admissions committee can easily spot hurried and poorly thought out writing and this will have a negative effect on your evaluation. Secondly, your statement should be specific to BMCDB. Generic letters used to apply to multiple institutions where faculty or school names are simply interchanged can be detected. There are several online resources available to help you, but here are few tips:

  • Be clear on why are you applying to the BMCDB Graduate Group
  • Provide a context for your personal motivation, i.e., state how you became interested in a particular topic and why you wish to pursue this question in the BMCDB Graduate Group. Being concise but descriptive is a difficult endeavor, but word economy matters. 
     
  • Describe your past academic and research experiences
  • State succinctly the importance of the research question, the specific objective of your project, your general approach, and the significance of your results. Cross-reference your SOP with your CV; for example, you might refer in the statement to experiences that are listed more comprehensively in your vita, or you can use your vita to brainstorm experiences to write about in the statement. Emphasize things that illustrate how you're good at one of your skills, how you handled a setback, etc. 
     
  • Discuss your current research interests
  • Describe how your classwork and research experience, especially the latter, converge to make you an ideal candidate for your field of study in BMCDB. Some students wish to continue in the same research vein, while others may wish to try new fields or approaches. 
    
    We strongly suggest that you identify multiple faculty members you would like to work with; as a graduate student, you will have a network of mentors, so this should be reflected in your writing. It is unlikely that your interests and expertise map 100% perfectly to one of our faculty members, but it is very likely that many faculty have a research interest you share with them, or expertise in a particular skill you want to learn. 
  • 
    Map out your potential career plan
  • Where do you see yourself as a researcher in the next 5 – 10 years? There should be a logical flow from your past and current experiences to how the expertise within BMCDB and UC Davis would permit you to continue your development as a scientist.

  Drafting Your Personal History Statement

  This should provide the reader with a clear perspective of the circumstances that shaped you, how it is interconnected with your academic pursuits, and how it prepares you for success in the BMCDB Graduate Group. It is a chance for self-introspection: what are the specific driving forces or the single transformative event that propelled you to this point, where pursuing graduate studies in the BMCDB Graduate Group is the next logical step in your development as a scientist. More information on this statement can be found on the Office of Graduate Studies website.

  The personal history section can be used to:

  • Fill in the gaps about inconsistencies in your application, such as low grades.
  • Highlight how you were able to persevere and excel academically in spite of any economic or social challenges you have faced.
  • Give examples of leadership, service, teaching and tutoring during your academic career.
  • List any successes you achieved and what you learned from them.
• Curriculum Vitae/Resume
• Please upload your current curriculum vitae or resume when prompted to do so by the online application.